22 Interesting Stats From July ’21 Leaders Should Know About

Recently I started regularly posting Interesting Stats For The Day on my Twitter and Facebook accounts.  The response has been quite positive.

The large majority of the information below is from a daily email I receive called Morning Brew.  I like the information they provide because it is simply down-the-middle, bullet-pointed content with no slant or bias.  Just the facts!!!  You can check out this site and/or subscribe by clicking HERE.

The following are 22 Interesting Stats From July ’21 Leaders Should Know About:

Zaila Avant-garde

• Zaila Avant-garde not only became the first Black American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night, she also holds three Guinness world records for basketball: most basketballs dribbled simultaneously (six for 30 seconds), most basketball bounces (307 in 30 seconds), and most bounce juggles in 1 minute (255 with four basketballs).

“The roar of his assault will sunder the dome of Heaven to reach the ears of God himself”

• After being introduced with “The roar of his assault will sunder the dome of Heaven to reach the ears of God himself”, Joey Chestnut ate a record-breaking 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the Nathan’s Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest.

The Economy Is Roaring!!!

• The number of passengers the TSA screened 2.15 million people on Thursday, July 1st.  This was 3% more than the 2.01 million screened on July 1, 2019.
• The US economy added 850,000 jobs in June, it’s biggest monthly gain in almost a year.  Leisure and hospitality accounted for 343,000 (40%) of those positions.
• Apple’s products nearly doubled last quarter. Microsoft had its most profitable quarter ever. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, ad revenue increased 69%. YouTube had a $7 billion quarter in revenue.
• The drugmaker Pfizer projected that Covid-19 vaccine sales would hit $33.5 billion this year, a 29% bump from previous estimates. That would make the vaccine the world’s best-selling drug of all time.
• Consumer spending increased 11.8% annually, the second-biggest growth spurt since 1952.
• Poverty in the US will be cut by 45% this year thanks to the massive government intervention during the pandemic, meaning 20 million fewer people are in poverty now than in 2018. The decline in poverty over the last three years is almost 3x the previous record drop.
• Yellowstone recorded almost 1 million visits in June, up 64% from June 2020 and 20% from June 2019. 2021 is already the park’s busiest year on record.

More Changing Economic News 

• 90% of US fireworks are made in China.  As a result of issues caused by COVID, the supply chain in down approximately 30% causing an increase as much as 25% in costs.
• In what’s known as the “Great Resignation,” 4 million (2.7% of US workers) quit their jobs in April. A record going back to 2000.  In all, 41% of workers globally are considering leaving their current job this year, according to a survey from Microsoft.  Wow!!!  The church is not immune to this either.
• McKinsey & Company’s latest research shows only 11 percent of companies believe their current business models will be economically viable through 2023, while another 64 percent say their companies need to build new digital businesses to help them get there.  For more impact on this reality, click 56 Foundational Skills Needed To Thrive In The Future Economy.
• 74% of Fortune 500 CEOs around the country are looking to cut office space.  In downtown Washington D.C., daytime population took a nosedive, dropping 82% from February 2020 to February 2021.

Global Health

• Five UN agencies said the number of people without access to healthy diets grew by 320 million last year to nearly 2.37 billion people– more than the increases in the previous five years combined.  The number of people who went hungry grew by about 161 million last year to 811 million.

Drugs and Alcohol

• Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30% nationwide in 2020 to a record of 93,331, according to preliminary federal data. The surge is pronounced on the West Coast; in San Francisco for instance, about 64% more people died of drug overdoses last year than from Covid-19.
• Uber has saved many lives that would’ve been lost to drunk driving, according to a new study based on internal Uber data. Ride-sharing has decreased alcohol-related US traffic fatalities by 6.1% and reduced overall US traffic deaths by 4%.

The Olympics

• With the Olympics adding 18 new events, women’s participation will be at 49%, a record high. In Paris in 1900, when women made their Olympic debut, 22 women participated out of 997 athletes total.
• The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics drew just 16.7 million viewers in the US, down 37% from Rio 2016 and the smallest audience for the event in 33 years.

Arts and Entertainment

• On Thursday, July 22nd Kanye West held a listening session for his upcoming album, Donda, in front of a packed house at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium.  As the music played, he danced solo in front of his fans without saying a word, then left in under an hour.  Donda, which was supposed to be released the next day, hasn’t dropped yet… and may not be available for a few weeks.
• Marvel’s Black Widow scored $80 million at the box office this weekend, the best opening for a movie since the pandemic began. But even more interestingly, the film also generated more than $60 million in revenue through sales on Disney+ Premier Access.  Still they were sued by Scarlett Johansson.  For more on this film, click 13 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Black Widow The Movie.
• Jeopardy! is one of TV’s most valuable properties, with 38% of viewers watching at least three times a week, writes the WSJ.  However, viewership is down 10% in the post-Trebek world.
• Arthur, the longest-running kids animated series, is coming to an end in 2022 after 25 years.

More interesting stats coming in August!

The Top 60 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 1 is my latest ebook.  For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world.  People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional.  Hope seems to be in short supply.  Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.

Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership.  If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource.  The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.