Hard Numbers

7: A no-deal Brexit would push the UK into recession and hit its economy seven times harder than the rest of the EU, the IMF forecast on Tuesday.

529 billion: Remittances (money sent home by immigrants) to low- and middle-income countries set a record in 2018, according to the World Bank. The total reached $529 billion, a sum greater than foreign investment in the developing world during the same period.

11: More evidence the US economy remains strong: According to official data released in March, the US economy had 7.6 million unfilled jobs at the end of January, but just 6.5 million people looking for work. That was the 11th straight month the number of US job openings topped the number of job seekers.

85: By 2050, up to 85 percent of the world's French speakers will live in Africa, according to estimates from an organization that monitors language statistics. That's up from about 44 percent of all French speakers today. The expected increase will come mainly from rising birth rates in French-speaking African countries but also higher rates of French language study in both English and Portuguese-speaking African countries.

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