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Significant Digits For Friday, Sept. 8, 2017

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


16 weeks

Taylor Swift, a local 🐍 and pop musician, prevented “Despacito” from breaking the record for the longest reign at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 list. Swift’s new single, “Look What You Made Me Do” is the new chart-topper, deposing Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber’s single. Lacking a record, they’ll have to settle for a tie with Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, whose “One Sweet Day” was a top song for 16 weeks. [CNN]


20 percent

A Princeton economic study suggests that opioid use is responsible for a fifth of the decline in men’s participation in the U.S. labor force. [Bloomberg]


77 percent

That’s the percentage of ratings on IMDb for the film “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” that were either a 1 out of 10 or a 10 out of 10. It’s the most polarizing film of the year, and the fact that most of the votes trashing it came in before it even hit wide release is suspicious. [FiveThirtyEight]


25,000 vehicles

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation that forbids states from blocking self-driving cars and allows auto companies to put up to 25,000 automated vehicles on the road without meeting auto safety standards. [Reuters]


100,000 claims

Hurricane Irma-related insurance claims anticipated by the second-largest property insurer in Florida, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. For some perspective, Citizens only has 262,000 policyholders in areas that may see hurricane-force winds, so the damage from the major hurricane could be severe this coming weekend. [SunSentinel]


143 million

Number of Equifax customers that may have been the victims of a cyberattack. Keep in mind that even though you’re not paying Equifax, you might be a customer given that the credit reporting agency may very well have your personal details on file. Oh, one other thing, it appears three executives dumped a combined $1.8 million in Equifax stock three says after the company detected the inclusion and before everyone else knew about it. [Bloomberg, Bloomberg]


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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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