2018 Statistic of the Year: 90.5 Percent of Plastic Waste Has Never Been Recycled

Two of 2018's best statistics from the Royal Statistical Society are about the environment. 'The winning international statistic of the year was 90.5% -- the proportion of plastic waste that has never been recycled,' reports the BBC. 'And in the UK category, the top stat was 27.8% -- the highest percentage of all electricity which was generated by solar power.' From the report: A panel of judges picked the two winners, along with several highly commended statistics, from more than 200 nominations. Entries for 2018 were submitted earlier this year. Judges on the panel included Dame Jil Matheson, former national statistician -- the top adviser to the government on official statistics, as well as RSS president Sir David Spiegelhalter, BBC home editor Mark Easton and the Guardian's U.S. data editor Mona Chalabi. The environment and plastic waste has repeatedly made headlines in 2018, and 'single-use' -- referring to plastic waste -- was named the word of the year. Other highly commended statistics include:

$1.3 billion: the amount lost from the value of Snapchat within a day after Kylie Jenner tweeted: 'Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore?'
85.9%: the proportion of British trains that ran on time -- the lowest for more than a decade
40%: the percentage of Russian men who do not live to the age of 65
64,946: the number of measles cases in Europe from November 2017 to October 2018
82%: the percentage of all British retail shopping that is still in-store rather than online
16.7%: the percentage reduction of the number of Jaffa Cakes in the McVities' Christmas tube
6.4%: the percentage of female executive directors within FTSE 250 companies

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