The following article by Chris Tribble discusses the uses of various words associated with numbers in the (Manchester) Guardian Weekly.

Counting the cost of numbers

What is the biggest number ever reported in this newspaper? Answer: £5,344,000,000,000 - the collective value of Britain in 2003 (August 1, 2004). When did the Guardian Weekly report that the level of personal debt in Britain had gone over one trillion pounds? Answer: August 8, 2004.

News is often about numbers. If you were asked which was used more frequently in this paper - million or thousand, which would you choose? It surprised me. Most frequent is million (14,768) with thousand, at 7,648 coming a long way behind. Hundred comes a close third (6,259) followed by billion (5,064) and trillion (398).

So what are being counted? The Guardian Weekly's numerical concerns are varied, but it also seems that the size of the numbers is linked to the things enumerated. At the top of the trillion list we find assets, tax, dollars and economy. At the top of the billions are dollars, pounds, people, euros. People come at the top of the million list, followed by year, children, pounds, Americans, workers and women.

Things that are counted in thousands are different again - the scale is more human perhaps. In the thousands list we find people, troops, refugees, dollars, children, women, workers, civilians, miles, men and protesters.

Come down to the things that are counted in hundreds and we find another sombre litany. What do we learn about the world from a list that includes children, men, miles, killed, prisoners, soldiers, police, refugees, civilians, died, troops, kilometres, dead, young?

I did try to find some happier numbers. Using mutual information analysis to study cardinal numbers we find some of the strongest links are: one-upmanship and one-sidedness; two Chinas and two Europes; three-fourths and three-billionths; four destroyers and four horsemen; five GCSEs (Britain's school leaving examination at age 16) and five wickets; six months and six nouns, seven footballs and seven samurai, eight pints and eight wickets, nine-tenths and nine o'clock, and 10 commandments and 10 minutes.

Not all positive, but it does look as if smaller numbers mean generally better news.