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If you read Bored Panda, you know we like data. If we're doing a story on a woman banning her mother-in-law from her house, we look at what experts have to say on family relationships. If we're writing about employees quitting on a demanding boss, we present surveys on worker needs.

Numbers help us humans to contextualize individual examples and show us how common or rare, loved or hated something is in a broader sense.

Interested in the big picture, they give us the big picture, Reddit user Awesomeguy256 posted a question to the platform, asking its users "What is the most interesting statistic?" Since then, people have left over 14,000 comments under it, many of which share fascinating information on everything from economics to the animal kingdom. Here are some of the best ones.

#1

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything More Vietnam vets [took their own lives] than [passed away] in the war.

Fewwordsbetter , israel palacio Report

#2

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything A black man in St. Louis is more likely to be killed by a police officer than the average US citizen is to get murdered at all.

Whether you think BLM is a bunch of horse s**t or not, Republican or Democrat, or whatever, this stat is pretty interesting. Mind you, a subset of the US population probably doesn't even believe that statistic is true.

Qubeye , Mental Health America (MHA) Report

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Kelli
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sadly, that statistic is accurate, however the statistic of being killed in an elementary school by a lunatic with an AR 15 legally purchased goes up daily.

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#3

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything 80% of Orange Tabby cats are male.

kitkat_pro , Sam Chang Report

#4

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Wearing a seatbelt correctly reduces chance of front seat passenger fatality due to front end collision by 45%. Seat belts save lives. For f***s sake people, wear them. Also airbags are more likely to cause injuries rather than prevent them when seat belts are not worn.

danthemanning , State Farm Report

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Kelli
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Idiots whined about a piece of cloth that could save them from a deadly virus, don’t try talk sense to the senseless.

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#5

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Hold up your hands and clap them together.

Wait one second, then do it again.

If you could plot the distance between the first clap and the second clap, it would be more than 800 kilometers.

This is because the Earth is moving around the sun, the sun is moving around the center of the galaxy, the galaxy is moving through the Virgo Supercluster, and the Virgo Supercluster is barreling through the universe. When you add up all the velocities and compare the result to the cosmic microwave background (which is the closest thing we have to a universal frame of reference), it comes out to about 800 kilometers per second.

In the time it took you to read this, you've traveled farther than you'll ever walk in your life.

RamsesThePigeon , Lisa Fotios Report

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Fintch
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And that's the reason time-travel remain a science fiction, unless we figure out, how to break the now-known physics' laws.

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#6

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Statistically speaking the average person is a 30 year old Chinese man.

ohazltn , Juan Encalada Report

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Richard Graham
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, statistically speaking, his name would be "Mohammed Lee". ('Mohammed' is the most common first name, and "Lee' is the most common family (last) name.)

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#8

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything The tallest giraffe ever measured (George) was 19 feet (5.8m) tall.

The longest crocodile ever measured (Lolong) was 20.25 feet (6.17m) long

So take the tallest giraffe you've ever seen, and then add a little, and you've got the biggest crocodile ever measured reliably with a tape measure down its back.

Herpetologists agree that sightings of crocodiles up to 23 feet are not unreasonable, but they're very hard to capture when they're that big. Therefore, no absolutely reliable numbers.

FlorenceCattleya , MartyWilliams Report

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#9

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Sharks are older than trees. Sharks are at least 400 million years old, trees are sitting at 350 million years.

Edit: Also another fun fact, sharks are so successful when it comes to evolution and long term survival because of a trait called "Adaptive Radiation", which is a huge increase of species diversity in a short period of time. Modern sharks stem from an adaptive radiation that happened during the Jurassic Period about 200 million years ago. One of the newest modern sharks is the hammerhead, coming in at around 50 million years.

corvettee01 , Gerald Schömbs Report

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dream of delusion
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

holy c**p. i has no idea they were THAT old. and yet, now they’re endangered due to our stupid overfishing. beings that have lived that long, now at risk of going extinct. it’s just sad.

