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40 Statistics That Reveal Some Uncomfortable Truths
Many of us deal with huge amounts of information every single day. We’re constantly bombarded by facts, stats, opinions, and pieces of advice pretty much everywhere we turn online. But with so much data, some of the truly important bits of info sometimes get lost in the noise. Not all of it is pleasant.
The members of the r/AskReddit online community shared the saddest statistics they know in a couple of threads. They might give you a more nuanced perspective on the world. Scroll down to check them out, but be warned that some of these stats are quite sensitive.
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#1
The USA incarcerates more of its own citizens both per capita and for total amounts than any other country. They jail over 400k more citizens than China, which has 4.5x the population and has zero freedom of speech and a pretty punishing government. For profit prisons is legalized slavery.
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#2
If a woman becomes seriously ill, there is a 21 percent chance her husband will leave her. If a man becomes seriously ill, there is a 3 percent chance his wife will leave him.
#3
85% of all dog attack deaths are pit bulls.
anon:
And the most likely dog to bite is the chihuahua. The main difference is a chihuahua bite tends to require a Band-Aid and a pitbull bite generally requires amputation or a blood transfusion.
Please never let us breed chihuahuas to 5 times their current size. Angry little sh*ts.
Facts and stats are, at times, quite counterintuitive. They sound weird. They feel like they shouldn’t work. But the findings are (usually) backed up by rigorous testing, peer reviews, follow-up studies, and meta-analyses.
You shouldn’t trust anything you stumble across online blindly without first considering its trustworthiness. At the same time, cross-referencing every single claim would eat up most of the time in your day. Not to mention how mentally exhausting it would be!
So your best bet is to do some light research if you think a fact sounds iffy. Look at multiple sources and figure out which ones you can most often rely on to get things right. Sensational headlines might get clicks and views, but they might rely on a single new study that may need more follow-up research.
#4
2 million people cause accidents every year by not switching on a turn signal. Yeah, 2 million.
#5
Approximately 42% of Americans are deficient in Vitamin D according the NIH. Sick all the time? Vitamin D boosts immunity. Hair falling out? Vitamin D helps stimulate new hair follicles. Are you a woman nearing menopause? Your bones need calcium and your body absorbs it poorly if you're deficient in Vitamin D. Basically, we need the D.
#6
26,993 people committed s*icide with a firearm in the USA in 2022, representing 56% of deaths by firearm. Firearms were the leading cause of death for children and teens (ages 1-19) for the fifth straight year, with the death rate from firearms nearly doubling in the last ten years.
Broadly speaking, you want to consider the potential biases of the source making a certain claim. Try to think about what their goal might be. Are they representing a certain product or brand? Do they have any identifiable political leanings? Is there a deeper agenda behind the data?
The idea is for you to try to be as neutral as possible and to look at the facts as they are. That means removing all the emotional reactions about how you (dis)like this and that data because they (don’t) conform to your current worldview. Though we’ll never be completely unbiased, we can do our best to try to be as objective as we can. And that attitude should help us filter out much of the fake news floating around on social media and the news.
#7
The richest 1% of the world's population own more than twice as much wealth as the remaining 99%.
#8
The number of deaths caused by the smartphone while driving is 6x higher than those caused by drunk drivers.
The most reliable sources do very heavy fact-checking. They cross-reference facts and check the validity of each and every claim. They’re also very open about their potential biases.
All sources make errors from time to time. That’s inevitable. But the very best sources own up when they make a mistake—they don’t shy away from making corrections. Moreover, they’ll usually paint a nuanced and complex picture of reality. On the flip side, someone who makes the world seem overly simplistic or black-and-white is either oversimplifying things, misinterpreting reality, or wants to push a certain agenda.
#10
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has 80% unemployment, 50% living below the poverty line, a life expectancy of 50 years (shortest in the Western Hemisphere), infant mortality rate 5 times the national average, su*cide rate 4 times the national average, 85% of families are affected by alcoholism, 25% of newborns are diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, and school dropout rate is 70%. This is in the middle of the United States.
#11
According to psychological studies, on average the late-40’s are the age when people are the least happy. Several factors contribute to this…you could be dealing with empty-nest syndrome for the first time as often at this age kids are old enough to leave home, you could be feeling the financial crunch of putting said kids through college, turning 50 soon could be weighing on your mind, there’s a likelihood you’ve lost at least one parent by this time, you could be burnt out on your career but still years away from retirement, and many women have begun going through menopause at this time. But the good news is, people then to be much happier by the time they reach their mid-50’s, so if you’re in your late 40’s and are battling with some of these things, just hang in there.
#12
Approximately 1 in 7 women suffer severe post partum depression. My wife got hit by it like a truck, and we were completely unprepared. In reality the number could be significantly higher too, because it is generally not reported or acknowledged.
#13
Depressed people are much more accurate when it comes to self assessment. Which is depressing.
#15
1 in 6 men are likely to be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. And a lot of times it's someone you know. Be safe out there bros.
#16
According to the RAINN, only about 5% of (the estimated number of) sexual assaults will actually lead to an arrest. And only about half of THOSE lead to incarceration of the suspect. So that’s like 2.5 percent of sexual assaults being punished with jail time.
#20
Working out in any capacity decreases your likelihood of death from cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer by 14%, on average. This compounds over time. Really insane when you think about how important physical activity is to human function.
#21
If a partner strangles you, the odds they will [end] you within the next year increases by 750%. Also, the leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide.
#22
60% of Americans will never read a book again after they graduate high school. 40% for graduate students after they receive their master's/phd.
#23
About 20k people have been killed by Israel in Gaza in this recent war with 75% being women and children.
#25
There are more people living in the Tokyo metropolitan area than there are in the entire country of Canada.
#27
Pollution from fossil fuels kills more people Every Day than nuclear power has killed in its entire history.
#28
85% of public bathroom users don't wash their hands afterwards. Since learning that I have noticed and I have never been in one for very long without hearing it myself. They come out but I don't hear water from the sink. I handle the door with the paper towel I used to dry my hands. I go to one place that only has a hand dryer, so I take my own paper towel there.
#29
If you made $7,000 an hour every day since the birth of Jesus Christ, you’d have made less money than Jeff Bezos.
#31
40% of all plastics produced each year are single-use only...and only 9% of plastics get recycled after disposal.
#33
If you go in cardiac arrest outside the hospital, even with first responders nearby, your chances of getting out of the hospital alive is less than 10%.
#34
There’s 2,000 active serial killers in the world right now. Also, if you were to be murdered, there’s a 1 in 3 chance the case will never be solved and the killer will never be identified. Sweet dreams
#35
Up to 80 percent of falls in the home occur in the bathroom and about 1 person in the U.S. dies every day from a bathroom-related injury occurring in either the bathtub or the shower.
#36
In reference to ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scores used to evaluate exposure to childhood trauma: “Having any ACE is associated with an increased risk for s*icide. The odds of ever attempting suicide are 30 times higher for adults with four or more ACEs compared to adults with no ACEs.” (Source: CDC) (For the record, my ACE score is 8.)
#38
The USA scored a 69 for its latest CPI (Corruption Perception Index) which means America is more corrupt than a lot of countries.
#39
On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2023. 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2023. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
#40
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, an estimated 7 million hectares of forest are lost each year.
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