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By The Numbers

The numbers for September 18, 2014

Tony Wagner Sep 18, 2014

The polls are open now to Scotland’s 4.7 million registered voters – about 97 percent of the population – and they are heading to the polls to make big decisions about the country’s independence. Voting ends at 10 p.m. local time, and ballots will be hand-counted overnight, Bloomberg reported. Results are expected Friday morning.

Here’s what we’re reading – and some other numbers we’re watching – Thursday morning.

12 percent

Only a fraction of women who experience sexual assault on college campuses go to police. That number is key to “It’s On Us”, a new awareness campaign the Obama administration is expected to announce Friday, according to the Associated Press. The effort will reportedly focus on young men, urging them to confront what is often a hidden problem by promoting bystander intervention and victim support.

$13 trillion

The estimated spending power of the 4 billion low-income customers around the world, especially places like India. Multinational corporations like Pepsi and GE are beginning to recognize these consumers – some of whom live on pennies a day – and develop new products marketed to them, the New York Times reported. After making headway with these less expensive products, some companies have been able to up-sell wealthier consumers in developing countries or co-opt the new products to a wider market.

0.00385 percent

That’s the portion of Apple customers who have had information disclosed due to government requests, according to a new section of the company’s website that launched Wednesday. Apple has come under intense scrutiny after it announced a new mobile payment system about a week after nude photos of several celebrities were stolen, apparently from their iCloud accounts. The new site includes detailed instructions for securing devices and an open letter from Tim Cook, in which the Apple CEO emphatically denies that the company grants government agencies easy access to users’ data.

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