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Significant Digits For Thursday, June 15, 2017

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.


1.25 percent

The Federal Reserve will raise its interest rate target from 1 percent to 1.25 percent. Rising rates are a signal that the economy has recovered to the point where businesses and consumers don’t need ridiculously low borrowing rates to participate in it. [The New York Times]


5 people

Five public officials have been charged with involuntary manslaughter over their alleged roles in Legionnaires’ disease deaths related to the Flint water crisis. It’s worth remembering that many residents of the Michigan town are still drinking bottled water. [FiveThirtyEight]


35 percent

Data from the United Nations shows a drop of 35 percent in new migrants to Europe in the first half of 2017 compared with the same period last year. [USA Today]


65 percent

An Associated Press poll found that 65 percent of Americans think that President Trump has little or no respect for U.S. democratic institutions and traditions. [The Associated Press]


85 percent

Stores such as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls used to resell overstock from department stores at a discount, but they appear to have changed their business model: The former CEO of their parent company said in 2011 that 85 percent of merchandise was bought directly from manufacturers. This has raised concerns because a 2015 Department of Labor report linked retailers including T.J. Maxx, Forever 21 and Ross Stores to Los Angeles factories that weren’t paying workers the federal minimum wage. [The Boston Globe]


$930 million

Here’s a disturbing stat about the state of medical care access in the United States: A study of GoFundMe crowdsourced fundraising campaigns found that $930 million of $2 billion analyzed was for medical campaigns, or people who had to beg on the internet to pay for medical procedures. [Bloomberg via Ross Baird]


If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.

Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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