Welcome to Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
9 bedrooms
The Obama family will rent a nine-bedroom, 8,200-square-foot home in Washington, D.C., after the president leaves the White House and at least until Sasha completes high school. The house is in a tony neighborhood two miles from his current home. [The New York Times]
11 states
Officials from Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin are suing the Obama administration over its directive that requires schools to allow transgender students in public schools to use the restroom of their choosing. [Reuters]
30 percent
Percentage of Lego kits that include weapons according to research from New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. In fairness, a Lego brick on a hardwood floor against a barefoot opponent is the deadliest weapon known to man, and all of the sets are capable of that. [BBC]
94 startup founders
Bloomberg analyzed 890 U.S. startups that raised at least $20 million in venture capital and were founded in 2009-2015, and there are so, so many significant digits packed inside. One to get you started: While founders’ most common undergrad alma mater was Stanford (90 of them), slightly more, 94, dropped out or didn’t attend college at all. [Bloomberg]
218 NBA players
There are 447 players in the NBA, and 218 of them are related to an elite athlete (anyone who played any sport in college, professional leagues, or on a national team). Compared to random samplings of the NFL and MLB, that rate (48.8 percent) is huge. [The Wall Street Journal]
75.3 million visits
The number of visits to the 58 U.S. national parks that reported visitor numbers last year, the highest level ever. Gas is cheap, the weather is nice, and people are responding to promotional campaigns the National Park Service is putting out. In related news, I recently paused to watch two pigeons fighting over a churro at Columbus Circle, because I too am trying to broaden my horizons when it comes to exposing myself to the natural world around us. [FiveThirtyEight]
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