60 Totally Random But Interesting Statistics About The World

Data are everything — it’s a simple fact that holds a lot of truth. You know, those tidbits of factual information recorded and used for the purpose of analysis and creating reliable statistics?

It’s so easy to think of them as just a bunch of dry, boring numbers, but without trustworthy data and statistics, how would we measure progress? How would we make informed decisions? How would we understand the world and the people living in it? How would companies plan for the future? Statistics provide insights, patterns, and perspectives that would otherwise be impossible to discern. Without them, we wouldn’t have a clue about anything but the obvious.

Some of them, though, are more fascinating than others. Like, much more. With all the random facts shared by newspapers, documentaries, and your favorite sources of reliable information, you’ve surely come across surprising statistics that made you do a double take before.

If, like us, you’re also a numbers person, you’re aware of how many interesting facts can be found out there — and we’ve got so many of them to dive into right now! We’re about to let you in on a massive bunch of data about the world, straight from a Reddit thread where people from all walks of life shared their favorite interesting statistics. And rest assured, the results are nothing short of mind-blowing. Animals, people, society, sports — we covered enough of everything to make you feel like a know-it-all in the end!

#1

Davecasa said:
"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."

Your_One_Lord replied:
"He's the combination of a lot of factors adding up right. Right genetics born to someone with the motivation and the right influences born in the right place."

scrubjays replied:
"And the right last name."

#2

Cantbetoobad1953 said:
"There are more privately owned guns than people in the U.S."

Your_One_Lord replied:
"I should hope so. Privately owned people have been illegal for years."

#3

"That belly button bacteria study was wild. 60 belly buttons sampled. 2368 different species of bacteria were 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."

#4

SuvenPan said:
"34 percent of adults and 75 percent of children sleep with a stuffed animal or a blanket, or other sentimental objects as their comfort object."

Reddit user replied:
"I don't care if this is false or not. It's not harmful misinformation, it's just plain cute. One in every 3rd adults I see statistically sleeps with a stuffed animal. Awesome."

#5

Rudeboy67 said:
"90% of the Canadian population live within 100 miles of the US border. 90% of the Australian population live within 100 km of the Ocean."

lilskurt replied:
"100% of the Vatican population live within 100 km of Italy."

MinifridgeTF_ replied:
"There are 2.3 popes per square km in Vatican City."

#6

"Gary Numan is 13 days older than Gary Oldman."

#7

loopywolf said:
"3 people are killed by sharks per year, 3 million sharks are killed by people per year."

SeaWaveGreg replied:
"I thought to myself "3 million sharks a year? That seems way too high to be true." So I googled sharks killed by people per year and the answer was 100 million."

#8

"Genghis Khan killed so many people that he cooled the earth by a bit."

#9

Pleasant_Moose_5417 said:
"That 49.6% of Pakistanis marry a first cousin and 8.3% marry a second cousin. In rural areas of Pakistan, up to 80% of people marry a cousin."

ViolettaNoRegard replied:
"In Britain, Pakistanis make up 2% of the population but account for 30% of children with genetic diseases. That’s because on average 55% of them (but up to 70% in some areas) practice first cousin marriage."

transemacabre replied:
"It's the consequence of arranged marriage and families not wanting 'outsiders' to join their families. They want a bride for their son who they can control -- so a niece is preferred. One generation of cousin-marriage won't cause these problems, its cousins marrying, generation after generation, resulting in a very small gene pool with bad recessive genes getting combined."

#10

monsem12 said:
"2/3 of the Australian population will develop skin cancer at some point in their lives."

Henry_Sadiq replied:
"Damn, even the SUN is dangerous in Australia."

#11

"A survey of Fortune 500 executives found that 93% agree that golf reflects life. 86% admit to cheating at golf."

#12

Vaspion66 said:
"Only about 2% of Earth's population has naturally blonde hair. That's insane if you think about it."

nba123490 replied:
"Light colors on humans are just rare. 1% are red haired 2% are blonde haired 20% are brown haired The majority are black-haired in the world

For eyes same thing really: - green eyes 2% - blue eyes 8% - brown eyes (darker again being the majority) 55% to 79%."

