EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.

1,500,000,000: The approximate number of adults in the world who are obese, according to a new report.

231,000,000: The amount of Irish punts the Central Bank says are still hanging around under mattresses or in old piggy banks, twelve years after Ireland switched to the euro.

80,000: The approximate number of households which have been fitted with water meters so far ahead of October’s introduction of water charges.

3,000: The approximate number of applications for bankruptcy the Minister for Justice expects to see over the next twelve months following the introduction of new laws.

650: The number of people waiting on transplant lists in Ireland, despite 2013 being a record year for transplants being carried out.

52: The number of passengers – including scientists, journalists and tourists – rescued from a research ship in the Antarctic on Thursday which had been trapped in ice since Christmas Day.

28 – The percentage price differential between house prices in Dublin compared to the rest of the country, according to new property research.

18 – The number of countries using the euro now after Latvia became the latest country to join the single currency on New Year’s Day.

17.5 – The percentage increase in the number of people who died on Ireland’s roads in 2013 compared to the number of deaths the previous year.

8: The number of years that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been in a coma after suffering a massive stroke. The 85-year-old’s condition deteriorated significantly during the week.

5: The number of seconds into the new year when the first baby born in Ireland in 2014 entered the world.

4: The percentage of primary school children who never get any help at all with their homework from parents, according to the Central Statistics Office.

0 – The salary claimed by Capuchin monk Brother Kevin Crowley who runs the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless in Dublin city centre.

Want more? Check out our previous ‘In numbers’ pieces >

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