Facts & Trends

Percentage of black U.S. children under the age of five who live in poverty: 43 ...

Appetite for meat is growing as the developing world becomes more prosperous. But meat—especially beef-can be polarizing, on health, environmental, and ethical grounds. Chicken outpaced beef in the U.S. in 2010. Total U.S. meat consumption peaked in the mid-2000's and ...

Number of U.S. States that allow the death penalty:  31 Proportion of U.S. police departments that are using body cameras: 1 in 3 ...

A new study has calculated that there are 5.25 trillion small and large pieces of plastic, weighing a total of 269,000 tons, floating in the world's oceans ...

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and its supporters produce as many as 90,000 tweets and other social media posts every day. The U.S. State Department is now assigning 80 people to counter ISIS's propaganda on Twitter and Facebook ...

According to the U.N., India has 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. Low vehicle-emission standards, booming industrialization, crowded cities and the burning of trash means that the vast majority of Indians breathe unsafe air ...

44%: Percentage of U.S. firms since 2008 that have reduced their head counts in part because of automation ...

Nearly 50% of American adults now use some form of alternative medicine, spending an estimated $27 billion a year on herbal and other supplements and on such treatments as acupuncture, chiropractic, and energy healing ...

About a dozen inmates die behind bars each day, or about 4,400 jail and prison inmates each year. In jails, suicide is the leading cause of death ...

Estimated amount of gasoline wasted in U.S. traffic jams each day, in gallons: 12,600,000 ...