20 Amazing Economic Facts

According to the International Labour Organization, 200 million people will be out of job by the year 2013 (don’t look far; we are already in ‘13’). If you were to give a separate country to the unemployed, their population will beat each country’s population count except China, India, the USA and Indonesia. Let this be the first among the 20 amazing facts I am going to share with you.

1. Nearly 33% of ‘early 90s’ Harvard graduates were earning more than a million a year by 2005.
2. 30% of school drop-outs felt that indulging in lottery was a wealth-building strategy, courtesy a 2006 survey. Homes with income in deficit of $12,400 spend almost 5% of their overall earnings in lottery.
3. Hedge fund managers in the 21^st century have failed to match pace with inflation, leave alone the stock market.
4. 97% of the world’s population inhabit areas characterised by a low fertility rate.
5. Warren Buffet was a millionaire at 25, if we adjust his net worth for inflation.
6. In 2012, Apple’s and Google’s spending on patent litigations and purchases exceeded amounts spent on R&D, a first for both the companies (quite something).
7. Bill Gates has earned more than $100,000 each hour even if we consider he has been earning since his first hour on earth. The same is true for Carlos Slim.
8. The UK economy has come down by 3.3% in the last 5 years, the U.S economy has grown by 2.9%.
9. Last counted in Jan 2013, 6 people born in the 1800s still grace the planet. In other words, they are at least 113 years old. A $1 investment made in their birth year, and reinvested with the dividend, would have yielded $28,000 in 2013 (We are considering U.S stocks).
10. About 4 in 10 girls born in the present year will live to see the 100^th year of their life. With expected improvement in mortality rate and life expectancy, about 60% of girls born in 2060 will live for over a 100 years.
11. 46.1% Americans die leaving less than $10,000 as their life savings.
12. Last year, we clicked 1/10^th of images clicked since the dawn of photography. In other words, photographic work done in the last 213 years is only ten-fold of that done in the last year.
13. A crop that required 10 acres of land for its production in 1961 now requires only 3.5 acres (keeping volume constant).
14. The number of babies born in the U.S in the year 1956 is more than the tally for 2009, 2010, and 2011.
15. Perhaps the most fascinating one – if you begin by saving a dollar and double the amount each day, you will have enough on the 48^th day to  buy assets worth $200 trillion- more than earth’s tangible assets.
16. For the March quarter 2012, number of iPhones flying off Apple’s shelves was higher than the number of babies dropping in from heavens (globally speaking).
17. One out of every 7 acts of pilferage or stealing in New York City involves an Apple device.
18. The global airline industry has soaked a loss of $32 billion in the last 65 years of its operation.
19. Asia surpassed the tally of North American millionaires in 2011, first time they did so and quite an achievement for sure. No wonder there is flurry of real estate investment bids pouring in from Asia.

Which do you consider the most fascinating fact among these 20? Any you’d like to add?