The average person (me, for example) has no (okay, little) grasp of just how large or small a number really is. Case in point, I read the other day that one in every 10,000 persons in the US lives to be 95 years old. Is that a large number or a small number? It sounds significant to outlive 9,999 other people but it depends on how you look at it and what you compare it to. I hope to be one of those persons myself one day (actually less than 12 years hence, in my case) as was my maternal grandfather, Nathan Sulberman of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, who died on December 20, 1970, having lived 95 years, 8 months, 29 days after having been born on March 21, 1875. But I digress.
Think about it. With 335,000,000 people in the US currently, one in 10,000 works out to 33,500 people who are 95 years old. And in a world of nearly 8.4 billion people (a number that boggles the mind), the rate works out to 840,000 people worldwide who have been alive for 95 years. Gathered into one locality, that group would form a city the size of Liverpool, or one a tad smaller than Indianapolis, or one a tad larger than San Francisco. Any way you slice it (probably not the best metaphor choice), that is a lot of very old people. The rate, however (one in 10,000), is actually a very tiny number, 0.0001 per cent, proving once again (a) figures never lie but liars often figure, (b) whatever it is, it's all in how you look at it, or (c) something else you are invited to expound on in the comments section.
For me it simply states that a person loved long enough to become 95 years old. 9,999 did not.
ReplyDeleteShort and sweet. Simple. No frills. I bet you are a 'meat and potatoes' sort of person. Thanks, Emma!
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