Results tagged “statistics”

We're used to seeing mind boggling statistics living here in China, but this one still made our jaws drop. This country now has 703 million mobile phone users - that's double the population of the United States chatting on their cellphones. According to a report released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of mobile users rose by 61.41 million in just the last six months. Meanwhile the overall number of people using phones rose by 48.99 million to 1.03 billion. Handset makers, welcome to your heaven. Source: People's Daily online

We suppose it's always good to know how you stack up to the rest of your countrymen, so that's probably why China's now launching it's second "nationwide adult figure measurement" program. Over 25,000 people are expected to participate in the study by the China National Institute of Standardization and the results will help design everything from handrail heights in buses to the size of face masks. The last time China checked out everyone's measurements was between 1986 and 1988. This new study will be even more detailed, adding figures like "height of the sole." Source: China Daily and Sina

So it seems like people who are douchebags in one way are highly likely to be douchebags in another way as well. AsiaTimes Online reports that an anti-graft official recently acknowledged in public that 95% of corrupt officials had a woman on the side. In fact, keeping mistresses has become so fashionable that its seems like "concubinism is back." These mistresses are often given houses, money to play with and sometimes contracts for profitable projects. One banker in Shenzhen was reported to have spent 18.4 million RMB (of his bank's money) on his fifth mistress in almost three years. Another man in charge of infrastructure projects in Eastern China, had more than 140 women at his beck and call. Gross. The anti-graft official warned that mistresses were an easy way for an official to become corrupt. But we're inclined to believe that if an official's interested in keeping mistresses, he probably wasn't pure and true to begin with.

Uh oh, it looks like us pedestrians aren't the only ones getting stolen from recently, thanks to the current dastardly economic situation. City police have now issued a warning reminding companies that keeping large amounts of cash on their premises may not be a good idea. Shanghai has seen a 35% rise in thefts of local areas since February, compared to the same period last year. The most robbed districts: Qingpu, Pudong, Fengxian, Songjiang and Jiading. Source: Shanghai Daily

CNNIC has released two reports on the status of China's mobile internet, which is used by about 117.6 million out of the current 640 million registered cellphone holders. China Web 2.0 Review summarized some of the key findings:

Harper's Magazine recently announced via Twitter that all 25 years of its awesome stats section, Harper's Index, was now available and searchable online here. We searched "shanghai" and got two results. One was about Chairman Mao jackets at Shanghai Tang, and the other was actually related to the city. Here it is, from June 2005: "Percentage change since 1994 in treatment for male infertility and erectile dysfunction in Shanghai: +100." There are considerably more results for "china."

Of the 22.6% of the country that now has access to the Internet, 162 million blog, while 234 million log on to read up on the news.

Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden speaks to Thomas Crampton about the rise of China and how the world has not quite come around to understanding its magnitude and significance. An excellent communicator and engaging speaker who's great at putting figures into perspective. If you're interested to hear more, watch him debunking third-world myths in this presentation he gave at TED.