Significant Digits For Tuesday, April 10, 2018


You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.

10 women

Only 10 women have given birth while serving in Congress; Sen. Tammy Duckworth became the first sitting senator to have a baby on Monday, when she welcomed a daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, into the world. [Chicago Sun Times]


25 percent

Percentage of respondents to a poll of San Francisco-area residents who said anti-development neighborhood groups — the NIMBY crowd — were a “major reason” for the Bay Area’s housing crunch. People were more likely to blame developers (57 percent), tech companies (48 percent), local governments (38 percent), newcomers to the area (34 percent), state governments (28 percent) and greedy landlords and investors (27 percent). [The Mercury News]


93 percent

Percentage of 259 water bottles from 11 different brands and nine different countries that were found to have some sort of microplastic in their water, including polypropylene, polystyrene, nylon and polyethylene. On average, there were 10.4 particles per liter of water, according to the study. [CBC]


15 million games

Number of units of “Grand Theft Auto V” sold in 2017. Years after its initial release in 2013, the game was still somehow the sixth best-selling video game last year. And since its release, the game has moved 90 million copies, putting its haul well north of $6 billion and making “Grand Theft Auto V” plausibly the most commercially successful single media property of all time. [MarketWatch]


$12.6 billion

Amount Sri Lanka will repay in debt this coming year. In general, Sri Lanka is growing economically, but its post-tsunami rebound was partly financed with foreign money from nearby power players, like a $1.5 billion China-financed airport project. Much of that shiny new infrastructure is sitting unused, and could end up as geopolitical bargaining chips [Next City]


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If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.