IV. What Defines Us

HOW WE LEARN

82%

Percentage of U.S. college alumni who said they cheated during their undergraduate careers

5.05%

Acceptance rate for Stanford University’s class of 2019, the most competitive undergrad admissions in the U.S.

16%

Percentage of American kids who attend a K-12 school that provides every student with a tablet or laptop

45

Number of U.S. states that require public schools to set aside time for the Pledge of Allegiance

44

Number of U.S. colleges (private and public four-year) that have closed since the financial crisis

8

Number of states that allow concealed firearms on public-college campuses

$125,000

Annual cost at Le Rosey in Switzerland, the most expensive secondary school in the world

9.7

Average hours of homework per week in Russia, the country where kids do the most

SOURCES: ETHICS & BEHAVIOR; STANFORD UNIVERSITY; HARRIS POLL/PEARSON; SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE; NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS; NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES; THE TELEGRAPH; OECD

HOW WE WED

1991

Year of the first gay marriage depicted on prime-time TV, shown on the Fox sitcom Roc

29

Number of reportedly monogamous marriages of Glynn Wolfe of California, the most on record

30%

Percentage of Tinder users who use the dating app despite being married, according to one study

16,500

Estimated number of mail-order brides entering the U.S. each year

5%

Percentage of Americans who are married or in a committed relationship who met their partner online

75%

Percentage of girls married before age 18 in Niger, the country with the highest adolescent marriage rate

$31,213

Average amount American couples spend on their wedding, not including a honeymoon

SOURCES: THE KNOT 2014 REAL WEDDINGS STUDY; BOSTON GLOBE; LOS ANGELES TIMES; GLOBALWEBINDEX; TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER; PEW RESEARCH CENTER; INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN

HOW WE POLICE

31

Number of U.S. states that allow the death penalty

6 million

Number of views, within seven hours, of video showing L.A. cops shooting a homeless man in March 2015

77 hours

Average time between deaths of on-duty U.S. law-enforcement officers

1 in 3

Proportion of U.S. police departments that are using body cameras

45%

Percentage of U.S. federal prisoners reporting a mental-health issue

$55,400

Average bail amount in U.S. felony cases

2

Number of people shot to death by police in the U.S. each day on average so far in 2015

$59,560

Average annual salary of U.S. police and sheriff’s patrol officers in 2014

SOURCES: DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER; NEW YORK POST; FBI; FOX NEWS; DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE; BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS; BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

HOW WE HEAL

30

Number of surgeons who worked on an “eight-legged” Indian girl in 2008 to remove extra limbs (from a parasitic conjoined twin)

3,317

Number of da Vinci surgery robots installed around the globe as of March 31

$460

Amount of money a U.K. man spent to have his goldfish’s tumor removed in January

16

Days taken to finish the London Marathon by a paraplegic woman wearing a robotic exoskeleton that allowed her to walk

11 g

Mass of the artificial heart–the world’s smallest–that kept an Italian baby alive while waiting for a transplant in 2012

90%

Percentage of hearing aids that are 3-D-printed

6

Number of hours after surgery that an Indian woman with the largest brain tumor on record–the size of two baseballs–was up and walking

SOURCES: ABC NEWS; INTUITIVE SURGICAL; TOLL BARN VETERINARY CENTRE; THE GUARDIAN; BAMBINO GESÙ HOSPITAL; CREDIT SUISSE; SIR GANGA RAM HOSPITAL

HOW WE BELIEVE

73%

Estimated growth rate of the global Muslim population from 2010 to 2050, making Islam the only major religious group projected to grow faster than the world’s overall population

71%

Percentage of U.S. Roman Catholics who say Pope Francis represents a major change in direction for the Catholic Church

April 15, 1912

Birth date of Kim Il Sung and the start of the North Korean calendar, based on Juche, the state ideology of cult worship of the nation’s leader

700 million

Number of people who are religiously unaffiliated in China, the most of any country

19

Number of U.S. states that have religious-freedom laws similar to the controversial law proposed in Indiana this spring

4th century

Period in which Christian art first began regularly depicting angels with wings

SOURCES: PEW RESEARCH CENTER; RODONG SINMUN; WASHINGTON POST; ANGELS BY CHARLOTTE MONTAGUE