The Surface Areas of Russia and Pluto Are Extremely Similar
And 25 other facts you should probably know.
Percentage of recent college graduates who were unemployed from April 2011 to March 2012: 9.4
Percentage of recent high school graduates who were unemployed from April 2011 to March 2012: 31.1 1
Percentage of Americans who believe that college is unaffordable for most: 75 2
Number of directors for the 500 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2012: 565
Number of those directors who are black: 33
Percentage of black characters with speaking parts in movies with a black director: 52.6
Percentage of black characters with speaking parts in movies without a black director: 9.9 3
Year in which Anne Frank was born: 1929
Photo by Mark Rain / Flickr.
Year in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born: 1929
Year in which Barbara Walters was born: 1929 4
Year in which Pluto was discovered: Nope, it was 1930
Surface area of Pluto in square miles: 6,427,806 5
Surface area of Russia in square miles: 6,601,668 6
Number of times Pluto orbited the sun while classified as a planet: 0 7
Number of cigarettes smoked per year for every man, woman, and child on the planet: 1,000 8
Number of annual deaths in the United States due to smoking and secondhand smoke: 480,317 9
Annual cost of smoking-related health care in the United States:
Percentage of NPR listeners who know that Egyptians successfully overthrew their government: 68
Percentage of political blog followers who know that Egyptians successfully overthrew their government: 61
Percentage of FOX viewers who know that Egyptians successfully overthrew their government: 49 11
Percentage of adults who own either a tablet computer or e-reader: 50
Percentage of American adult readers who use only e-books: 4
Percentage of Americans who believe that closing their local library would impact their community: 90 12
Duration, in days, of the longest mammalian gestation period—Asian elephant: 660 13
Duration, in days, of the shortest mammalian gestation period—American
opossum: 13 14
1. Economic Policy Institute, May 2012 2. Pew Research Center, May 2012 3. Women’s Media Center, 2014 4. Biography.com/people 5. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2014 6. UN Data, 2014 7. LiveScience, July 2012 8. World Health Organization Tobacco Atlas, 4th Edition, 2012 9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014 10. World Health Organization Tobacco Atlas, 4th Edition, 2012 11. Fairleigh Dickinson University, 2011 12. Pew Research Center, 2014 13. National Zoo, 2011 14. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Committee
Kali Swenson is a former editorial intern for YES!
Christine St. Pierre is a former editorial intern for YES!