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Significant Digits for Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014

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

2 percent

The FDA announced plans to lift its lifetime ban on blood donation from men who have had sex with other men. It will soon propose replacing the ban with a subsequent ban on blood from men who have had sex with men within a year of donating. The change could increase the U.S. blood supply by 2 percent. [The Washington Post]


9 players

Number of Denver Broncos players selected for the Pro Bowl, the most of any team. Peyton Manning, who has fewer Super Bowl victories than his brother Eli, was selected for the Pro Bowl for the 14th time. Meanwhile, each one of the triumphant New York Giants were exempted from this burdensome game, giving Odell Beckham Jr. ample time to practice without distraction. Go Giants. [ESPN]


10.8 months

The average employee tenure at a startup company, compared to 17.5 months at a non-startup company. More than half of the employees at analyzed startups — which are defined as venture capital-funded companies less than 10 years old — are younger than 30 years old. [Quartz]


39 college bowl games

This year will see a record 39 college bowl games. I’d like to elaborate more here, but I went to The College of William & Mary and was born after 1970 so I’ve never had reason to know what a college bowl game is. [FiveThirtyEight]


57 percent of Cuban-Americans

Percent born in Cuba, compared to 68 percent in 2000. The shifting composition of Cuban-Americans could be one reason why a majority of Cuban-Americans opposed the U.S. embargo policy. [Pew Research Center]


61 school districts

Number of Mississippi school districts with open desegregation orders, the highest of any state in the nation. Some U.S. districts are required to increase the integration of black and Latino students, and some districts have had those orders open since the 1950s. [ProPublica]


100 percent

An analysis of 21 “best movies of 2014” lists found that every one of them had director Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” on the list. [FiveThirtyEight]


2,000 jobs

As part of a plan to cut $3 billion from its budget, Coca-Cola intends to cut up to 2,000 jobs globally. It’s the largest cut at the company in 15 years. [Business Insider]


1 million medical tourists

The South Korean government is expecting a substantial increase in medical tourism, an industry which is dominated by plastic surgery. Last year South Korea had 211,218 medical tourists, and the nation expects 1 million per year by 2020. [The New York Times]


6.6 million coffee machines

Keurig Green Mountain is recalling upwards of 6.6 million Mini Plus Brewing Systems that can apparently overheat and spray water during brewing. They’ve received around 90 reports of burn-related injuries so far. [NBC News]


We’re off for a few days; catch you next Monday and thanks for reading. If you see a significant digit out in the wild, tweet it to me @WaltHickey. In the meantime, have a happy Christmas.

Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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