Facts From 1H26

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Here are 70 facts from the first half of 2026.

Investing

Nearly 40% of years have seen a total return for the S&P 500 above 20%. Link

At the end of 2025, the Russell 1000 Growth and Russell 1000 Value indexes shared 246 stocks. Link

Since 1971 no economy has averaged annual inflation below 2%. Link

Nearly 40% of total retail options volume traded at Citadel Securities is now in zero-day contracts. Link

Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial help execute around 70% of all retail orders in U.S. public equity markets. Citadel, by itself, intermediates 25% of all U.S. stock trades. Link

Interactive Brokers says on average, both its retail and hedge fund clients beat the S&P 500 in 2025. Link

Alternative Investing

S&P Global projects global electricity demand will increase by almost 50% by 2040. Meeting this demand will require adding the equivalent of roughly 330 Hoover Dams, or over 650 one-gigawatt nuclear reactors, each year between now and then. Link

Norway's sovereign wealth fund holds, on average, roughly a 1.5% stake in every publicly listed company in the world. Link

Luxus has a hedge fund that buys Hermes Birkin and Kelly bags on the secondary market and then flips them. The first round raised $1 million and bought 36 bags. Link

Governments currently account for about 85% of annual spending in the water sector. Link

"Jane Street now has a portfolio of private companies worth $20 billion. That figure includes a stake in Anthropic that was purchased in 2024 from the estate of FTX.” Link

ETFs & Mutual Funds

SLV (Silver ETF) traded $40 billion worth of shares on January 26, 2026, which is more than it traded in all of 1Q25 ($35 billion). Link

27% of new ETFs in 2025 built their strategy around a single stock and added leverage, short exposure, or options overlays. Link

Vanguard now manages more than $1 trillion in assets outside the U.S. Link

ETFs seeding in-kind raised ~$3 billion in 2025. Link

Personal Finance

18% of all property transfers in California last year were made through inheritance. Link

The share of financial wealth in bank deposits is 51% in Japan, 37% in Germany and 11% in the United States. Link

The total transaction value of "buy now, pay later" loans has grown roughly 20% per year since 2021, reaching about 1.1% of total credit card spending. Link

The average Midwestern household spends 32.4% more on pets than the U.S. household average. Link

An estimated $17 billion was stolen in crypto scams and fraud in 2025 (1,400% year-over-year growth). AI-enabled scams were 4.5x more profitable than traditional scams. Link

The second fastest growing sector in America in terms of GDP growth from 2019-2024 was gambling. Link

Sports

LeBron James has played against over 35% of all players in NBA history. Link

In 2017, Americans legally bet $4.9 billion on sports. In 2025, it was over $160 billion. Link

Gen Z'ers are half as likely as millennials to watch live sports regularly and twice as likely to never watch. Only 15% of Generation Alpha, the incoming cohort of teens, enjoys watching sports. Link

Erik Spoelstra is now the most tenured coach across the four major sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL). He was hired in 2008.

Trade & Labor Markets

Roughly 60% of current occupations didn't exist 50 years ago. Link

The US now imports more from Taiwan than from China. Link

China's share in US imports at 9% is back down to what it was right before China joined the WTO (2001). Link

For only the third time ever, there are more women employed in the U.S. than men. Link

US steel production has surpassed Japan for the first time since 1999. Link

Across the 15 key industrial sectors covered by the OECD MAGIC database, the production of solar cells and modules was the most subsidized sector over the period 2005-24. Link

Shipments of the chips, servers, and networking equipment needed to build data centers increased by almost 40% in 2025, accounting for a third of global trade growth. Link 

Companies

YouTube overtook Disney to be the world's largest media company. Link

Walmart sold $6.4 billion of ads last year, which was more than Snap ($5.9 billion). Link

Airports account for 15% of Uber's global mobility gross bookings. Link

Revenue of the top 100 private FinTech companies ($174 billion) now exceeds that of the top 100 public companies founded in the last twenty years ($158 billion). Link