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#10

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything That by almost all important measures, the world is a better place to live today than at any other time in human history.

keenly_disinterested , Benigno Hoyuela Report

#11

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything The richest 1% dudes in the world have more wealth than the rest of the planet.

The world's 8 richest men have as much money as the poorest half, 3,6 billions people.

Munninnu , NASA Robotics Competitions Sheyene Gerardi Report

#12

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything The average cumulus cloud weighs more than the Statue of Liberty.

denny31415926 , C Dustin Report

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Barbara L Bristow
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've seen this one before and it still amazes me. I guess I never thought of a cloud having any weight at all. HHmmmmm

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#13

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Britain had more planes at the end of the Battle of Britain than at the beginning, because they were being made at such an incredible rate that it surpassed the losses.

ALittleNightMusing , United Kingdom Government Report

#14

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything If you're in a group of twenty-three people, there's a 50% chance that two of them share a birthday.

If you're in a group of seventy people, that probability jumps to over 99%.

RamsesThePigeon , Robert Anderson Report

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GlamourGhoul
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My uncle, great-uncle and I all share a birthday. I wonder what the stats are for family members having the same birthday are...

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#15

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything 3-4 billion people on this planet earn $2.50 or less per day.

chelseatys , Mathieu Turle Report

#16

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything I found out at a conference last week that 5 billion people don't have access to safe surgery.
It really shocked me. That's 5 out of every 7 people in the world.

Missing_panda , Piron Guillaume Report

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John Whick
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is so sad, if every person was a day, the people that have access to it would only be weekends, sorry for the weird analogy, that was just how my ADHD brain processed it

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#17

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything 25% of California’s air pollution is from China.

cOOlio-pasta , Jim Gardner Report

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dream of delusion
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

wait, that’s actually really interesting. i want to know more about how it’s able to travel that far and still be potent. also a little bit saddening, seeing as how widespread pollution can get

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Kate
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because of the jet stream. Just think back to a couple years ago when we had so many fires burning on the West Coast that the smoke was visible from Europe.

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Richard Black
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And 95% of its smart phones, laptops, and flat screen TVs . . .

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onivdsrapowijap
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because the labor laws in China are almost non-existent, practically allowing slavery. China needs better laws against this so less products will be made there and there will be less pollution.

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commie pinkofag
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

75% of the brutal working conditions in China are supported for by Californians.

dan_31 avatar
That'sEndorable
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Outsourcing manufacturing to China, which is what unilateral pollution controls are, makes no sense. It's much cleaner to build in America than it is to ship natural resources to China, build in China, and ship it back. But this is the effect of our "environmentalist" policies. I'm not saying we should get rid of environmental protection, but what we should do instead is place tariffs on China, escalating to 1,000% or more, until they enact environmental-protection policies equal to our own.

andrewfan avatar
onivdsrapowijap
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

China's huge amount of pollution is mainly because of other countries having their products made in China. What really needs to be done is force China to have better labor laws. Employers in China can get away with paying their "employees" (more like slaves) work for close to zero pay. Is the electronic device you're using right now made in China? Then you're contributing to the 25% of California's pollution.

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FreshGanesh
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I learned this sitting in a third floor bay window of a home atop a hill in San Francisco while watching the news in regards to the radiation fallout of Fukushima.

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Alethea Brock
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sands from dust storms in the Middle East have been known to settle on snow in Europe.

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Nikki Sevven
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*cries in New England* https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/30/science/new-england-is-warming-faster-than-rest-planet-new-study-finds/

bigjeep0930 avatar
Chris
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because the people are brainwashed into thinking that not doing it here (produce oil, textiles, etc). will make a difference, because the air over the USA is special and will not mix with the rest of the planet. So instead its done over seas, with less restrictions and cause even more pollution. So good job. Looking at you Cali

crackerbit avatar
Amanda Hunter
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

China is a terrible country, cruel to animals, and people, dont care about pollution. They caused Carona and the source of many flu's.

