You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
20 percent
Generally, kids in the U.S. go to kindergarten when they’re five years old, but around 20 percent of U.S. kindergarteners begin at six, some of them because their parents held them back a year because of perceived advantages to waiting. That perception is backed up by one study that found postponing kindergarten led to more self control. But honestly, “study finds solution to immaturity is aging slightly” is a worse headline. [Quartz]
28
Number of members of Congress from the far-right “Freedom Caucus” that teamed up to block the House GOP’s health care bill. The legislation — which would have repealed some but not all of the Affordable Care Act — had too many Republican defections and never came to a vote. [POLITICO]
42 percent
According to FiveThirtyEight’s forecasting model, Gonzaga is the favorite to win the men’s NCAA tournament with a 42 percent chance, followed by North Carolina with a 24 percent chance. [FiveThirtyEight]
50 percent
A study published in Nature found that about 50 percent of the platelets in the bloodstream are made in the lungs, not in the bone marrow as previously believed. [Nature]
74 percent
The University of Connecticut remains the strong favorite to win the women’s NCAA tournament, especially now that rival Baylor is out of the dance with a loss to Mississippi State. A loss, incidentally, that all but guarantees I win the FiveThirtyEight office women’s bracket. [FiveThirtyEight]
$40.5 million
Amount of money the Power Rangers movie made this past weekend. It didn’t win the box office, but it did well enough that the guy who said “we have six of these things planned” with a straight face doesn’t look like an idiot. What have you people done? [Variety]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.