Ah, statistics. In high school, that was one of the most dreaded classes everyone tried hard to avoid. Despite how useful the course was, it just didn’t appeal to our picky teenage taste. Thankfully, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to really appreciate statistics for how much they teach us about our world. Clearly, I’m not alone either.
Earlier this week, Reddit user Foundation_james reached out asking for the most interesting statistics people know, and the post received thousands of responses. We’ve gathered some of the most fascinating statistics people shared, so you can read them below and add them to your list of go-to fun facts. Be sure to upvote all of your favorite stats, and then if you’re looking to learn even more from Bored Panda, we recommend checking out this piece next.
#1
Of the 30 fastest 100 meter sprint times, 21 were run by athletes who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
The other 9 were Usain Bolt.
Image source: Davecasa, William Warby
#2
There have been 288 mass shootings at schools since 2009 in the USA. The country with the next highest amount has………….. 8. To be clear they have 2.7% of the mass shootings at school that we do.
Which does not count Pulse in Orlando, the Vegas Strip shooting, etc.
Image source: PBB22, Ivan Aleksic
#3
34 percent of adults and 75 percent of children sleep with a stuffed animal or a blanket, or other sentimental object as their comfort object.
#4
Despite making up less than 4% of the population, Americans produce over 20% of the garbage in the world.
Image source: TheDankestPassions, Ariungoo Batzorig
#5
Less than 10% of Americans do not wear seatbelts and account for 51% of car related fatalities.
Wear your seatbelt. Ignore your friend who told you “My buddy’s cousin would’ve died if he was wearing his seatbelt!”
Image source: Kraagenskul, State Farm
#6
48% of British people wouldn’t go to space even if their safety was guaranteed with the most popular reason being that they just simply didn’t have any interest in going
Image source: Molesandmangoes, nasa
#7
Dragonflies have a 95% hunt success rate. Making them the most effective hunters in the world.
Image source: JESquirrel, dorographie
#8
93% of people don’t check facts they read on the internet.
Image source: elcoco13, Michael S
#9
67% of statistics are made up
Image source: unreadable_captcha, Carlos Muza
#10
Genghis Khan killed so many people that he cooled the earth by a bit.
Image source: the_universe_is_ded, Jasmine Halki
#11
Innocent people will admit to a crime they never committed 43% of the time.
Image source: ETphonehoooome, 4711018
#12
Communism has worked 0% of the times it was tried.
Image source: BreakfastShots, Smoke_Me_When_i_Die
#13
20% of the mammal species on our planet are different types of bats.
There’s about 5000 species of mammals, and about 1000 of them are varieties of our little winged buddies.
Image source: peon2, Nils Bouillard
#14
That the remains found in Machu Picchu are 80% female.
Image source: debTG81007, Agnieszka Mordaunt
#15
Brazil is the country that kills the most trans women per year.
Brazil is also the country where the porn category with the most viewers is the one with trans women.
Image source: bananacumshake, Artyominc
#16
Survey of Fortune 500 executives found that 93% agree the golf reflects life.
86% admit to cheating at golf.
Image source: Popcorn53, Matt Aylward
#17
There are more privately owned guns than people in the U.S. (Washington Post June 19, 2018)
Image source: Cantbetoobad1953, Maxim Hopman
#18
That belly button bacteria study was wild. 60 belly buttons sampled. 2368 different species of bacteria found. The study indicated that 1458 of them may be new to science. One had a rare bacteria found in Japanese soil and they had never been to Japan. Two had rare bacteria that thrived on ice caps and thermal vents. Not a single bacteria was common to all buttons.
Image source: Adventurous_Light_85, zeevveez
#19
The leading cause of death for ages 5 to 18 (correction 1 through 18) has recently switched from car crashes to gun violence in the US.
Your school age child is more likely to die from gun violence than any other cause, including car crashes. 21% gun violence, 20% car crashes.
(Edit: Seeing as rates of gun violence for 1 to 4 year olds is exceedingly low (accidental deaths are a different category), the picture for 5 to 18 year olds is likely higher than 21%)
Image source: hysys_whisperer, Chip Vincent
#20
70% of the german population believe that their ancestors during WW2 helped jewish escapees or didn’t support/partake in the actions performed by the nazis.
Image source: Creek-StyleYus, Museums Victoria
#21
There are more Panda Express restaurants than actual Pandas
Image source: personoid, Tony Webster
#22
Chopping wood for an hour results in a 48% increase in testosterone in men.
Image source: Bayou-Magic, Jennifer Lim-Tamkican
#23
You have far more chances to die from a a coconut fall than by a shark attack
Image source: RageDragonCock, Nipanan Lifestyle
#24
A full 6 percent of Americans reckon they could beat a grizzly bear in unarmed combat.
Edit: And before another bear arm joke, just fyi bears already don’t have arms. So removing bear arms doesn’t improve your chances. Technically, all four are legs, with the front two called forelegs.
Image source: hellothere42069, Marco Pagano
#25
50% of human DNA is shared with bananas
Image source: Booklover510, Nenad Stojkovic
#26
There are 1.9 popes per square mile in the Vatican City
Image source: LudovicoKM, Nacho Arteaga
#27
The Birthday Paradox:
It only takes 23 people in the same room for there to be a 50% chance two of them share the same birthday.
Difference between a million and a billion. When put in perspective by units of time, one million seconds is 12 days, one billion seconds is 31 years.
Image source: jumboparticle, Angèle Kamp
#28
If you made $295,000 every single day since the birth of Christ, you still wouldn’t be worth what Elon Musk is.
Edit: Let’s put the same concept into seconds. If you were to do a conversion of dollars to seconds ($1 = 1 second), the median American gets 1 day and 10 hours (net worth of $121,760).
Elon musk would get 6,910 YEARS.
Image source: medicated_in_PHL, Daniel Oberhaus
#29
The human eye blinks about 4.2 million times a year on average
Image source: selfishnerd77, Anna Shvets
#30
The job with the highest death rate historically in the US is President
Edit: I didn’t factor in lifetime appointments, so technically I was wrong if you count that
Image source: Nice_Entertainment91, History in HD
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