Notable Numbers

Statistics from the past week that deserve a doubletake

1 number of hours after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decreed that the Senate would not consider a nominee to replace Scalia until the next president was elected

341 number of days between the passing of Scalia and the end of President Obama’s term in office

63 percentage of American who believe that the Senate should hold hearings on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland

32 percentage of American who believe that Congress should not hold hearings on Garland

17 number of times the Senate has confirmed Supreme Court nominees in a presidential election year (U.S. Senate, Supreme Court nominations, 1789-present)

0 number of the last 12 successful Supreme Court nominees who waited longer than 100 days for a confirmation vote

97 number of votes in the Senate to confirm President Reagan’s nomination of Justice Anthony Kennedy in the election year of 1988

6 number of years since Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said that Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland would be a “consensus nominee” for the Supreme Court who would win confirmation with bipartisan support

77.2 The percentage of prime-working-age American adults (those 25 to 54) who had jobs in 2015

79.9 The percentage of those in that age group who had jobs in 2007, before the recession

4 The percentage decrease in the rate of employment for that age group in North Carolina between 2007 and 2015

386,000 The number of apartments under construction in the United States last year, the highest number since 1987

35 The percentage of all home construction last year that was apartments, defined as housing units in buildings with five or more units, the highest share since 1973

15,583 The number of multi-family construction units approved in North Carolina in 2015

28.8 The percentage of all new housing construction in North Carolina in 2014 that was multi-family

11.4 That percentage in 2005

36,900 The number of people incarcerated in North Carolina prisons

14 The percentage of those inmates, about 5,100, who have a severe mental illness

2,700 The number of psychiatric beds available in the state

428,000 The number of new immigrants to the United States in 2014 who came from India and China, double the 2005 number

240,000 The number who came from Mexico, two-thirds of the 2005 number

1 Where India ranked on the list of countries where immigrants to North Carolina originated in 2014

188 The number of people arrested for religiously inspired terrorism in France in 2014

71 The number arrested in Belgium

34 The number arrested in Spain

6 The number of ACC basketball schools, including North Carolina and Duke, that earned trips to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, the most ever for one conference