You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
11
Number of current and former employees of Fox News who have signed onto a class-action lawsuit against the company alleging racial discrimination. [The New York Times]
11 of 18
Humans, as a rule, aren’t good at surviving in space, so we invented space suits. Those suits are pricey, and resilient, but they don’t last forever. The 18 spacewalking backpacks originally developed are now down to 11, and NASA is trying to deal with its rapidly aging closet of spacesuits. [AP News]
70 percent
Close to 70 percent of NFL players are black, according to an annual study published by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. The racial makeup of the league varies significantly by position: 12.5 percent of running backs were white in 2014, compared to 97.8 percent of kickers and punters. The reasons for these disparities are myriad. [The Undefeated]
$1,077
Average monetary ransom demanded by malicious phishing software in 2016, according to a report from Symantec Corp. That’s up substantially from $294 in 2015. [Reuters]
2,400
More than 40 colleges and other organizations have seen their applications for Upward Bound grants rejected by the Department of Education in recent weeks, in many cases because of minor formatting errors on the application such as failing to double space. Those programs offer tutoring and counseling services to nearly 2,400 low-income high-school students. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]
373,807
Number of jobs in the solar power sector in 2016, according to the Energy Information Administration, compared with 398,235 in the natural gas industry and 160,119 in the coal business. [The New York Times]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.