Wise Men Stats: December

Inspired by Harper's Index

Daily statistics in the Wise Men Stats style — startling, sourced from the world's edges.

December 1

Inspired by Harper's Index

Year the first commercial Christmas card was printed and sold in England: 1843
Number of poinsettia plants sold in the US each December: 70,000,000
Tons of gift wrap discarded in the US after the holidays each year: 4,000,000
Year "Jingle Bells" became the first song played in space (by Gemini 6 astronauts): 1965
Number of languages into which "Silent Night" has been translated: 300
Percentage of American households that decorate a Christmas tree: 75
Year Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was invented by a Montgomery Ward copywriter: 1939
Number of Christmas trees grown in the US per year: 25,000,000
Approximate age in years of the tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace: 1,700
Percentage of Americans who start holiday shopping before Halloween: 26
Average number of calories in a typical holiday cookie: 450
Year the Salvation Army began placing donation kettles outside stores: 1891

December 2

Amount per acre the US paid for the Louisiana Purchase: 3 cents
Number of steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower: 1,665
Percentage of the world's cork produced in Portugal: 50
Age in years of the oldest known non-clonal living tree (Methuselah bristlecone pine): 4,855
Year the microwave oven was patented after accidental discovery by a radar engineer: 1945
Number of hot dogs consumed at US sporting events per year: 700,000,000
Hours per day the average sloth sleeps: 20
Number of confirmed moons orbiting Saturn: 146
Percentage of fresh water on Earth locked in Antarctic ice: 70
Year the world's first ATM was installed, in London: 1967
Number of taste buds on the human tongue: 10,000
Tons of coffee consumed globally per year: 10,000,000

December 3

Tons of plastic produced globally since 1950: 8,300,000,000
Year the first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson: 1971
Number of text messages sent worldwide per day: 23,000,000,000
Percentage of the human body that is water: 60
Number of chickens alive on Earth at any given moment: 33,000,000,000
Fahrenheit temperature at which paper ignites: 451
Percentage of the ocean floor that remains unmapped at high resolution: 80
Number of muscles used to take a single step: 200
Year the first Barbie doll was introduced at the New York Toy Fair: 1959
Number of known species of beetles: 400,000
Liters of blood pumped by the human heart per day: 7,571
Percentage of Americans who hold a valid passport: 47

December 4

Year Navy officer Grace Hopper coined the term "computer bug" after finding a moth in a relay: 1947
Number of piano keys on a standard piano: 88
Percentage of the Earth's land surface covered by tropical rainforest: 6
Speed in mph of the fastest recorded tennis serve (Sam Groth): 163
Gallons of maple syrup produced in Canada per year: 14,000,000
Number of volumes in the Library of Congress: 17,000,000
Year aspirin was first synthesized: 1897
Number of known spider species: 45,000
Average lifespan in days of a worker honeybee in summer: 40
Tons of gold mined throughout all of human history: 190,000
Year the zipper was patented: 1917
Percentage of the human genome shared with a banana: 60

December 5

Year Prohibition ended in the United States: 1933
Number of grapes needed to make one bottle of wine: 600
Year the can opener was invented, 48 years after the tin can: 1858
Number of bubbles in a glass of champagne: 20,000,000
Percentage of Americans who say they prefer beer over wine: 37
Age of the oldest known alcoholic beverage (Chinese rice wine residue): 9,000 years
Percentage of the world's whisky exported by Scotland: 70
Calories in a pint of Guinness: 210
Number of distilleries currently operating in Scotland: 142
Year the martini was allegedly invented in San Francisco: 1887
Number of barrels of bourbon aging in Kentucky at any given time: 9,900,000
Gallons of wine produced in France per year: 2,000,000,000

December 6

Year of birth of St. Nicholas, patron saint of children and sailors: 270 CE
Number of countries that celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6: 30
Year Finland gained independence from Russia: 1917
Number of saunas in Finland for a population of 5.5 million people: 3,300,000
Square miles of Finland covered by forests: 130,000
Number of reindeer in Finland: 200,000
Percentage of Finns who own a cottage by a lake: 15
Year the first Nokia mobile phone was produced: 1982
Number of lakes in Finland: 187,888
Average temperature in Celsius in Helsinki on December 6: -2
Year the first Superman comic was published: 1938
Percentage of Finland's land area that is water: 10

