11: How many days the average American takes off per year, even though the average number of available days is 12, per Expedia’s 2024 Vacation Deprivation Report. One missed day doesn’t seem like a lot, but American workers already receive far fewer vacation days than employees in many other countries. Those averages include: 29 days in France, 27 in Germany, 25 in the UK, 19 in Singapore, 18 in Canada, and 14 in Mexico. So, go ahead — take a “you” day.
$68m: Estimated value of all the coins Americans throw away annually, per Reworld, a sustainable waste processing company in Pennsylvania that’s collected $10m worth since 2017. As inflation and digital payment options have increased, coins have been left sitting in people’s homes or getting tossed out with other refuse. Reworld uses a variety of machines to sort and clean coins before giving them to a third party to count and take to local banks.
169: Hippos left behind in Colombia’s Magdalena Basin, thanks to cartel leader Pablo Escobar, who decided he wanted his own zoo, including elephants, giraffes, and kangaroos. Following his death in 1993, most of his animals were rehoused in zoos, but the hippos were too dangerous to transport. Though 169 was the last official count in 2023, there may be as many as 200 now. That number is predicted to swell to 1.4k by 2040 if nothing is done, posing an invasive threat to the area’s ecosystem and inhabitants.
73 cents: Price of the USPS’s new stamp honoring late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. Made to look like a “Jeopardy!” clue, the stamp reads, “This naturalized US citizen hosted the quiz show ‘Jeopardy!’ for 37 seasons,” before providing the answer in upside-down text. Trebek was born in Canada and became an American citizen in 1998.
