You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
0.485 on the Gini Index
New data released by the Census Bureau shows income inequality in the United States has hit its highest level since it first started being tracked in 1967. The U.S. started at 0.397 in 1967 on the Gini index — a measurement of wealth distribution across a population using a scale of zero to one, with one representing total inequality — but last year, it rose to 0.485. Experts attribute the growing gap to wealthy earners seeing much more income growth, and the federal minimum wage staying at $7.25 for more than a decade. [Washington Post]
42 percent
As the U.S. population continues to age rapidly, older Asian Americans are struggling to find appropriate long-term care in their homes — many because of lower financial resources. Research from the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging found that 42 percent of Asian Pacific Islanders provide care to older adults compared to 22 percent of the general population, and that almost 12 percent of Asian Americans, ages 65 and older, were either at or below the poverty level. [NBC News]
1 in 2 senior executives
Data from WarnerMedia’s first diversity and inclusion report shows that in 2018, half of the people hired or promoted at the vice-president level or higher in the company’s global workforce were women. The company was also very close to reaching gender parity for its total workforce (46 percent) for 2018. While people of color make up 38 percent of the company’s total workforce in the U.S., the numbers drop to 24 percent on screen for WarnerMedia’s scripted television shows, and 16 percent of Warner Bros.’ movies. [Deadline]
90,000 Canadian physicians
A growth of the number of physicians in Canada, 12.5 percent between 2014 and 2018 compared to 4.6 percent in the general population, has led to the highest number of doctors per capita, according to a report the Canadian Institute of Health Information. The report says there were nearly 90,000 physicians in the country in 2018, but 2016 data from Statistics Canada still showed approximately 4.8 million people didn’t have a regular health care provider. The report also showed more women entering the medical field, with the number of female doctors increasing by 21 percent since 2014, compared to a rise of seven percent among male doctors. [Globe and Mail]
Blink-182
Tom DeLonge, the former singer and guitarist of the very popular pop-punk band Blink-182, is back in the news after the United States Navy recently confirmed three videos DeLonge and his company published in 2017 and 2018 of mysterious flying objects from 2004 and 2015 were real and showed “unidentified aerial phenomena.” DeLonge is the co-founder of a UFO research organization called To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences, which promotes “society’s understanding of scientific phenomena through the lenses of entertainment, science and aerospace.” [New York Times]
$1.9 billion
The popularity of Chilean-based airline LATAM, Latin America’s biggest airline, has heated up after Delta Air Lines spent $1.9 billion in existing cash and new debt for a 20 percent stake after its rival American Airlines had pursued a joint-venture with the company in the region. Delta, which has a nine percent stake in the Brazilian carrier Gol, said it sell its shares following the purchase. Regulators in the United States and Chile still need to approve the deal. [CNBC]