December 7

Year of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: 1941
Number of Americans killed at Pearl Harbor: 2,403
Number of aircraft Japan used in the Pearl Harbor attack: 353
Number of US battleships sunk or damaged: 8
Minutes the attack on Pearl Harbor lasted: 110
Year the USS Arizona Memorial was opened to the public: 1962
Gallons of oil still leaking from the USS Arizona per day: 2
Number of words in FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech: 506
Percentage of Americans who supported entering WWII before Pearl Harbor: 20
Tons displaced by the USS Arizona: 32,600
Year the Japanese government formally apologized for Pearl Harbor: never (disputed)
Number of men still entombed in the USS Arizona: 900

December 8

Year John Lennon was shot outside his New York apartment building: 1980
Albums sold by The Beatles worldwide: 600,000,000
Number of #1 hits The Beatles had in the US: 20
Year the first Grammy Awards were held: 1959
Number of Stradivarius violins known to exist: 650
Average decibels of a rock concert: 110
Year Thomas Edison invented the phonograph: 1877
Number of people who attend live music events in the US per year: 32,000,000
Year Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered despite his total deafness: 1824
Number of musicians in a full symphony orchestra: 100
Percentage of popular songs on the radio that contain the word "love": 67
Year the electric guitar was first patented: 1937

December 9

Year the first human heart transplant was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard: 1967
Number of heart transplants performed in the US per year: 3,800
Beats per minute of the average resting human heart: 70
Times the human heart beats in an average lifetime: 2,500,000,000
Percentage of heart attacks that occur on Monday mornings: 20
Number of miles of blood vessels in the human body: 60,000
Tons of blood pumped by the heart over a lifetime: 1,500,000
Percentage of Americans who will develop cardiovascular disease in their lifetime: 50
Year the implantable pacemaker was invented: 1958
Number of heart transplants performed worldwide since 1967: 100,000
Average age of a first-time heart transplant recipient: 54
Year aspirin was discovered to help prevent heart attacks: 1971

December 10

Year the Nobel Prize was first awarded, in Stockholm: 1901
Total Nobel Prizes awarded through 2023: 621
Amount in dollars of each Nobel Prize (2023): 1,100,000
Year Alfred Nobel invented dynamite: 1867
Number of female Nobel Prize winners through 2023: 65
Year Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize: 1903
Number of individuals who have won the Nobel Prize twice: 4
Average age of a Nobel Prize laureate at the time of award: 60
Year Literature Nobel went to Bob Dylan: 2016
Number of Americans who have won the Economics Nobel since its 1969 creation: 43
Countries represented among Nobel laureates: 70
Percentage of Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to organizations rather than individuals: 25

December 11

Year UNICEF was established: 1946
Number of children UNICEF reaches with vaccines annually: 45,000,000
Percentage of the world's children who live in poverty: 20
Number of languages spoken by children worldwide: 7,000
Number of children not in primary school worldwide: 57,000,000
Year the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted: 1989
Number of countries that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child: 196
Percentage of child marriages that occur in sub-Saharan Africa: 40
Number of children displaced by conflict globally: 36,000,000
Average number of hours children spend on screens per day: 7
Year child labor was first regulated by federal law in the US: 1938
Percentage of children under 5 in developing countries who are stunted by malnutrition: 22

December 12

Year Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first transatlantic radio signal: 1901
Number of radio stations operating in the US: 15,000
Percentage of Americans who listen to the radio each week: 83
Year the first radio broadcast of a sports event aired: 1921
Number of podcasts available worldwide: 5,000,000
Year the first commercial radio station (KDKA in Pittsburgh) went on air: 1920
Number of satellites currently orbiting Earth: 8,000
Year the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched: 1957
Speed in miles per second at which radio waves travel: 186,000
Tons of electronic waste generated globally per year: 50,000,000
Percentage of e-waste that is formally recycled: 17
Number of transistors on a modern smartphone chip: 15,000,000,000

December 13

Year the Boston Tea Party took place: 1773
Pounds of tea dumped into Boston Harbor: 342
Number of colonists who participated in the Boston Tea Party: 116
Year tea was introduced to Britain: 1660
Cups of tea consumed by British people per day: 100,000,000
Percentage of the world's tea produced in China: 45
Number of pounds of tea the average British person consumes per year: 4
Year Earl Grey tea was supposedly first blended for a British prime minister: 1830
Number of cups of tea drunk globally per day: 3,000,000,000
Percentage of tea consumed in the UK that is drunk with milk: 98
Year tea was first grown in India under British colonial rule: 1823
Number of distinct varieties of Chinese tea: 1,000

