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Significant Digits For Wednesday, July 13, 2016

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


14 months

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both closed at all-time highs Tuesday. Yesterday saw the Dow’s first record high in roughly 14 months. [Marketwatch]


26 percent

How much the Irish economy grew in 2015, which even the nation’s highest economists consider laughable. The absurdly high growth rate is likely the result of overseas companies dumping a crap-load of assets in Ireland due to their tax structure, which encourages corporations to base their assets in the country. [Bloomberg]


31

Number of campaigns for Congress that have received at least 75 percent of their monetary contributions from out of state in the 2016 cycle, up from 16 campaigns in 2012. [The Center for Responsive Politics]


44 years, 7 months, 14 days

Looks like he got away with it: On Monday the FBI announced as of July 8 it was no longer investigating the notorious D.B. Cooper case. In 1971, Cooper (or someone going by Cooper) hijacked a plane, pulled in $200,000 and jumped out of the aircraft to unknown ends. It was a 44 year, 7 month, 14 day investigation. [Newser]


67 percent

67 percent of Americans aged 65 and older are white and say they are Christians. But only 29 percent of those aged 18 to 29 are white Christians. That massive gap is going to drive huge changes in generations to come. Indeed, 34 percent of those 18 to 29 were unaffiliated with a religion, compared to 11 percent of those 65 and up. [The Atlantic]


479 pages

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled on border disputes in the South China Sea, issuing a 479-page decision that favored the Philippines’ claims to the sea territory over China’s. [Bloomberg]


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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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