Public library usage has collapsed
My county recently opened new libraries – and one of them is in my city, where the square footage of the original library has been doubled.
Innovation: The decline in the incidence of home structure fires
Since the 1970s, the incidence of structure fires has declined by 55%.
Economy: Percent of household income spent on food
The percent of income spent on food has plummeted over the past century.
Economy: “Home prices have quadrupled relative to income”
This finance influencer chart is bogus.
Education, Demographics: College enrollment over time
Total college enrollment peaked in 2010 and has been in decline since then.
Economy: What % of households have 0, 1, 2 or 2+ income earners
55-70% of US households have zero or one wage earner, contrary to the memes about "two wage earners" can't afford to live in the U.S. today.
Demographics: Most Americans live within a short distance of where they were born
Most Americans live close to their birthplace: about 60% live within 10 miles, and nearly 80% live within 100 miles of where they grew up.
Personal finance: Klarna and personal finance
Is use of Buy Now, Pay Later a sign of stretched budgets? No. Almost all purchases are discretionary in nature, not necessities.
Demographics, housing: What happened to mobile home parks?
Trailer parks/courts once provided low-cost housing options in the U.S. Since 1970, 1 in 3 trailer parks have closed.
Who invented popular programming languages?
Surprisingly, most of the major programming languages were invented by Baby Boomers, and PHP and Rust by Gen X.