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Suzanne Haigh
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

China does not care about pollution but the USA does little either, the 2 main culprits.

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Thomas Ewing
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Did it 'waft over, or is it all the foreign machines we are operating?

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Kusotare
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wait a freakin' minute. We in California are outsourcing our POLLUTION GENERATION to China? Is it because the Chinese can do it cheaper and with less regulation?? /s

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Ruth Hempsey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's physics and weather. The world turns, winds blow, stuff gets picked up, carried and dropped. Nothing weird at all. Fish have been known to fall out of the sky too.

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#18

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Til the world record for children born to one woman is 69. She had 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets.

TnekKralc , Dan Bock Report

#19

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything America has about 5% of the worlds population but about 25% of the worlds criminals.

Gaarakotq , RODNAE Productions Report

#20

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything 3% of everyone on earth alive in 1939 died in WWII.

paul99501 , Duncan Kidd Report

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Lux Crow
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We need to do better, and stop these wars.(I’m looking at you Putin)

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#21

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything South America is moving away from Africa at about the same speed your fingernails grow.

stickmanDave , Sophie Louisnard Report

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#22

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Only 3% of the Earth's water is fresh.

NantiAboutThat , Michael C Report

#23

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything It would take 1.2 million mosquitoes, each sucking once, to completely drain the average human of blood.

pm_me_anythingg_sfw , Miika Silfverberg Report

#24

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything If all the humans alive right now lived in the same density per square mile as New York City, we could all live in the state of Texas.

dudewhatwouldhappen , Joshua Newton Report

#25

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Over 1 million earths could fit into the sun.

lymediseasesucks Report

#26

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Size-wise, a particle of dust is halfway between a subatomic particle and the Earth.

anon , Kunj Parekh Report

#27

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything 86% of British people live within 8 miles from where they were born.

Gsurhijrsee , Ian Taylor Report

#28

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything Fat leaves our body 86% through the breath. The other 14% leaves our body through water.

PleiadianJedi , engin akyurt Report

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#29

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything It takes roughly 170,000 years for photons from the Sun's core to reach the convection zone of the photosphere where it is released out into space. In other words, the Sun light you see is hundreds of thousands of years old.

mattk1017 , Jonathan Borba Report

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Fintch
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, every time we are looking up to the sky, we are seeing the past.... how it was hundreds of thousand, million years ago.

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#30

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything The population of Ireland has not yet recovered half-way from the famine of 150 years ago.

The immediate effects of the famine saw a great many people [perished] from starvation or disease and others emigrate to avoid the same fate. The longer term effects created a breakdown in the social order which forced emigration and a consequent 100 year decline in the population. It's only in the last 50 years that the population has started to grow again.

TryToHelpPeople , Barbora Dostálová Report

#31

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything If you and your spouse both have a divorce under your belt , and one (or both) of you have MORE than one divorce under your belt, the failure rate of your marriage is 93%.

anon , engin akyurt Report

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Nadine
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

First marriage, 3 years. His 8 years. Our marriage, 25 years and still in love.

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#32

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything 85% of all Americans live within 20 minutes of a Walmart.

VoltaicParticle , Mike Mozart Report

#33

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything There are more trees on planet Earth than there are stars in our galaxy.

SonoftheBread , Jason Leem Report

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44f5 Dixit
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Considering another fact "there are more star in the universe than the sand grain on beach" i'am not believing this one

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#34

80 per cent of 80 year old males or older will have suffered or will face prostate cancer at some point in his life.

Eighty. Percent.

patrickswayzemullet Report

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Mora Chilis
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, and it is similar for breast cancer. However, there are many very slow growing types of cancer. Most of these people die of old age, not cancer. Misleading.

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#35

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything 25% of the earths crust is actually made of iron like in your cereal.

thirdageofmen , Lottie Report

Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.