It starts off small. Often, you don’t even notice what’s happening. But before long, it grows, spreading through the population like wildfire. Before you know it, it’s everywhere, and it’s your job to defend yourself against it!
If you’re a fan of zombie stories, this scenario probably sounds familiar to you. But it doesn’t just apply to the undead in TV and movies—it also applies to zombie stats!
Zombie stats are false or misleading, yet widely thought to be true. Often, even when a zombie stat is proven to be wrong, it still gets shared and believed. It seems no matter what you do, you can’t kill a zombie stat!
Also like zombies, these stats are harmful. Widespread belief in false facts prevents us from tackling real issues and exaggerating problems can hurt a cause instead of helping it.
Do you think you could survive a zombie stat apocalypse? We’ve put together a list of stats below. Proceed with caution—some of them are real, and some of them are zombie stats. It’s up to you to guess which is which!
Stats:
1. Women own less than 2% of the world’s land.
2. An estimated 650 million women alive today were married as children. That’s double the population of the US.
3. By 2050, Nigeria’s population will more than double from 195 million to an estimated 410 million, meaning that it will replace the US as the third most populated nation in the world.
4. 65% of all remaining arable land in the world lies in Africa.
5. In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls spend roughly 40 billion hours a year collecting water—the equivalent of a year’s worth of labour by the entire workforce in France.
6. Most of the world’s refugees are in wealthy countries.
7. 33,000 girls become child brides every day.
8. There are more homeless men in the world than there are homeless women.
Think you spotted all the zombie stats? Check your answers below!
Answers:
1. Zombie Stat
There’s definitely a gap between male and female land ownership, but it isn’t quite this drastic. Across a sample of 10 African countries, 39% of women own land, either individually or jointly. This compares to 48% of men. Looking at individual ownership, that gap widens to only 12%of women, compared to 31% of men.
2. Real Stat
3. Real Stat
4. Zombie Stat
While the continent does have a great deal of arable land, it isn’t quite that much. Of all remaining arable land in the world, Africa has 32%.
5. Real Stat
6. Zombie Stat
There’s a belief that the US and many European countries shelter a substantial amount of refugees. In reality, the majority of the world’s refugees live in low or middle-income nations. The UN’s Refugee Agency estimates that 85% of the world’s refugees are sheltered by developing countries. Turkey, Pakistan, and Uganda sheltered the highest number of refugees in mid-2017. These three countries combined hold 6.3 million refugees.
7. Real Stat
8. Zombie Stat
There are multiple countries where there are more homeless men than women, including the UK and Germany. However, there have not been any factual studies done to measure global homelessness by gender.