December 14

Year Roald Amundsen's team became first to reach the South Pole: 1911
Days ahead of Robert Scott's team that Amundsen arrived: 34
Temperature in Celsius Amundsen's team experienced at the Pole: -27
Number of sled dogs Amundsen used on his expedition: 52
Miles Amundsen's team traveled round-trip: 1,860
Year Antarctica was first sighted by humans: 1820
Area in square miles of Antarctica: 5,400,000
Percentage of the world's ice held in Antarctica: 90
Thickness in feet of the Antarctic ice sheet at its deepest point: 15,748
Year the Antarctic Treaty was signed: 1959
Number of countries with research stations in Antarctica: 30
Temperature in Celsius of the coldest ever recorded on Earth, in Antarctica: -89.2

December 15

Year the US Bill of Rights was ratified: 1791
Number of amendments in the original Bill of Rights: 10
Number of words in the First Amendment: 45
Percentage of Americans who cannot name any freedom protected by the First Amendment: 33
Year Prohibition was added to the Constitution as the 18th Amendment: 1919
Total number of Constitutional Amendments ratified through 2023: 27
Year the most recent Constitutional Amendment (27th, on congressional pay) was ratified: 1992
Number of US Supreme Court Justices: 9
Year the Supreme Court first declared a federal law unconstitutional: 1803
Percentage of Americans who cannot name all three branches of government: 35
Number of times the Constitution has been amended since ratification: 27
Average age of a US Supreme Court Justice at confirmation: 53

December 16

Year Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized (born December 16 or 17): 1770
Number of symphonies Beethoven composed: 9
Age at which Beethoven began to lose his hearing: 26
Number of years Beethoven was completely deaf before his death: 10
Estimated number of people who attended Beethoven's funeral procession: 20,000
Year Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered while he was entirely deaf: 1824
Notes in a chromatic musical octave: 12
Number of Beethoven's symphonies written in minor keys: 4
Year Beethoven died: 1827
Age at which Mozart composed his first symphony: 8
Number of works Beethoven completed despite progressive deafness: 250
Percentage of classical music radio play that features Beethoven: 12

December 17

Year the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered airplane flight at Kitty Hawk: 1903
Seconds the first flight lasted: 12
Feet the first flight traveled: 120
Miles per hour of the Wright Flyer's top speed: 6.8
Number of flights made on December 17, 1903: 4
Year the jet engine was invented by Frank Whittle: 1937
Number of commercial aircraft flights per day worldwide: 100,000
Feet above sea level of a typical commercial airline cruising altitude: 35,000
Miles per hour of a commercial airliner's cruising speed: 575
Year Concorde supersonic commercial service began: 1976
Hours saved flying New York to London on Concorde vs. conventional aircraft: 4
Number of passengers the Concorde could carry: 100

December 18

Year Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List" was released: 1993
Number of Jews Oskar Schindler saved: 1,200
Year the first motion picture was shown by the Lumière brothers: 1895
Number of films produced globally per year: 7,000
Percentage of all films produced worldwide that come from Bollywood: 25
Number of Oscars won by "Ben-Hur" when it set the record: 11
Year the Academy Awards were first held: 1929
Average cost in dollars to produce a Hollywood blockbuster: 100,000,000
Number of movie theater screens in China (world's largest market): 80,000
Percentage of Hollywood films that fail to recoup their theatrical costs: 75
Year the first color feature film (Becky Sharp) was released: 1935
Number of frames per second in standard cinema projection: 24

December 19

Year the first crossword puzzle was published in the New York World: 1913
Number of crossword puzzles published in US newspapers each year: 200,000
Average time in minutes to complete a Sunday New York Times crossword: 30
Year Scrabble was invented by unemployed architect Alfred Butts: 1938
Number of Scrabble sets sold worldwide since 1948: 150,000,000
Countries in which Scrabble is officially sold: 121
Languages in which Scrabble is available: 29
Highest score ever achieved in a competitive Scrabble game: 850
Words in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary: 100,000
Year Monopoly was patented by Charles Darrow: 1935
Number of Monopoly games sold since 1935: 275,000,000
Number of countries that have produced a localized edition of Monopoly: 103

