53 Fascinating Facts of 2025
Each day, Times Insider editors scour the newspaper for the most interesting facts to appear on our pages. This year, tidbits about plastic recycling, whale sharks and crab Rangoon enlightened and entertained us.
Dec. 31, 2025
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
January
1. When humans and dogs look each other in the eye, each species produces oxytocin, the same hormone that bonds mothers to their children.
Do Our Dogs Have Something to Tell the World?
2. Researchers have found that children on farms have a lower risk of allergies and asthma than other children in the same rural areas, a phenomenon known as the “farm effect.”
Some Raw Truths About Raw Milk
3. Two billion parking spots dot the United States, by some estimates. That’s roughly seven spaces for every car, adding up to an area about the size of West Virginia.
What Happens When There Are Fewer Spaces to Park?
4. Americans have cultivated saffron since the colonial era, when the spice was traded on the Philadelphia commodity exchange at the same price as gold.
How Saffron, a Precious Import, Became an American Cash Crop
5. According to official estimates, about five million people worldwide are bitten by snakes each year. The real toll is almost certainly much higher.
In Africa, Danger Slithers Through Homes and Fields
February
6. Male humpback whales sing elaborate songs, composed of a variety of sounds strung together in repeated phrases and themes. All of the male whales in a particular humpback population sing the same song, but it evolves over time.
Humpback Whales Sing the Way Humans Speak
7. Heavy-duty transportation in California is estimated to emit as much carbon dioxide annually as New Zealand.
California’s Push for Electric Trucks Sputters Under Trump
8. Crab Rangoon is neither from Rangoon (present-day Yangon, Myanmar) nor reliably made with real crab. The dish first appeared on menus in California in the late 1940s at the Polynesian-influenced chain Trader Vic’s.
9. In the United States, life expectancy is, on average, nearly five years shorter for Black people than for white people.
C.D.C. Suggests Terms Like ‘Race’ and ‘Health Equity’ Are Off-Limits, Then Backtracks
March
10. The world’s largest iceberg, officially known as A23a, is believed to be more than 1,300 square miles. In contrast, New York City is 300 square miles.
World’s Largest Iceberg Runs Aground
11. The 1995 model of the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, near the first microwave and the Rival Crock-Pot.
George Foreman Turned a Home Grill Into a Culinary Heavyweight
12. Atlanta, the home of Coca-Cola, has the third-highest soda consumption of any U.S. city.
Why Are We Living in the Golden Age of ‘Gut Soda’?
13. The origins of the phrase “Yes, chef,” uttered in many restaurants, are unknown. But some historians trace it to the 19th-century French chef Auguste Escoffier, who established the brigade system, a chain of command for roles in a kitchen.
‘Yes, Chef,’ You Say? Restaurant Workers Have Feelings About That.
April
14. A local council banned street performances in Leicester Square, a tourist hub in London’s West End, after a judge noted that repetitive sounds, including pop songs, were a well-known feature of “psychological torture.”
‘Psychological Torture’: London Bans Busking in a Famed Tourist Hub
15. The original color of cookware by the company Le Creuset, which in 2025 celebrated its 100th anniversary, was Volcanique, an orange-red ombré sold in the United States as Flame.
The Color-Drenched Cult of Le Creuset
16. An all-female spacewalk planned in 2019 had to be canceled because NASA did not have two spacesuits that fit two women. (Instead they sent one woman and one man.)
May
17. Utah’s Great Salt Lake, the largest salt lake in the Western Hemisphere, once covered an area larger than Rhode Island. Today, more than half its water is gone, and about 800 square miles of lake bed sits exposed.
The Great Salt Lake Is Drying. Can Utah Save It?
18. All government buildings in Finland have a sauna on-site. Nationwide, there is more than one sauna for every two Finns.
My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’
19. From 1856 until the 1960s, schoolchildren in Sweden had to pass annual botanical exams. Each spring, they collected 50 to 150 plant specimens, then pressed, annotated and classified them in the tradition of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.
In Her Botanical Paintings, Hilma af Klint Hurtles Back to Earth
20. Sotol, a spirit from Northern Mexico, received a Mexican denomination of origin in 2004, similar to Champagne or Scotch. According to Mexican law, if it’s not from the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila or Durango, it cannot be labeled sotol.
It’s High Time You Added Sotol to Your Bar Cart
21. Humans have visually documented about 1,470 square miles, or a mere 0.001 percent, of the deep seafloor, according to a study published in 2025. That’s a little larger than the size of Rhode Island.
Want to Be a Deep Sea Explorer? Don’t Worry, There’s Lots Left.
June
22. Climate change is causing the troposphere, the atmospheric layer in which airplanes fly, to warm. If the planet continues to heat up, turbulence will likely increase.
How Is Extreme Heat Affecting Air Travel?
23. A.I. ocular tracking is adept at analyzing tiny, involuntary eye movements such as pupil dilation and blinking. In some cases, it can predict where our gaze is drifting before we even know it ourselves.
24. “Tsundoku” is a Japanese word for the habit of letting books pile up unread.
‘No Buy’ July: Is It Really a Good Idea?
25. About half of the world’s energy is used for heat, which includes keeping people warm, according to the International Energy Agency. Transportation and electricity account for the other half.
Why Eliminating Coal Could Take a Long Time
July
26. The United States recycles less than 10 percent of the plastic it discards.
The U.S. Sends Lots of Plastic Trash Overseas. Malaysia Just Said No Thanks.
27. Surprisingly little is known about the life cycle of the whale shark, the largest fish in the sea. Researchers don’t know where the sharks mate, how often they breed or where they go to give birth.
How Healthy Are the Oceans? Ask a Whale Shark
28. The video game industry was one of the first sectors to use A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man responding differently based on the player’s real-time movements.
The Unnerving Future of A.I.-Fueled Video Games
29. A study published in the journal Nature estimates the volume of nanoplastics, which are invisible to the naked eye, to be at least 27 million metric tons in North Atlantic seas — more than the weight of all wild land mammals.
Tons of Invisible Plastic Pieces Lurk in Ocean Water
30. In the United States, one-third of workers in hospitality and tourism are immigrants.
Fear of ICE Jolts a Maine Beach Town
August
31. The writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, sold the rights to the character for $130 in 1938 (around $3,000 in today’s dollars).
Superman’s Earthly Birthplace? It’s Cleveland, and It’s Embracing Its Hero.
32. A single bite by the lone star tick can leave people with alpha-gal syndrome, a life-threatening allergy to most meat and dairy.
Why Is Martha’s Vineyard Going Vegan? It’s All About Tick Bites.
33. In July 2016, for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s final Broadway performance in “Hamilton,” scalpers were asking an average of $10,900 for a single seat.
The ‘Hamilton’ Effect: 10 Revolutionary Years on Broadway
34. Russia’s government doesn’t issue explicit content rules or guidelines to the entertainment industry. Instead, media workers have to guess what would please or anger the Kremlin. They risk fines, ostracism and even imprisonment.
These TV Hits Are Censored in Putin’s Russia
35. Would-be Guinness World Record setters for the tallest and shortest man and woman must be measured by a medical professional six times in a 24-hour period, because humans shrink throughout the day as a result of spinal compression.
They Want You to Get Off Your Couch, and Go Set a World Record
September
36. About 3 percent of births result in twins.
‘Twinless’ Review: Just the One of Us
37. According to a study in The Journal of Clinical Oncology, every $326 the U.S. government spends researching cancer extends a human life by one year.
Trump Is Shutting Down the War on Cancer
38. U.S. presidents have wrestled with the bounds of free speech since the beginning of the republic. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln shut down some antiwar newspapers, detained journalists without trial and censored dispatches.
In Assault on Free Speech, Trump Targets Speech He Hates
39. The small Himalayan nation of Bhutan is one of the few carbon-negative countries on earth.
Where Should Taylor and Travis Go on Their Honeymoon? We’ve Got Ideas.
October
40. Students at public schools in Thailand are required to wear crew cuts or trim their hair at their ears. Dyed hair is not allowed. Running afoul of these rules can mean an unwanted haircut in class.
Why Many Students in Thailand Can’t Let Their Hair Down
41. In the United States, the total value of purchases made through a “Buy Now, Pay Later” app, like Klarna or Affirm, ballooned to around $120 billion in 2023, up from $2 billion in 2019.
They Got to Live a Life of Luxury. Then Came the Fine Print.
42. More than one million residents of Queens, almost half of the borough’s population, were born outside of the United States.
Queens Tenants Were Urged to Report Immigrants to ICE, Officials Say
43. The use of tear gas in military conflicts is banned under international treaties, but the chemicals have been used for decades in domestic policing in the United States and other countries.
What to Know About Tear Gas, the Chemicals Immigration Agents Are Using in Illinois
November
44. For the first time in the history of Major League Baseball, the 2025 season began and ended abroad — in Tokyo and Toronto.
Canadians Mourn a Loss by Underdogs Who Brought a Nation Together
45. Ginseng, a plant revered in traditional Korean medicine for its healing powers, is notoriously fickle. It will burn under direct sunlight and grows best on an angled slope of five to 15 degrees.
Glass Skin and Snail Mucin: South Korea’s Journey to Global Beauty Power
46. Some rams are considered gay, or “male-oriented,” meaning that they decline to mate with ewes, a behavioral pattern seen in approximately one out of every 12 rams.
A Farmer, a Designer and a Dating App Unite to Save Some ‘Gay Sheep’
47. During the intense speculation of “tulip mania” in the Netherlands, in late 1636 and early 1637, some tulip bulbs sold for nearly as much as a house.
All the Canals and Charm of Amsterdam. None of the Crowds.
48. An individual frame of “Toy Story,” which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025, could take anywhere from the better part of an hour to a full 30 hours to render. The film had more than 100,000 frames.
Animation Hasn’t Been the Same Since ‘Toy Story’
December
49. Brand-name drug prices in the United States are three times as high, on average, as those in peer nations.
To Avoid Tariffs, U.K. Agrees to Trump’s Demand to Pay More for Drugs
50. Data shows that immigrants in the United States are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.
Federal Immigration Agents Arrive in New Orleans
51. In medieval England, if an accused person did not have 12 people to vouch for his innocence, he was presumed guilty.
How a Verdict by a Jury of 11 People in Queens Made Legal History
52. Toxic mushrooms are commonly found near hardwood trees, such as oak. Rainy conditions in the fall and winter create ideal conditions for the mushrooms to grow.
California Discourages Wild Mushroom Foraging After Fatal Outbreak
53. New York Times Cooking developed, tested and published more than 1,000 recipes in 2025.
The Most Popular Recipes of 2025
The post 53 Fascinating Facts of 2025 appeared first on New York Times.