The New York Times now has over 13 million subscribers. Link

AI

"Google raised just $26M (~$60M in today's terms) before becoming profitable, while Meta raised about $480M (~$800M today). OpenAI is projected to burn through a staggering $115B before it even hopes to reach free cash flow profitability in 2030." Link

40 million people globally ask ChatGPT health care-related questions daily, with 7 in 10 of those conversations occurring outside typical clinical hours. Link

Socioeconomics

Almost 40% of Stanford students report having a disability. At Brown and Harvard, more than 20% of undergraduates are registered as disabled. At Amherst, that figure is 34%. Link

Per-capita federal spending on each age group: Seniors: $43,700; Children and young adults: $4,300. Link

1% of all physicians accounted for 32% of all medical malpractice claims paid. Link

40% of truck drivers in California are Sikh, 95% of the Dunkin' Donuts stores in Chicago are owned by Indians...In New York, 60% of Dunkin' Donuts stores are operated by Portuguese immigrants. 90% of the liquor stores in Baltimore are owned by Koreans. Link

"speakers with high-class accents are 5–16 percentage points more likely to be chosen as friends, business partners, colleagues, or bosses" Link

40% of Americans did not read a single book in 2025. Link

~25% of mothers actively work in the first weeks postpartum. Link

Half of U.S. millennials have at least one tattoo. Link

Countries

"To get a sense of how little electricity people use in sub-Saharan Africa, imagine each person there turning on a 50-watt light bulb. That alone would instantly double consumption. Nigeria, with 240m people, generates less electricity than Wyoming, with 0.6m" Link

Retirees in France now have higher incomes than workers. Link

When the Cold War ended, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada represented 32% of the world economy. Today, they make up less than 14% and Arkansas and Alabama have overtaken each one in per-capita income. Link

The United States is China's #1 target for Cyberattacks. From 2000-2023, China was responsible for 240 state sponsored or state-affiliated cyberattacks, followed by Russia (158) and Iran (102). Link

USA

The state of Wyoming only has 2 escalators. Link

Firewood accounted for more than 25% of US GDP two centuries ago. Link

In 2024, it cost the U.S. Treasury 3.69 cents to make and distribute each penny, which is worth only 1 cent. This means the government lost 2.69 cents on every penny it produced. With over 3 billion new pennies minted, the total loss amounted to $85 million. Link

In January, Florida was the only state without snow on the ground. That is the second-highest coverage of snow in the U.S. in 20 years. Link

If Paul Revere took his midnight ride this year, he could stop at 7 Dunkin locations. Link

The US FDA approved 46 new drugs in 2025. Cancer remains the most common therapeutic area for newly approved drugs. Link

A study found that murder rates would be up to 5x higher if not for medical developments over the past 40 years. Link

Colon cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. for those under 50. Link

Music streaming – an indicator for smartphone use, where streaming most often occurs – sharply increases, by nearly 40%, on dates of major music album releases, while U.S. traffic fatalities increase by nearly 15% on those same days. Link

By 1832, the United States had more railroad miles than any European country. Railroad capital expenditure topped 4% of GDP annually. Link

Toddlers get 47% of daily calories from ultra processed foods (UPFs), school-aged children 60%. Link

Miscellaneous

The median American took zero flights last year. Link

Being born blind completely abolishes the risk of developing Schizophrenia. Link

In 1650 an English woman had a one in twelve chance of dying in childbirth. Link

More than 4,500 objects were launched into space in 2025, up from 600 in 2019. Link

Why women's shirts button from the left, while men's button from the right: When buttons first appeared in the 17th century, they were only for the wealthy. Women were dressed by (right-handed) servants. Placing buttons on the left made it easier for them. Link

Global suicide rates have declined by 29% from 2000 to 2021. Link

In the first third of FY25, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest were 57.6% of federal outlays. It increased to 61.2% in 2026. Link

Among the cohort who began college in 2004, 38% took economics. Among the 2012 cohort, only 26% did. Link