You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
$4.52
The average out-of-network ATM fee in the U.S., a record high. That’s up 21 percent over the past five years. [The Wall Street Journal]
9.6 percent
According to the World Bank, 2015 will be the year that the percentage the global population living in extreme poverty drops below 10 percent. The development group forecasts 9.6 percent of the world population, 702 million people, will live in extreme poverty this year, down from 12.8 percent in 2012. [The World Bank]
53.9 pounds
How much beef Americans will consume per capita in 2015, the lowest level of consumption since the government started tracking the number in 1970. As a result, beef prices are dropping across the board. [Bloomberg]
60 percent
Des Moines, Iowa, is seeing the highest rate of millennial home-buying in the country: Sixty percent of people who got a mortgage to buy a home in Des Moines in the first half of this year were millennials. Nationally that figure is 37 percent. [The Atlantic]
65 percent
Percentage of Republican-leaning voters who prefer that a candidate for the presidency has new ideas over experience or a longstanding record. That, uh, explains a lot, I suppose? [Pew Research Center]
71 percent
Percentage of Republicans who have a favorable view of George W. Bush, who happens to be the brother of GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush. That’s according to a New York Times/CBS News poll from May. Further internal polling numbers are leading some members of the Bush camp to call for the former president to campaign for his little brother in South Carolina. But others believe support from George could hurt Jeb in the general election. [The New York Times]
350 rolls of toilet paper
The New York Jets played the Miami Dolphins in London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday, a game that saw New York come away with a 27-14 win. As part of the team’s trip planning, a Jets intern apparently advised that the toilet paper in London is of inferior quality. So the team hauled over 350 rolls of top-tier American TP to be safe. [The Washington Post]
$800
Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah Museum makes deals with smugglers, buying up looted artifacts in order to prevent them from getting onto the black market to presumably be lost forever. This strategy seems to have panned out, with the discovery that a clay tablet bought in 2011 for $800 contained a previously unknown 20-line verse of “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” It’s pretty crazy that for half of what some of my friends are paying in New York City rent, they could have purchased a priceless artifact. [LiveScience]
$13 million
LinkedIn agreed to pay $13 million to members who felt bombarded by the social networking site’s — let’s just say dedicated — email notification policies. Anyone who was a member from Sept. 17, 2011, to Oct. 31, 2014, and used the “add connections” feature may want to check their email if they want to get a piece of the settlement. [Quartz]
$55 million
“The Martian” narrowly missed beating out “Gravity” for the highest-grossing October release record, pulling in $55 million over the weekend. It’s got Matt Damon in one of his brainiest and dreamiest roles, according to in-depth FiveThirtyEight statistical research. [Variety]
If you haven’t already, you really need to sign up for the Significant Digits newsletter — be the first to learn about the numbers behind the news.