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Significant Digits For Wednesday, May 17, 2017

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


40 percent

That’s the percentage of working Americans ages 25 to 29 who had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2016. That’s higher than the share of working 25- to 29-years-olds in 2000, 1985 and 1964. [Pew Research Center]


49-38

A new Public Policy Polling survey has control of the House of Representatives in play in the 2018 midterms, with Democrats up 49 to 38 in the generic congressional ballot. [Public Policy Polling]


$50,000

An international ransomware attack that hacked and encrypted files in an attempt to shake down users for bitcoin doesn’t appear to have been financially fruitful, with analysts saying only about $50,000 in ransoms had been paid by Monday. [Bloomberg]


$3.5 million

Federal investigators are looking into a $3.5 million mortgage taken out by former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. [NBC News]


$3 billion

Yahoo will buy back up to $3 billion in shares from stockholders who desperately want to finally get off the wild ride — or who wouldn’t be caught dead with a company renamed “Altaba” in their portfolios. [Reuters]


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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