Fun Facts

[Being] murdered while on the job [is] a relatively common occurrence in the United States. Of all the incidents in which someone died at work in 2013, 9 percent were due to homicides, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent data. In total, 397 people were murdered while at work. That’s more than were killed by fires and explosions, getting caught in equipment or machinery, and exposure to harmful substances combined. The total number of homicides was down from 2012, when there were 475 work-related homicides.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/08/26/3695728/virginia-shooting-workplace-homicide/

In America, more preschoolers are shot dead each year – 82 in 2013 – than police officers are in the line of duty – 27 in 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-a-new-way-to-tackle-gun-deaths.html 

Gun deaths are poised to surpass automobile deaths in the United States this year.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/americas-top-killing-machine/384440/

“776 People Killed By Police So Far in 2015, 161 Of Them Unarmed.” For comparison purposes, that puts us on track to comfortably exceed the highest number of Coalition troops killed in Iraq, 961 in 2007.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/09/200pm-water-cooler-9215-2.html

More Americans Have Been Shot to Death in the Last 25 Years Than Have Died in Every War.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/09/gun-violence-deaths-exceed-military-fatalities-us-wars

[T]he United States hasn’t gone more than 8 days without a mass shooting this year. In 274 days we’ve had 294 mass shootings. That’s just this year, since Newtown the amount of gun deaths are...at 84,000.
http://newamericamedia.org/2015/10/i-told-my-students-last-week-there-would-be-a-mass-shooting-this-week-and-i-was-right.php

[The incident in] Oregon, which left at least 10 dead, was the 142nd shooting incident in a school or college since Sandy Hook. As there have been only over 1,000 days during that period, this means there’s been a shooting in an American school or college about once a week.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-nras-profit-soars-as-deaths-from-gun-massacres-mount-2015-10-02

Violent baby names are on the rise as gun-lusting Americans pull the trigger on names like “Magnum,” “Shooter” and “Caliber.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/violent-baby-names-rise-survey-article-1.2345629

“A total of 71 percent of American voters are “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the nation today, including 41 percent who are “very dissatisfied,” according to a Quinnipiac University National poll released today. Only 2 percent are “very satisfied,” with 26 percent “somewhat satisfied”
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2275

At the end of 2014, UNHCR, the United Nations agency for refugees, estimated that there were 59.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, the highest level ever recorded.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/escaping-europe-refugee-crisis-by-peter-singer-2015-09

Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world's 24th biggest...worldwide displacement was at the highest level ever recorded....the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to a staggering 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago....Put yet another way, that’s roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Italy being pushed out of their homes.
http://www.unhcr.org/558193896.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/06/refugees-global-peace-index/396122/

In just 4 years, over half of Syria’s population of 22m has been killed, displaced or fled the country.
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/08/will-syria-ever-come-back.html

Ghengis Khan forbade the selling of women, theft of other's properties, decreed religious freedom, outlawed hunting during breeding seasons, and exempted the poor from taxation.
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/3lglvy/til_ghengis_khan_forbade_the_selling_of_women/

Busan — the second largest city in South Korea — would also be the second largest city in Western Europe. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/09/how-big-is-busan-really.html

8% of the world’s financial wealth – some $7.6 trillion – is hidden in places like Switzerland, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Singapore, and Luxembourg. That is more wealth than is owned by the poorer half of the world’s 7.4 billion people.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/tax-havens-costs-of-hidden-wealth-by-j--bradford-delong-and-michael-m--delong-2015-09

A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher. In other words, people today are about 10 percent heavier than people were in the 1980s, even if they follow the exact same diet and exercise plans.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/why-it-was-easier-to-be-skinny-in-the-1980s/407974/

The wealthiest 1 percent of New York City residents took in nearly one-third of the personal income in the city in 2009 — almost double the comparable proportion nationwide,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/nyregion/middle-class-smaller-in-new-york-city-than-nationally-study-finds.html?_r=0

Approximately 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts and 21% don’t even have a savings account.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings-2015-10-06?siteid=rss&rss=1