December 20

Hours of daylight in Anchorage, Alaska, on the Winter Solstice: 5.5
Hours of daylight in Reykjavik, Iceland, on the Winter Solstice: 4
Year Stonehenge began construction, partially aligned with the winter solstice: 3000 BCE
Degrees Celsius of the average temperature at the North Pole in December: -34
Percentage of the world's population that celebrates Christmas: 32
Amount spent on Christmas gifts in the US per year: 900,000,000,000
Number of Christmas cards sent in the US each year: 1,600,000,000
Year Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol": 1843
Number of copies of "A Christmas Carol" sold since publication: 2,000,000,000
Year the tradition of Christmas gift-giving became widespread in the US: 1820
Speed in mph at which Santa would theoretically need to travel to visit all children: 2,340,000
Number of "White Christmas" singles sold worldwide since 1942: 50,000,000

December 21

Hours of daylight at the Arctic Circle on the Winter Solstice: 0
Degrees below the celestial equator the sun reaches on the Winter Solstice: 23.5
Age in years of Stonehenge's solar alignment: 5,000
Number of standing stones originally in Stonehenge's outer sarsen circle: 30
Length in meters of the Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland, aligned with solstice sunrise: 19
Year the Mayan Long Count calendar reached its 13th b'ak'tun (widely misread as apocalypse): 2012
Number of cultures worldwide with documented winter solstice celebrations: 100
Percentage of the year's Earth orbit completed on December 21: 96.7
Year Yule traditions began influencing early Christian Christmas celebrations: 400 CE
Days of increasing daylight gained each week following the solstice: 1.5 minutes per day
Year December 21 fell on a Sunday, causing the solstice to coincide with the shortest church service of the year (a quirk noted by almanac writers): 2014
Number of ancient sites worldwide astronomically aligned to the winter solstice: 500

December 22

Year Isaac Newton was born: 1642
Laws of motion Newton formulated: 3
Age at which Newton developed the fundamentals of calculus: 22
Year Newton published "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica": 1687
Number of prisms Newton used to demonstrate white light splitting into a spectrum: 1
Year Einstein's Theory of General Relativity was published: 1915
Speed of light in miles per second: 186,282
Number of atoms in a single grain of sand: 43,000,000
Celsius temperature of absolute zero: -273.15
Year the Higgs boson was experimentally confirmed at CERN: 2012
Number of known elementary particles in the Standard Model of physics: 61
Age of the universe in billions of years: 13.8

December 23

Year the transistor was invented at Bell Labs: 1947
Number of transistors on a modern microchip: 50,000,000,000
Year the first commercially available personal computer (Apple II) went on sale: 1977
Number of websites on the internet: 1,900,000,000
Percentage of global internet traffic that is video streaming: 60
Exabytes of data generated globally per day: 2.5
Year the World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee: 1989
Number of Google searches per day: 8,500,000,000
Percentage of Americans who own a smartphone: 85
Year the first iPhone was released: 2007
Number of apps available in the Apple App Store: 1,800,000
Watts of electricity consumed globally by data centers per year: 200,000,000,000

December 24

Year "Silent Night" was first performed in Oberndorf, Austria: 1818
Number of letters children send to Santa's address in Rovaniemi, Finland each year: 500,000
Calories in a typical Christmas Eve feast: 2,500
Year the tradition of leaving cookies for Santa was popularized in the US: 1930
Number of reindeer named in "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823): 8
Percentage of children who still believe in Santa Claus at age 8: 75
Year the NORAD Santa Tracker tradition accidentally began (misdialed phone number): 1955
Number of calls NORAD receives on Christmas Eve from children tracking Santa: 140,000
Year the Christmas stocking tradition is believed to have originated: 300 CE
Pounds of carrots left for reindeer by children in the UK each Christmas Eve: 1,000,000
Year Coca-Cola's iconic red-suited Santa image was popularized in advertising: 1931
Number of Christmas Eve church services held worldwide: 250,000,000

December 25

Percentage of Americans who celebrate Christmas: 90
Year Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the US: 1870
Pounds of turkey consumed on Christmas Day in the UK: 10,000,000
Amount spent on Christmas in the US each year: 900,000,000,000
Year the tradition of Christmas crackers began in the UK: 1847
Number of gifts listed in total across all 12 Days of Christmas: 364
Height in feet of the tallest Christmas tree on record, displayed in Seattle: 221
Number of Christmas movies released by Netflix per year: 40
Percentage of annual toy sales in the US that occur in the weeks before Christmas: 60
Year the phrase "Merry Christmas" first appeared in print: 1565
Number of ornaments on the White House Christmas tree: 70,000
Year December 25 was first officially designated as Christ's birthday: 336 CE

