The Mercury News

BY THE NUMBERS

- – Josh Boak

Some notable numbers from Biden’s first year:

—63.5% vaccinatio­n rate: Most Americans got jabbed. Countries with higher vaccinatio­n rates: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Switzerlan­d and the United Kingdom.

—3.9% jobless rate: The low unemployme­nt rate is a big highlight of Biden’s first year. He inherited a coronaviru­s-thrashed economy with unemployme­nt at 6.4%. Employers added 6.4million jobs last year as unemployme­nt dropped well below the 4.6% that the Congressio­nal Budget Office had anticipate­d in July for the end of 2021.

—7% inflation: In running the economy hot, Biden got burned as inflation reached a nearly 40-year high. Higher prices led to disapprova­l of Biden’s economic leadership. Gasoline and groceries cost more, and some notable economists said higher prices were a sign that Biden’s relief package was too large.

—$1 trillion: The cost of Biden’s bipartisan infrastruc­ture law, which includes $550 billion in new spending. To get an agreement, Biden pulled back from the $2.3 trillion he initially proposed. He separately proposed $1.8 trillion for a package of social and climate initiative­s, but that was modified and unable to clear the Senate. So Biden got about one-quarter of the $4 trillion in spending he proposed.

—13 deaths: The number of U.S. troops who died in a suicide bombing at the gate of Kabul’s airport during the U.S. evacuation of more than 124,000 people from Afghanista­n. At least 169Afghans were killed, with the evacuation­s leaving scores of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies behind. More than 2,460 U.S. service members died in Afghanista­n over the course of the two-decade war.

—1.78 million border crossings in the Southwest: Migrants began streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border once Biden became president. There were 1.78 million encounters with border agents during his first 10full months, a fourfold increase compared with President Donald Trump’s last 10months in office.

—20 natural disasters: There were 20extreme weather and climate disasters that each caused damages in excess of $1billion and killed a combined 688people. These included a drought, two floods, 11severe storms, four tropical cyclones, a wildfire and a winter storm. Adjusted for inflation, the U.S. has averaged 7.4disasters annually since 1980that caused $1billion or more in losses.

—24 states: Biden visited nearly half of America’s 50 states during his first year. Excluding stops at his homes in Delaware, top destinatio­ns were Pennsylvan­ia (seven times) and Michigan (five times). Both were key states in his 2020electi­on victory. Jill Biden went to 35states.

—41 federal judges: Biden had 41 judges confirmed to the bench during his first year in office, more than any of his recent predecesso­rs at the same time in their presidenci­es. Of those, 80% are women, and 53% are people of color, according to the White House.

—103 days: It took an average of 103 days for Biden nominees requiring Senate confirmati­on to be confirmed. That’s longer than the average for nominees in the first years of the previous six administra­tions and nearly three times longer than during Ronald Reagan’s first year in office, according to an analysis by the Partnershi­p for Public Service’s Center for Presidenti­al Transition.

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