EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers you a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
123 – The number of times that the Army Bomb Disposal Unit has been dispatched so far this year. The 123rd trip was to Co Limerick earlier today.
€15 – The amount that some doctors were charging medical card holders for blood tests which should be free to them. The HSE has written to every GP in the General Medical Scheme reminding them that some procedures should not result in a charge for patients.
22/11/13 – The date before which Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan could become the United States’ second-youngest president in history. That’s the date when John F Kennedy’s current status as the second-youngest-president would be cemented. Ryan was today named as Mitt Romney’s running mate for the US election this November.
0 – The amount by which Manchester United’s share price changed yesterday, in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares opened at $14 and rose as high as $14.20 before closing at exactly the same value.
$94 million – The amount that thriller writer James Patterson is thought to have earned last year, making him the top-earning author. Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games books, earned about $20 million.
2.88 million – The number of Irish adults who regularly read newspapers, according to figures from the Joint National Readership Survey.
1,570,600 – The number of pigs in Ireland. File that one under ‘unexpected CSO releases’.
€86.91 – The price of the average hotel room in Dublin last year, according to Deloitte figures. That’s up by 7.8 per cent on 2010.
1,091,920 – The official number, according to the TAM ratings, of people who watched the full 17 minutes of Katie Taylor’s Olympic final and result on RTÉ. That doesn’t include viewers on the BBC, online viewers, or those who watched in communal areas like offices or pubs.
5 – The most medals that Ireland has ever won at an Olympic Games. That’s a record set twice, in 1956 (gold for 1500m runner Ronnie Delaney, silver for boxer Fred Tiedt, and bronze for three other boxers), and will be equalled at least this evening.
456 – The number of seconds taken off the Irish national record in the Men’s 50km Walk by Rob Heffernan this morning. The previous record stood at 3:45:30; today Rob walked the course in 3:37:54 to come fourth.
9.26 seconds – Usain Bolt would need to run the 100m in 9.26 seconds in order to take a similar proportion – 3.36 per cent – off his country’s national record (which is, of course, the world record). This illustrates how significantly Heffernan destroyed the Irish record today. As it is, Bolt’s winning time in the 100m – 9.63 – was the second-fastest in history.
42.291 seconds – The time needed by Ukraine’s Yuri Cheban to win the men’s 200m canoe sprint this morning.
42.012 seconds – The time recorded by Ireland’s naturalised entrant, the Polish-born Andrzej Jezierski, in his semi-final when he came fourth. The conditions for this morning’s medal race were less hospitable, meaning slower times. Jezierski won his own B final to take an official ranking of 9th.
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