December 26

Number of countries that celebrate Boxing Day: 15
Year Boxing Day was enshrined as a bank holiday in the UK: 1871
Number of bargain hunters who shop on Boxing Day in the UK: 15,000,000
Amount spent by British consumers on Boxing Day sales: £3,700,000,000
Percentage of Christmas gifts returned in the US: 15
Dollar value of returned Christmas gifts in the US annually: 800,000,000
Number of countries that observe a public holiday on December 26: 50
Year the NBA introduced Christmas Day games as a tradition: 1947
Number of NBA games played on December 25 each year: 5
Average inches of snow on the ground in Moscow on December 26: 15
Year the Indian Ocean tsunami struck on December 26 (one of history's deadliest): 2004
Number of people killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: 227,898

December 27

Year Louis Pasteur was born: 1822
Year Pasteur developed the first successful rabies vaccine: 1885
Age of the first person cured of rabies using Pasteur's vaccine: 9
Year penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming: 1928
Number of lives antibiotics have saved since their introduction: 200,000,000
Percentage of antibiotic prescriptions that are medically unnecessary: 30
Number of antibiotic-resistant infections in the US per year: 2,800,000
Year the first human vaccine, for smallpox, was developed by Edward Jenner: 1796
Percentage of the human population once regularly affected by smallpox: 30
Year smallpox was officially declared eradicated by the WHO: 1980
Number of diseases eradicated or nearly eradicated through vaccination: 6
Percentage reduction in childhood mortality attributable to vaccines since 1990: 50

December 28

Number of children born worldwide per day: 385,000
Year the world population reached 8 billion: 2022
Country with the highest birth rate in the world: Niger
Average number of children per woman in Niger: 6.9
Percentage of births worldwide that occur in developing countries: 90
Year the global fertility rate first dropped below replacement level in developed nations: 1975
Number of twins born per year in the US: 128,000
Percentage of identical twins who share the same fingerprints: 0
Age to which the oldest verified person ever lived (Jeanne Calment): 122
Number of people alive today who are over 100 years old: 573,000
Grams the average human brain weighs: 1,400
Percentage chance of sharing a birthday with a randomly chosen stranger: 0.27

December 29

Year Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his cathedral: 1170
Number of pilgrims who visited Becket's shrine annually at its medieval height: 100,000
Year Geoffrey Chaucer began writing "The Canterbury Tales": 1387
Number of tales completed in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: 24
Number of lashes King Henry II received as penance at Becket's tomb: 80
Year Henry VIII ordered the destruction of Becket's shrine: 1538
Number of churches dedicated to Thomas Becket still standing in England: 800
Year T.S. Eliot's play "Murder in the Cathedral" premiered: 1935
Age of Thomas Becket at the time of his murder: 52
Year Becket was canonized as a saint: 1173
Number of miracles attributed to Becket's tomb within a decade of his death: 700
Year the Becket murder is dramatized in Jean Anouilh's play "Becket": 1959

December 30

Year the Soviet Union was officially formed: 1922
Number of Soviet Union constituent republics at its peak: 15
Year the Soviet Union dissolved: 1991
Number of years the Soviet Union existed: 69
Population of the Soviet Union at its peak: 293,000,000
Square miles of land covered by the USSR: 8,600,000
Year the Berlin Wall fell: 1989
Length of the Berlin Wall in miles: 96
Number of people killed attempting to cross the Berlin Wall: 140
Nuclear warheads possessed by the Soviet Union at its peak: 45,000
Percentage of the global economy represented by Soviet GDP at its height: 10
Number of languages officially recognized within the Soviet Union: 100

December 31

Year New Year's Eve celebrations first recorded in human history, in Mesopotamia: 2000 BCE
Gallons of champagne consumed in the US on New Year's Eve: 360,000,000
Number of attendees at the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration: 1,000,000
Weight in pounds of the Times Square ball: 11,875
Number of LEDs illuminating the Times Square ball: 32,256
Year the Times Square ball drop tradition began: 1907
Percentage of Americans who make New Year's resolutions: 40
Percentage of New Year's resolutions kept for the full year: 9
Number of countries that celebrate their New Year on a date other than January 1: 50
Average number of fireworks shells used in Sydney's New Year's Eve display: 100,000
Tons of confetti dropped in Times Square each New Year's Eve: 50
Number of time zones that experience New Year's midnight before the next: 24