It's Monday! YOU Do the Math!

This week's statistics I am taking from my television watching over this past week...

• On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 7:46 AM (eastern time) the population of the U.S. was believed to hit 300,000,000. This statistic is based on estimates of how many babies are born, how many people die, and how many illegal aliens move into our country per minute.
• This statistic helped to arrive at the above statistic: Every 60 seconds 6 more illegal aliens join the U.S. population.

[The above statistics were stated on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on 10-17-2006]

• 82% of Americans are on at least one medication.
• 30% of Americans are on 5 or more medications.

[The above statistics were stated on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on 10-17-2006]

--The above statistics remind me once again at how dependent our society is on medicine. I've never been a big fan of medication. I personally have taken a VERY limited number of medicines in my lifetime. But I will admit that with my current internship I am believing more and more in the power of medications and the requirement of some medications in some instances (i.e. SEVERE mental illness)

• The National Alliance for Caregiving states that some 1.4 million CHILDREN in the United States are living as the primary caregiver in their household.

[The above statistic was taken from the Oprah episode on 10-20-06]

--The Oprah episode that this statistic was taken from was very eye-opening. Many children are put in the position of raising their younger siblings. This occurs when parents are unable to provide and care for the children due to instances such as handicaps, medical illness, or drug addictions. And in some of these cases, the child is not only "raising" their fellow siblings, but also caring for the parent many times. 13 year olds get up a 6 AM to COOK breakfast, pack lunches, get younger siblings up and dressed and off to school. Then they come home and make sure dinner is fed and showers are taken and teeth are brushed. 13 years old! Some 9 year olds are taking care of their single-parent mothers who are deaf and suffer from cerebal palsy. Children taking on the responsibilities of adults are young, young ages.

The final statistics I gained this past week while watching television are linked to the most interesting television program I watched all week. This was not a scheduled program for me to watch; I just kind of happened across it Friday night, but for that I was REALLY glad. This final program and statistics will be shared tomorrow in the second part to my series on suicide. The statistics will be surprising, but the topic surrounding the statistics will be controversal and intriguing.