Patrick Comerford
There is a popular birthday available to buy on many online sites that says: ‘You share your birthday with 16 million people. Not so special now, are you?’
I was once fascinated by the many famous or influential people I shared my birthday with. Later, I was amused by the number of Facebook friends I share my birthday with. We think our birthdays are special days for each of us individually, until we realise how many people we share that one day with.
If your birthday falls on any day other than 29 February, the odds of sharing your birthday with anyone you meet should be about 1/365 in the population (0.274%). Since the world population is estimated at over eight billion, you should, in theory, share your birthday with over 22 million people (about 22,054,188).
However, if you were born on 29 February, you share your birthday with just 1/1,461 of the population as 366 + 365 + 365 + 365 is equal to 1,461. Because this day only comes around once every four years, a mere 0.068% of people worldwide share it as their birthday – that’s only about 5,510,000 people!
I was reminded of the significance of the figure 16 million – and of the mathematics of shared birthdays – at the weekend when this blog reached the staggering total of 16 million hits since I first began blogging about 15 years ago, back in 2010. But I almost missed the significance of this figure while I was visiting York and Durham at the weekend.
After I began blogging in 2010, it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It was over a year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. It climbed steadily to 2 million, June 2015; 3 million, October 2016; 4 million, November 2019; 5 million, March 2021; 6 million, July 2022; 7 million, 13 August 2023; 8 million, April 2024; and 9 million, October 2024.
But the rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal this year, reaching 9.5 million on 4 January 2025, 10 million over a week later (12 January 2025), 10.5 million two days after that (14 January 2025), 11 million a month later (12 February 2025), 11.5 million a month after that (10 March 2025), and 12 million early in May (3 May 2025).
The figures claimed steadily throughout June, July and August, from 12.5 million early in June (6 June 2025), 13 million less than two weeks later (17 June 2025), 13.5 million a week after that (24 June 2025), 14 million a week later (1 July 2025), 14.5 million ten days later (11 June), 15 million two weeks after that (25 July 2025), 15.5 million less than a month later (23 August 2025), and then 16 million late on Saturday night (6 September 2025).
So far this month, this blog has had over 315,000 hits by noon today. In July, for the third time, this blog had more than a million hits in a single month, with 1,195,456 hits in July; June 2025 was the second month that this blog had more than 1 million hits in one month, with 1,618,488 hits by the end of that month. These figures follow January’s record of 1 million hits by the early hours of 14 January, and a total of 1,420,383 by the end of that month (31 January 2025).
So far this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were in June, four were in January, and one was two months ago (1 July 2025):
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 82,043 (23 June 2025)
• 81,037 (21 June 2025)
• 80,625 (22 June 2025)
• 79,981 (19 June 2025)
• 79,165 (20 June 2025)
• 69,722 (18 June 2025)
• 69,714 (30 June 2025)
• 69,657 (1 July 2025)
This blog has already had about 6.6 million hits this year, over 40 per cent of all hits ever.
With this latest landmark figure of 16 million hits at the weekend, I once again found myself asking questions such as:
• What do 16 million people look like?
• Where do we find 16 million people?
• What does £16 million, €16 million or $16 million mean?
• What would it buy?
Donald Trump’s birthday military parade on 14 June caused as much as $16 million worth of damage to the streets of Washington DC, according to official figures. The parade, supposedly celebrating the US army’s 250th anniversary, was held on Trump’s own 79th birthday – which he shared with more than 16 million people – and cost around $45 million, including the estimated $16 million worth of damage. The chances of Trump paying this $16 million back to the city and people of Washington are probably not one-in-16 million, less than Nil.
The US media company Paramount Global agreed in July to pay $16 million to settle a legal dispute with Trump over the editing of an interview on CBS News.
The odds against identical boy triplets are 16 million to one.
There are 16 million disabled people in the UK: 11% of children are disabled; 23% of working age adults are disabled; 45% of pension age adults are disabled.
Some 16 million people in the UK suffer from high blood pressure, the biggest risk factor for stroke and heart attacks.
Hackers claimed last month they had leaked 16 million PayPal logins online. While PayPal denied the new breach, experts urged users to reset their passwords.
The Greek government is funding a €16 million restoration project to upgrade the Cave of Zeus or Diktaion Andron, which remains closed throughout this year (2025).
The British government has allocated almost £16 million to Staffordshire County Council this year to improve roads.
Asia has a total area of about 16 million square miles. Russia with a total land area of area of over 16 million sq km (16,376,870 sq km). The journey from London to Calcutta is about 16 million metres (16,000 km). Zimbabwe has a population of about 16 million; 16 million people are more than the combined populations of London, Paris and Rome.
The Canary Islands are visited by over 16 million people, counting both Spanish and non-Spanish visitors.Last year, Morocco emerged as the top tourist destination in Africa, boasting over 16 million arrivals and achieving a new record, while Egypt is experiencing a tourism surge, with almost 16 million tourists visiting last year … a surge in tourism that is directly connected with the current trends that are threatening the future of Mount Sinai and the monastic site at Saint Catherine’s, the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery, and the plans for a ‘mega-resort’.
The Wall Street crash came on 29 October 1929 after almost 13 million shares were traded on the exchange 24 October 1929, known as ‘Black Thursday’, and over 16 million shares were traded on 29 October 1929, ‘Black Tuesday’. It was followed by the Great Depression that lasted until 1939.
About 16 million lives were lost in World War I.
Once again, this blog has reached another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.
One of the warming figures personally in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary reaches an average of 80-85 people each day. It is 3½ years now since I retired from active parish ministry. But I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 560 to 580 people a week.
Today, I am very grateful to all 16 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular grateful for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment