According to a 2011 study performed at Rensselaer Polytechic Institute, it takes only 10% of a population holding the same belief to guarantee it eventually becoming the belief of the majority, provided that the initial group remains committed to the idea.
When I talk about RentConfident's mission, people often ask me why I think warning renters about substandard housing is important enough to dedicate my life to it. One of the responses I have is that according to the US Census Bureau, about 10% of Chicago renters live in apartments with structural defects, and 10.4% of Chicago renters are unhappy with their current apartments.
Structural defects in apartments can have pretty devastating effects on the health and well-being of renters. They can lead to respiratory illnesses, allergic reactions, poisoning, brain damage, injuries and in worst-case scenarios even death. Based on the RPI study, if all of those renters were committed to the idea that they should research their apartments before signing a lease, we would be well on our way to holding bad landlords accountable for their behavior through methods other than lawsuits.
But the people I'm talking to will sometimes hear “10% of renters” and think that the situation isn't all that bad. After all, 10% doesn't seem all that impressive on the surface. So today I have a list of situations where awareness campaigns have made issues affecting no more than 10% of the population seem like much more widespread problems. This by no means an exhaustive list, but I think it definitely makes the case for 10% being more significant that it may initially seem.
Note: Most of these percentages are based on polls and surveys of sample groups that require some statistical fiddling to extrapolate numbers that apply to the population as a whole. I have attempted to rely on trustworthy sources that use decently large sample sizes. When it comes to getting members of any sample group to admit to having certain diseases or preferences, there is a strong likelihood that the result will be lower than reality. Most groups and companies that perform surveys will take into account those who might remain silent or provide false information about their alignment in regard to social taboos.
Major issues affecting less than 10% of a population:
- 0.2% of the population of Liberia contracted Ebola during the 2014 outbreak, causing worldwide panic. [1]CDC [2]Wikipedia: Demographics of Liberia
- 0.317% of households experienced a fire in 2010, with an average property damage value of $18,365. (That's the same amount of money you would spend renting a bad apartment for a year at $1530 a month.) [3]How common are house fires?
- 0.9% of the US population are Muslim. [4]Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study
- Between 1 and 2% of the global population have naturally red hair. (Even Scotland, known for its redheads, only has 13% of the population with natural red hair.) [5]Wikipedia: Human Hair color
- 1.4% of the US children have some form of autism spectrum disorder. [6]CDC
- 1.6% of Illinois adults are deaf. [7]Gallaudet University Library: Deaf Statistics
- Between 2 and 4% of Americans are currently vegetarians or vegans. 10% are former vegetarians or vegans. [8]Wikipedia: Vegetarianism by country
- Between 2.5% and 5.5% of Chicago residents are members of a street gang. This does not include the approximately 1100 people affiliated with the Chicago Outfit, aka the Mafia. [9]CBS News, By the Numbers: Chicago-area Gangs, May 2013 [10]NBC News, Chicago Most Gang-Infested City in U.S., Officials Say [11]Mafia Wiki: The Chicago Outfit [12]US Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Chicago city, Illinois
- 3.8% of Illinois residents identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or not strictly heterosexual in some other way. [13]Wikipedia: Demographics of sexual orientation
- 5.6% of US residents are Asian. [14]Wikipedia: Demographics of Asian Americans
- 5.6% of the population dealt with identity theft in 2014. [15]US Bureau of Justice Statistics
- 6% of car crashes in 2013 were related to texting while driving. [16]National Safety Council: Attributable Risk Estimate(PDF)
- 7.66% of African Americans could not vote in the US due to prior felony convictions in 2010. [17]Procon.org: State Felon Disenfranchisement Totals, 2010
- 8% of renter households in Chicago are occupied by Section 8 voucher holders. [18]Chicago Sun-Times: Public Housing's Gap of Luxury [19]US Census Bureau: Tenure
- 8% of children have food allergies, but just over half of them grow out of their allergies by adulthood. [20]Medscape: Food Allergy, What you Need to Know
- 8.7% of Americans suffer from specific phobias that require medical help. [21]Anxiety and Depression Association of America
- In 2012, 9.3% of the American population had diabetes. [22]Diabetes.org
- 9.4% of the American adults use illegal drugs each month. [23]National Institute on Drug Abuse/National Institute of Health
- 9.6% of the world is living in extreme poverty. [24]Washington Post: For the First time Less than 10 percent of the world is living in extreme poverty, World Bank says
Major issues affecting 10% of a population
- 10% of the population think cilantro tastes like soap. [25]Why 10% of the population hates cilantro and the rest doesn't know any better
- 10% of Americans have one of the 7000 diseases considered to be "rare" by the US National Institute of Health. [26]Globalgenes.org
- 10% of the global population are left handed. (So are 3 of our last 4 Presidents, including Obama.) [27]Left-handedness. Hardyck, Curtis; Petrinovich, Lewis F. Psychological Bulletin, Vol 84(3), May 1977, pp 385-404.] [22. Wikipedia: Handedness of Presidents
- 10% of white men are color blind. [28]Colour-blindness.com
- 10% of the working population under the age of 34 have been turned down for a job because of something found in their social media accounts. [29]DailyCaller.com: 1 in 10 young people denied jobs due to social media use
Major issues affecting slightly more than 10% of a population
- 11% of adults over 64 years old has Alzheimer's disease. [30]Alzheimer's Association
- 12% of US women will have breast cancer at some point in their life. [31]Breastcancer.org: U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics
- 12.8% of the US population speaks Spanish at home. [32]Wikipedia: Spanish language in the United States
I'd bet that many of the items above affect you or someone you know. You've probably heard about special efforts that hope to either protect people from these groups, to keep people from joining these groups, or to make life easier for those who belong to these groups. Those special efforts have probably made it seem that each issue affects far more than 10% of a population, but the real numbers don't lie.
10% is a big deal. I believe that 10% of renters living in dangerous housing is a big deal. My job is to get 10% of all of you to believe it, too.
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