[FRIAM] 25 numbers every journalist should know

[Jim Rutt]

some off the top of the head

*) per capita water (gallons per day) and energy consumption 
(kilowatts per year) in your country and how they rank versus other 
countries and global average
*) water consumption % by sector: industrial, agricultural, domestic
*) proportion of oil, gas, coal that is imported in your country
*) proportion of imports of all food consumed ($ and KCals)
*) energy consumed per unit of GDP (kilowatts per $ of gdp) and comparison
*) per cent of GDP spent on defense and national ranking
*) crime rate matrix: gender by race/ethnicity by age range
*) per capita income matrix: gender by race/ethnicity by age range
*) current level of forestation of your country and what it was 100 years ago.
*) geographic size of your land mass of the earth, your country, 
state, county, town
*) basic unit conversion from mass to volume: water = about 64lb per cubic foot



At 04:17 PM 8/7/2006, you wrote:
>Friends:
>
>My apologies for the cross-posts, but....
>
>For an upcoming presentation, I'm putting together a list of the 25 
>basic statistics every journalist should know, at least withing a 
>range of plus or minus 5 percent.  This list would, ideally, be a 
>template that could be given to journos in any country so that 
>he/she would always be ready to put many stories in context.  Below 
>is a rough beginning.  I wonder if you might have some data points 
>of a similar vein that you find useful?
>
>THE 25 NUMBERS EVERY JOURNALIST SHOULD KNOW
>*) The world's population
>*) Your nation's population and as a percent of the world
>*) Your state/province/district population and as a percent of your nation
>*) Your city's pop. and as a percent of your state/province/district
>*) The percent of change for all of the above in the past 10 years
>*) The current budget of your nation/state/province/district/city government
>*) The sub-sections of the above budgets for health, education, 
>public safety, infrastructure and their relative percentages
>*) The world's live birth rates and same for your 
>nation/state/province/district/city
>*) Average life expectancy for males and females in your 
>nation/state/province/district/city
>*) Average family size for your nation/state/province/district/city
>*) Per capita and per family annual income for your 
>nation/state/province/district/city
>*) Average years of education for males and females in the world and 
>your nation/state/province/district/city
>
>Many thanks.  I'll post the roundup of the suggestions.
>
>-Tom Johnson
>--
>==========================================
>J. T. Johnson
>Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
><http://www.analyticjournalism.com>www.analyticjournalism.com
>505.577.6482(c)                                 505.473.9646(h)
><http://www.jtjohnson.com>http://www.jtjohnson.com 
><mailto:tom at jtjohnson.com>tom at jtjohnson.com
>
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