A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.
Chinese College Students
President Trump is facing backlash from his MAGA base on his announcement that he is going to allow 600,000 Chinese students to enroll in American universities.
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| Source: https://apnews.com/article/chinese-student-visas-trump-maga-dce4e064ea61a4df090865668ca48cde |
This is more than double the number of Chinese students who were recently enrolled at U.S. colleges.
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| Source: https://www.chinausfocus.com/society-culture/theres-still-hope-for-us-china-student-exchange |
Back in 2019 I wrote about the increasing dependence of American colleges and universities on the tuition dollars from Chinese students.
At the time I wrote that blog post I included the graphic below that showed the colleges that had the highest Chinese enrollment,
This data was from the 2015/2016 school year and the numbers were rather shocking.
The University of Illinois and the University of Southern California both had around 8,000 Chinese students. Purdue and Northwestern had over 7,000.
If you want to know a big reason that Trump is willing to welcome so many Chinese students take a look at the following chart.
Within the next four years there will be 1.5 million fewer 18 year olds annually that are potential college students than there are today.
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| Credit: https://x.com/DanielDiMartino/status/1962700981881213275 |
Add to this the increasing number of students who do not see that a college education is worth the high costs and you have the makings of an enormous financial crisis for many schools.
Scores of colleges are going to be under severe financial pressures in the next few years due to this demographic drop off. Some will undoubtedly have to close their doors.
The financial pain this will cause will disproportionately be centered in the Northeast and Rust Belt states which have seen the largest population shifts and have a greater share of small liberal arts colleges.
My guess is that Trump figures he can get some favors and goodwill from China on trade and other issues for relaxing the student visa rules and save some college towns at the same time.
It may not be popular with MAGA but money talks.
To Death Do Us Part
This is interesting data on the cumulative proportion of unions dissolving based on couple type and duration between formal union and cohabitation.
A male couple in a formal relationship actually have lower breakup rates than married heterosexual couples.
This is true throughout the duration of the relationship.
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| Credit: https://x.com/StatisticUrban/status/1962678923092992064 |
Any form of cohabitation (male-female), female-female, male-male) has very little chance of surviving over any length of time.
However, a male-male relationship has a better chance than male-female and female-female.
The bottom line is that marriage or a formal relationship makes all the difference in the world in keeping couples together.
To death do us part does really means something even if it only gets you a third of the way there in the best of circumstances.
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
Studies shows that about 70% of divorces among heterosexual couples are initiated by the woman.
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| Credit: https://divorce.com/blog/who-initiates-divorce-more/ |
Some argue that the primary reason for this is that women do not get the attention or emotional support they need from their husbands.
However, if this is the case, why are divorce rates even higher in lesbian marriages when there is no man involved to mess things up? These unions fail at an even higher rate than traditional marriages.
Despite the rejection in the original marriage, men coming out of a divorce are more likely to get remarried than women.
The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center reports that 55% of men and 44% of women over the age of 25 remarry after a divorce with a median time of 3.5 years between the divorce and a second marriage.
The overall divorce rate in the U.S. is 43% for first marriages, 67% for second marriages and 73% of third marriages. This suggests that if you are unhappy the first time you might also find that you are unhappy a second or third time.
Non Stop Travel
Which airport in the world should you live close to for the greatest opportunity to get on a direct non-stop flight to a destination?
This one was a surprise to me.
Istanbul Airport in Turkiye has direct air service to 310 destinations.
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| Source: https://brilliantmaps.com/airports-by-number-of-destinations/ |
Frankfurt, Germany is second with 288 destinations, Paris Charles DeGaulle is third with 279 and Dubai International Airport is fourth with 269.
The best airport to get a direct flight in the United States is Dallas-Ft.Worth with 264 destinations which is 5th in the world rankings.
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| Source: https://brilliantmaps.com/airports-by-number-of-destinations/ |
However, note that DFW has 929 daily flights whereas Istanbul only has 583 per day.
The airport with most daily flights in the world is Chicago's O"Hare with 1,004.
O"Hare is 7th in the world for destinations with 256.
I Bet You Have Been To Florida
Which state has been visited by more Americans than any other?
A recent YouGov survey found that more American adults have been to Florida (65%) than any other state.
A majority of Americans have visited New York (58%), D.C. (54%), Texas (54%) and California (53%).
On the other hand, Alaska (12%) is the state that the fewest number of Americans have visited.
North Dakota is the least visited among the 48 contiguous states.
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| Source: https://today.yougov.com/travel/articles/52307-which-states-have-americans-visited |
I found it interesting that 21% of Americans have visited Hawaii which is more than have visited the following states.
Maine 19%
Rhode Island 19%
New Hampshire 19%
Vermont 18%
Idaho 20%
Montana 19%
North Dakota 14%
Alaska 12%
Age does have its advantages.
32% of those age 65+ have visited 30 or more states.
Only 5% of those ages 18-29 have been able to visit that many.
Those in the Midwest have traveled the most. 21% have been to 30 or more states.
Only 7% of those in the Northeast have traveled as much.
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| Source: https://today.yougov.com/travel/articles/52307-which-states-have-americans-visited |
I have visited 49 of the 50 states.
South Dakota has alluded me to this point.
It is on the bucket list.
As an Australian, I feel honoured to be just a couple of states short of the top group. But I have seen Mt Rushmore so you know what that means.
ReplyDeleteNo one travels better than the Aussies! There is no doubt about that and there is no doubt that you are an elite traveler within that elite group. Yes, I have so catching up to do.
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