30 Interesting Stats from August 2021 Leaders Should Know About

Everything Rises AND Falls On Leadership

On Thursday, August 26th, 13 US troops and at least 90 civilians died during twin blasts near Kabul’s airport yesterday. An Islamic State affiliate known as ISIS-K took responsibility for what is the single deadliest incident for American forces in Afghanistan in a decade.
Under Tim Cook, Apple’s market capitalization has grown approximately 600% to $2.5 trillion. It is currently the most valuable public company in the world. When Cook took over in 2011, Apple’s annual revenue was $108.2 billion; in 2020 it made $274.5 billion. Apple was also the most profitable company in the world in fiscal 2020.

NBC’s viewership for the Summer Olympics is down 45% from the 2016 Rio games.
The United States won 113 medals at the Olympics, 25 more than second-place China. Team USA also had the most gold medals, 39 to China’s 38.
Because of the decreased viewership, NBCUniversal, which paid more than $1 billion to air the Olympics, struggled with whacky time zone differences, lower enthusiasm, and its own confusing menu of viewing options.

With the return to in-person education, total back-to-school spending in the US will hit a record $37.1 billion, up from $33.9 billion in 2020, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey. Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $848.90 on school supplies, a $59 increase over last year.
Almost 2,700 houses in Austin, TX, have sold for $100,000 or more over their initial listing price this year, per Redfin. That’s a 57x increase over last year.
The national average for gas on August 11th was $3.185 per gallon, according to AAA. A year ago, it was $2.174. In May, the national average topped $3 for the first time since 2014.
Per the Labor Department, consumer prices jumped 5.4% annually in July confirming that inflation is a defining characteristic of the post-lockdown economy.

Since turning 40, Tom Brady as a 47-17 record, 125-39 TD-to-int ratio. In addition, he has 2 Super Bowl titles, 3 Super Bowl appearances, & 9 playoff wins… SINCE AGE 40!!! For comparison, this is more than Drew Brees entire career!!
The fourth-highest paid athlete globally in 2020 was Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott per Forbes magazine with earnings of $107.5 million. Not bad for someone who played in only 5 games last year due to a horrific ankle injury. What is even more surprising is he has only ONE play-off win in his five seasons with an overall play-off record of 1-3. Let me put this in perspective, Tom Brady who finished 9th on the list with $76 million, had a 4-0 play-off record last year alone!!!
Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is returning to his former team Manchester United. Whenever he switches clubs it’s a major business event. When he moved to Italy’s Juventus in 2018, the club sold 520,000 Ronaldo jerseys (equivalent to $62.4 million in revenue) in the 24 hours after he joined. Plus, Manchester United stock jumped about 6% on the day.

Mattel debuted Barbie dolls modeled after six female health workers fighting on the frontlines during the pandemic. Sales of Barbie dolls rose to a six-year high last year as parents tried to distract their kids from interrupting important Zoom calls.
The average value of a NFL franchise increased 14% last year per Forbes magazine.
Through August 6th, the S&P 500 has notched 44 record closes this year due to companies recovering from the pandemic more quickly than expected.
About 9,000 health clubs in the US, or 22% of the total, have closed since the pandemic started, according to the International Health Racquet & Sportsclub Association. Meanwhile, Peloton broke ground on its first US factory in Ohio on Monday, August 9th.
The average ticket price for the regular season New York Yankees – Chicago White Sox game on August 12th played on the field filmed in the movie Field Of Dreams in Dyersville, IA was $1,343. The average ticket price for a World Series game is $803.

More journalists were jailed last year than ever before, and the number of media workers killed increased by a third over 2019, Bloomberg reports. China is the biggest jailer of journalists. Turkey is second.

“We have 1 fatality to every 120 million passenger departures in the airline industry.” – Dr. Henry Cloud at the Global Leadership Summit

Comparison of the NFL Hall of Fame game (7.3 million) and aforementioned Field of Dreams game (5.9 million) ratings re-confirms that, when the NFL builds it, a lot more people come.

Roughly two-in-three people in the US are currently living in areas where temps feel like 100+ degrees Fahrenheit, per the National Weather Service.
From 10pm–11pm Saturday night August 21st, Hurricane Henri dumped the most rain on Central Park in a single hour in recorded history.
The Forest Service has 10,000 firefighters on staff, including 3,000 seasonal employees—and that’s not close to enough to battle the 100 active fires that are raging across the country, per the WSJ. Firefighting is a tough job to recruit for, paying $15–$18/hr and offering few benefits.

Disney said Black Widow has earned $367 million at the global box office. A big chunk of the money came on the first day the movie was released in theaters. Revenue for Black Widow plummeted 41% from Friday to Saturday of its opening weekend and 67% from its first to second weekend—the largest box office drop of any Marvel movie, ever. The National Association of Theater Owners directly blamed piracy for the “stunning collapse.”

The headline stat: The US became a lot more racially diverse over the past 10 years. The non-Hispanic white population dropped for the first time on record (2.6%), falling to its lowest share of the total population on record. People who identify as Hispanic, Asian, and more than one race drove all the population growth during the last decade.
Still, that growth has slowed down: The US population increased 7.4% from 2010 to 2020, the lowest growth rate since the 1930s. It’s not good news. Less people growth = less economic growth, and a baby bust from the pandemic threatens to pinch the US’ growth rate even more.
Cities are getting bigger while rural areas empty out: “Population growth was almost entirely in metropolitan areas,” the US Census Bureau’s Marc Perry said. 52% of all counties shrank in population.
Chris Paul knows: Phoenix overtook Philadelphia as the fifth-largest city in the US, following NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston. The leaderboard change reflects the broader trend of people relocating to the South and West from the Northeast and Midwest.
Meet the fastest growing metro area: The Villages, a retirement community in central Florida. Its population grew 39% over the last decade, but also shrunk three inches in height.
And the fastest growing county? McKenzie County, North Dakota, which grew more than 100% since 2010 thanks to a fracking boom.

This article originally appeared on Brian Dodd’s website and can be found by clicking here.