Brain Bites – Issue 5

Brain Bites are “now and then” updates regarding trends, statistics, and interesting info-bites in personal economics. These tasty tidbits help maintain your edge over an unpredictable future. Think of them as cerebral snacks for the hungry mind!

Demographic tidal wave

The average man who turns 65 this year is expected to live to 86.6, up from 82.6 in 2000. Women are expected to live to 88.8, up from 85.2. Half will live longer than this.
Ref: Society of Actuaries

The end of old

42% of people age 65 to 69 and 33% age 75 to 79 say they are in excellent or very good health. Some 56% of Americans 85 and older say they have no limitations on their ability to work or to live their lives.
Ref: Journals of Gerontology

Fair weather consumers

Generation NeXt is much more skeptical and fickle than its parents. 46% of Millennials say they use their smartphones to check prices and online comments when they shop.
Ref: Boston Consulting Group

Taxing situations

The top 40% of wage earners, those who make more than 51,100 a year, paid virtually all of the income tax collected. The bottom 40% paid -9.1% of all income taxes; they received refunds in the form of credits and public assistance for taxes they didn’t pay.
Ref: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

On the home front

Working from home doubled from 2% in 1980 to 4% in 2012, and continues to rise.
Ref: U.S. Census Bureau

Stork stats

The number of babies born in the U.S. reached an all-time low in 2013 (62.5 births per 1,000 women between ages 15 and 44). This was 10 percent lower than its peak in 2007 (69.3), and a record low since the government started tracking birth rates in 1909 (126.8). Childbearing continues to decline among women under age 30. For women ages 35 and over, however, the birth rate was at the highest levels seen in approximately 50 years.
Ref: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The color of pollution

Approximately 142 million Americans live in counties with dangerously polluted air. The problem is especially serious for those who are poor. Strikingly, non-whites are more likely to breathe foul air than whites, regardless of income.
Ref: The Economist

The gilded treadmill

The rich are now working longer than the poor. Research finds that Americans with a bachelor’s degree or above work 2 hours more each day than those without a high-school diploma.
Ref: American Time Use Survey

First do no harm?

An estimated 210,000 to 440,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors, making those mistakes the third leading cause of death behind cancer and heart disease. Misdiagnoses are among the most common medical errors.
Ref: U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Your magnetic ink

There will be 1 trillion connected objects and devices on the planet generating data by 2015, with 2.5 billion gigabytes of data generated every day. 80% of the world’s data is unstructured.
Ref: IBM

Facebook is not your friend

After Facebook triggered a backlash when it opted users into new sharing rules without their explicit consent, 86% of Internet users say they have now taken steps to remove or mask their digital footprints.
Ref: Pew Center for Internet and American Life

Is there a doctor in the house?

The U.S., which has about 210,000 primary care doctors, is predicted to need 51,000 more by 2025. The projection is driven by a larger—but aging—population and health care reform, which are expanding the ranks of insured Americans.
Ref: Annals of Family Medicine

Phoenix loses altitude

Enrollment at The University of Phoenix five years ago was about 460,000 students. In spring 2015, it was 213,000.
Ref: CNNMoney

Lawyering up

Approximately two-thirds of the 202 U.S. schools accredited by the ABA reported declines in first year enrollments in fall, 2013. While the odds of landing a job with large law firms improved in 2013, the total number that did so remains far lower than for the class of 2009; 3,980 positions compared to 5,156.
Ref: National Assn. for Law Placement

Hot time, summer in the city

The proportion of urban dwellers will swell from 54% to 67% of the world’s population, largely in developing countries.
Ref: United Nations

Changing times

In a survey of 2,059 adults, 35% said they would prefer a male to a female boss, 23% said they’d prefer a female boss, and 41% said they had no preference. In a 1953 survey, 66% said male boss, 5% said female boss, and 25% said no preference.
Ref: Gallup report

Uncle Sugar

In the 2011-2012 school year, 42% of undergraduate students received federal grants, 40% received federal loans, and 15% received state grants. 20% of undergrads received a grant from the college or university they attend.
Ref: National Center for Education Statistics

The information in Brain Bites is sourced from a variety of usually reliable publications. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or currency of this material and a degree of common sense should be applied before quoting it. If something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.

Image credit: Jelly Brain Dissection” by Guerilla Science (2010), licensed/modified (red ring removed) by permission of copyright holder.