You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
17 percent
Share of U.S. newlyweds in 2015 who were of differing races or ethnicities, up from 3 percent in 1967 when the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that interracial marriage was legal across the country. [Pew Research Center]
27.1 percent
Share of stock trading done by quantitative hedge funds as a percentage of the whole market in 2017. They’re beating out other hedge funds (22 percent), traditional asset managers (18.6 percent) and banks (3.4 percent). And really, what could go wrong with a powerful new technology dominating the way the international financial markets tick. [The Wall Street Journal]
28 House members and six senators
A Politico investigation found 28 House members and six senators who have traded over 100 stocks in the past two years, which while not illegal is definitely sketchy; in some cases, lawmakers traded stocks related to legislation they had influence over. [Politico]
47 times
CNN has found evidence that Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke plagiarized portions of his master’s thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School. CNN found at least 47 examples of Clarke failing to properly attribute his sources, which could pose a barrier for his appointment to a position in the Department of Homeland Security. [CNN]
50 percent
Approximate chance that a randomly selected packaged item in a supermarket will contain palm oil, the most-used cooking oil on the planet. Humans consumed on average 17 pounds each in 2015. [Bloomberg]
2018
Japan’s Emperor Akihito wants to quit, but there is no way for him to abdicate. A bill moving through parliament would allow him to leave the throne and pass it on to his son — December 2018 has been thrown around as a target date — on the condition that it’s a one-time thing. [The New York Times]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.