#13

BlueCandyBars said:
"When tested by another agency, TSA failed to detect weapons, bombs, and other destructive materials 95% of the time."

TheBoulder_ replied:
"On top of that, they were told "today is the day we are going to be tested" ...and they STILL failed 95% of the time."

#14

"Even in the 2022 Kentucky Derby, 19/22 entered horses can trace lineage to Secretariat."

#15

godofhorizons said:
"Wayne Gretzky and his brother hold the record for most points by a brother pair in NHL history. His brother has four points."

modestmandrakeman replied:
"Gretzky also holds the record for fastest to 1000 points, who’s in second? Wayne Gretzky again on his second 1000 points."

#16

"Despite making up less than 4% of the population, Americans produce over 20% of the garbage in the world."

#17

JESquirrel said:
"Dragonflies have a 95% hunt success rate. Making them the most effective hunters in the world."

supbros302 replied:
"It's because the dragonfly optic nerve connects directly to their wings allowing incredibly fast reaction times since the target finding isn't mediated by the nervous system."

#18

cbandy said:
"Used to work as a meteorologist. More people die from flooding each year than from every other natural disaster added together. A good portion, at least, are people who think their cars can make it through the water when they obviously cannot."

BearsChief replied:
"If there's one thing I've taken away from survival shows and documentaries, it is: Never underestimate the power of moving water."

#19

galacticality said:
"Though numbers have slightly inflated due to the pandemic, it remains that only about 4 in every 10 Americans wash their hands after using the bathroom. IIRC, about 60% of women and only 35% of men. Everyone got gross peepee poopoo hands."

werd5273 replied:
"I don’t understand how people can not wash after pooping. Maybe once in my life, I did not immediately wash due to necessity, but then immediately found a restroom to wash."

#20

kawcreek said:
"Motorcycles are 2% of all vehicles [USA]. Motorcycles account for 20% of all road fatalities. I don't ride anymore."

Kraagenskul replied:
"In the same vein, less than 10% of Americans do not wear seatbelts and account for 51% of car-related fatalities."

#21

debTG81007 said:
"That the remains found in Machu Picchu are 80% female."

zazzera replied:
"They don't think that's true anymore. George Eaton, one of the first archaeologists that studied the Machu Picchu skeletons, classified sex based on height. Like, if the skeleton was over 5'6" it must be a man, right? He didn't consider that the Inca population might not have the same genetics as his friends from back home. Turns out he was probably wrong."

#22

"20% of the mammal species on our planet are different types of bats. There are about 5000 species of mammals, and about 1000 of them are varieties of our little winged buddies."

#23

ConstantlySlippery said:
"That we are chronologically closer in time to the T-Rex than the T-Rex was to the Stegosaurus. We are about 66 million years after the t-rex, but the stegosaurus was about 85 million years before the t-rex, 20 million years longer. Dinosaurs were around for a VERY long time. Humans are just a drop in the bucket relatively evolved just a few hundred thousand years for Homo sapiens."

DangyDanger replied:
"I swear there must have been a highly technologically advanced species of dinosaurs, then came the World War Dino that resulted in one country chucking a huge asteroid at the planet while mass evacuating their population to Venus, where they abused their new home to no end until it became what it is today, which ultimately either drove them out of our system or they faced extinction due to the atmosphere that is no longer compatible with life."

#24

"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."

#25

uncleleo_ said:
"Miscarriages are going up 1% each year and sperm count of men has gone down 50% since 1970 (US)."

Tanyaaahhh replied:
"I wonder if this is because more women will seek medical attention for a miscarriage now (and this be included in medical statistics) than say 20-50 years ago when it was almost a taboo subject and many women went without medical assistance."

#26

"The most obese state in the country in 1990 (Mississippi, 15%) was still far skinnier than the least obese state in the country in 2020 (Colorado, 24%). This still blows my mind and I literally think about it every day."

