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Significant Digits For Tuesday, April 30, 2019

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news. For even more facts, figures and discussion, check out our live FiveThirtyEight Politics podcasts in Texas in May.


1.4 billion dead Facebook users

Researchers from Oxford University have determined that by the year 2100, under a conservative scenario where no new users join the social network, 1.4 billion Facebook users will be dead. And by 2070 the dead will outnumber the living. These startling truths of mortality highlight social networks’ “wider efforts to grapple with the thorny problem of what to do with dead people.” [MIT Technology Review]


5 years

For the first time in five years, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, appeared in a propaganda video. It was only Baghdadi’s second-ever appearance on video. “Truthfully, the battle of Islam and its people against the cross and its people is a long battle,” he said. There was also a reference in the video’s text to the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka. [The Guardian]


704 cases

The U.S. measles outbreaks continue to spread apace. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 704 cases as of the end of last week — the largest number since the disease was declared eliminated from the country in 2000. More than 500 of those cases were among people who had not been vaccinated, according to the CDC. [The New York Times]


At least 4 potential whistleblower calls

Following a preliminary report from Ethiopian investigators after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month, the Federal Aviation Administration received at least four calls from potential Boeing employee whistleblowers, according to CBS News, “about issues with the company’s new 737 Max jetliner.” The calls alleged issues related to an “angle of attack” sensor and an anti-stall system that relies on that sensor’s data. [CBS News]


10,000 “false or misleading claims”

President Trump has now uttered more than 10,000 “false or misleading claims,” according to the Washington Post’s Fact Checker database. While it took Trump 601 days to reach 5,000, it only took 226 to reach 10,000, an average of almost 23 such claims a day during that time. [The Washington Post]


0 new drivers

The ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft are no longer accepting new drivers in New York City, as of April 1 and April 19, respectively. Both companies attributed the move at least in part to new policies of New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission that are meant to ensure drivers earn “at least $17.22 an hour after expenses.” [Politico]


From ABC News:


News headlines today: April 30, 2019


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Oliver Roeder was a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied game theory and political competition.

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