We surprised to read this Reddit thread started by user nora100797, asking about the most incredible statistics other users have seen. You’re welcome to read all the replies, and we’re offering you our own favorites.
It was only in 2015 that London achieved the population level of 1939.
76 years and 3 entire generations without wars and catastrophes were what led the British capital to repopulate to pre-war figures. Interestingly, Berlin and Paris have yet to reach their pre-war populations.
Source: Daily Mail
Just 5% to 10% of wines become better after 1 year, while only 1% do so after 5 years.
This seems like a good reason to open the bottle right away.
At least 15% of daily Google queries have never been repeated in 15 years.
Google carried out a statistics search for its 15th anniversary. It showed that, on average, every sixth search query was unique in that period. The search engine is constantly updated, of course, but this data still shows how diverse and amazing we all are!
Source: Jungle
There are more people living in the Greater Tokyo area than in Canada.
This seems impossible, but it is absolutely true: the agglomeration of Tokyo is populated slightly more densely than the second-largest country in the world.
Source: Wikipedia
When 70 people come together, there’s a 99.99% possibility that at least two of them were born on the same day.
From the layman’s point of view, it seems doubtful, but mathematically everything is correct. If a group member is born on day X, then only 364 days remain for the second member, 363 days for the third, etc. To calculate this possibility, simply multiply these proportions: 365/365 * 364/365 * 363/365, etc. As a result, less than 0.01% of the group has different dates of birth.
Source: Betterexplained
The proportion of Popes per 1 sq. km in the Vatican is 2.3.
Don’t believe us? Count for yourself: the surface area of the Vatican is just 0.44 sq. km.
In 42 minutes of free fall, you can cover the distance from one pole of the Earth to the other.
Reddit users are absolutely right – you really can get to the other side of the Earth very quickly. However, scientists recently adjusted the count and showed that it would only take 38 minutes to do so.
Source: American Journal of Physics
8% of Asian men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan thought that the more offspring a man has, the more meaning he has in the world. His harem numbered several thousand women, many of whom gave birth to their children. That is why 8% of men from 17 places in Asia have one of the largest conqueror genes in history on their Y chromosomes. Unbelievable!
Source: Nature
The USA has more public libraries than McDonald’s restaurants.
Despite the popular stereotype that Americans love fast food, the number of McDonald’s coffee shops is less than the number of public libraries in the United States. And that’s not counting the school libraries.
Source: American Library Association
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the pyramids’ construction.
The Great Pyramid of Cheops, the largest pyramid in Ancient Egypt, was built around 2540 BC. Cleopatra lived much later, in 69-30 BC. Now count: man stepped on the Moon in 1969.
Source: Smithsonianmag
Private owners in the US have more tigers than there are in the wild.
On the one hand, the overall growth of the tiger population in recent decades is large. On the other hand, their masters often treat them as ordinary cats, which is, of course, improper.
Source: Worldwildlife
The Earth was once purple.
Microbial geneticists at the University of Maryland say ancient microbes did not use chlorophyll to absorb sunlight, but another molecule called the retina. They absorbed the green part of the spectrum, reflecting the reds and blues, resulting in violet.
This theory is further supported by the fact that the sun transfers most of its energy to the green part of the visible spectrum, while chlorophyll mainly absorbs blue and red waves. There is also an assumption that the balance may change again one day: the Earth will turn purple again, while from space it appears green due to atmospheric changes.
Source: livescience
Preview photo credit reuters