#27

"The risk of a heart attack is about 20% greater on Mondays for adult men, and 15% greater for adult women."

#28

Salohacin said:
"90% of people live in the northern hemisphere."

dxbigc replied:
"Primarily has to do with land mass. Just look at a map and that will explain most of it. Then, take into account the Sahara desert, Amazon rain forest, and that the majority of Australia is basically uninhabitable and you really see the reason."

#29

"The amount of rodent and bug particles allowed by the FDA to be in your cereal is not zero."

#30

"33% of the Jonas Brothers has diabetes."

#31

hobochomsky said:
"Cigarette butts make up ~38% of all litter collected and can take up to 10 years to decompose. If you smoke, please just throw them in an ashtray. Or better yet, stop smoking."

Reddit user replied:
"They can take up to 10 years to decompose, but most cigarette butts have decomposed more than 90% within the first year. Technically tho, the plastic fibers never decompose."

#32

Ok-Reputation9619 said:
"One in 8 men thinks they can win a point about Serena Willams."

LutherRaul replied:
"Just hoping for a double fault on her serve."

#33

"Rabies has a 99% mortality rate. You can go a year with it, no signs or anything, but when you start showing symptoms you're dead in a few hours."

#34

SebaZDK said:
"The birthday 'paradox', is the fact if you have 23 random people there is a 50% chance 2 have the same birthday."

fantasticdamage_ replied:
"I’ve always wondered, at a baseball game, in a stadium full of people, is it plausible to say that someone has a birthday on every single day of the year? This means everyone in that stadium could fill a calendar and the entire calendar would be 100% full of dates with everyone’s birthday on it. Am I too high, I’m not making sense am I?"

#35

"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."

#36

"National Geographic found in 2018 that only 9% of all plastic worldwide gets recycled."

#37

"The average human has less than two arms."

#38

"You have far more chances to die from a coconut fall than by a shark attack."

#39

"Sharks have existed for longer than the rings of Saturn (450 million years vs. Around 100 million)."

#40

bkidcudder said:
"In Florida, adults with poor credit scores and clean driving records paid an average of $1552 (annually) more in car insurance than the same drivers with excellent credit scores and a DUI conviction The trend is similar throughout the nation."

justonetimeplease replied:
"This is a result of zip codes and the credit score is just a correlation. That is, people with good credit scores live in higher income zip codes where car theft/accidents etc., and thus insurance is cheaper."

#41

"Chopping wood for an hour results in a 48% increase in testosterone in men."

#42

"The average age of retirement in the US is 62. 53% of retirements aren't voluntary."

#43

"18% of all boating accidents are caused by people trying to pee over the side.

The Canadian Red Cross did a study of all water-related deaths between 1991 and 2008. Table 8 on page 39 states that between '91 - 08, 62 people lost their lives from urinating from their watercraft. That only makes up 3% of total deaths due to urination. I couldn't find an online source about how many accidents (not resulting in death) were attributed to urinating over the side of the boat, but my boating instructor gave me the number 18%, and I've always trusted that number. The fact that they keep a record of deaths due to urination, and that yachting insurance companies warn about the dangers of urinating over the side of the boat makes me think that accidents not resulting in death is much higher than 3%."

#44

Maxpro2001 said:
"I read somewhere that about 80% of Indians feel that if they're too happy something bad is around the corner."

Mundane-Flounder-765 replied:
"Stoicism, Buddhism, and such all have teachings about not getting too happy or too low. Honestly, I think it’s pretty sound advice."

#45

"Although it's well known that flying is an extremely safe form of travel, this only applies to commercial flights. While 2019 recorded only 1 fatality on a U.S. commercial flight, 414 people were killed on non-commercial U.S. flights ("general aviation"). That's more than 1 death a day!"

#46

Molesandmangoes said:
"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."

