Say It With Numbers: #2-2008

There are 49,000 airports in the world, 14,858 of them in the US

Lawrence Summers has pointed out that during the Industrial Revolution the average European’s living standards rose about 50% over the course of his lifetime (then about 40 years). In Asia, principally China, he calculates, the average persons living standards are set to rise by 10,000% in 1 lifetime.

30 years ago, China was a devastated country, one of the worlds poorest. Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution destroyed universities, schools and factories……Since then 400 million people have been lifted out of poverty in China – about 75% of the worlds poverty reduction over the last century

South Africa suffered more violent deaths per capita in 2007 than Afghanistan. South Africa is now one of the worlds 5 most violent places

In 1956, Lebanese Christians made up 56% of the country; today they are about 30%. Bethleham, birthplace of Jesus was 80% Christian when Israel won independence in 1948; now its about 16%. Some 75% of the United States’ 3.5 million Middle Easterners are Christian

The big bang is estimated to have occurred 14 billion years ago.

Indian IT industry

The top 20 companies account for 80% of the total revenues

500,000 employees hired by IT and ITES in 2007 as compared to 350,000 in 2006

India

In the partition of undivided India into the countries of India and Pakistan, between 800,000 and 2 million people died in sectarian fighting. Up to 14 million crossed the frontier, one of the largest mass migrations in humanity

Following the 1857 Uprising in India, the British imposed English as the official language for education and communication. Muslims went from near 100% literacy in Urdu to 20% within a half-century

India is the world’s 2^nd largest newspaper market, behind China

India contributes 70% to the global revenues from cricket

Life expectancy has risen from 32.1 years in 1947 to 68.5 years in 2007

Literacy has risen from 16% in 1947 to 61.3% in 2007

In 1600, when the East India Company was formed, Britain was generating 1.8% of the world’s GDP while India was producing 22.5%. By 1870 at the peak of the Raj, Britain was generating 9.1%