LogicBalm replied:
"Hey, with how much stuff I've learned about living in space, it sounds like a nightmare. Eating, drinking, digestion, and going to the bathroom are all thrown off by a lack of gravity. Along with brushing your teeth or clipping your nails. Working out is one of the most common activities in space so you don't lose muscle mass from the lack of gravity. Even then it's common to have a lot of aches and pains when returning to Earth because you didn't really use your feet all that much or something. Not to mention space blindness! That one's a bit hyperbolic, but it is sort of a thing. I'll stay home, thanks. Take pictures for me."

#47

"Over one-quarter of teenage pregnancies involve a father over the age of 20."

#48

Gold-Leadership-5128 said:
"25% of my country's (Denmark) population dies of smoking or smoking-related causes. But nearly all deaths where the person who died is smoking counts as a smoking death. So it is hard to say the actual number."

aeriox-phenomenon replied:
"So basically 25% of Denmark smokes. That's actually pretty good by European standards."

#49

tpenna219 said:
"There are more ants alive today than there have been humans alive ever."

reallycool_opotomus replied:
"Also, all of the insects in the world right now weigh more than all of the people in the world. I've also heard that there are more insect species than there are people."

#50

THElaytox said:
"At least 50% of adults in the US are likely experiencing symptoms of lead exposure from their childhood. Which includes loss of IQ, increased phobias, addiction issues, and neuroticism. Makes the current state of things make a lot more sense."

Chopskie117 replied:
"How are they getting exposed to lead this often? Is there any way to prevent it?"

THElaytox replied:
"Depending on age a lot of it could be from leaded gasoline and paints. Leaded gasoline introduced airborne lead worldwide for about 70 years. Younger people are probably most exposed to lead pipes in our water systems and/or polluted waterways. The state of Washington did a survey a couple of years ago and found 80% of elementary schools across the state had at LEAST one water source with unsafe levels of lead. Recent studies have shown that exposure as a child can take 40+ years to present mental symptoms."

#51

"I did a calculation and confirmed that every person on Earth could fit inside Harris County, TX standing side by side with room to spare. Each person would have a square equaling 2'-6.5" by 2'-6.5". Harris County is 1778 sq. miles. Go ahead, do the math. Granted, you would have to tear down every home, skyscraper, tree, etc. This calculation assumes that the entire county would be one big, flat parking lot with a LOT of bathrooms around the perimeter..."

#52

Reddit user said:
"The human eye blinks about 4.2 million times a year on average."

meggrone replied:
"This made me manually blink."

#53

"Ride-sharing services (uber, lyft) have contributed to an increase in traffic deaths by nearly 3 percent."

#54

"All of the planets (including Pluto) can fit side-to-side between the Earth and the Moon (at its average distance)."

#55

"In the US, if one graduates high school then gets married then has children, in that order, one has a 97% chance of never living in poverty."

#56

"There are more Panda Express restaurants than actual Pandas."

#57

Flat-Cold said:
"The Sherco Power Plant in MN - a coal power plant - today alone consumes on average 6.5 million tones of coal a year... which is the equivalent of 3/4s of the entire nation's coal consumption in 1850, a time when the steam and coal revolution was in full swing worldwide. Currently, they record a number between 20-30 thousand tones a day, meaning it could be even larger..."

Sacrifice_Starlight replied:
"Sherco is a 3-unit plant with all 3 units scheduled to go offline starting next year with the second in 2026 and the third in 2030. The nearby nuclear plant in Monticello MN is now slated to stay open 10 years past it originally planned to decommission date while the former coal plant site is transitioned to natural gas."

#58

"California's GDP is twice Russia's."

#59

"In 2020, overdose with a synthetic opioid (primarily fentanyl) became the LEADING cause of death in all Americans ages 18 to 45. Motor vehicle accidents were the former leading cause for this age group."

#60

this_guy83 said:
"In the US, it is illegal to build anything other than a detached single-family home on 75% of the land designated for residential use."

DulceDays replied:
"Portland, OR is doing the opposite of this now. On many lots it’s no longer legal to build one single-family home, instead many lots have been rezoned for multi-family units/condos. On an average lot of ~5000sf, you’re now required to build no less than 2-3 units and up."

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