THE global statistic of the decade has been named as the Amazon rainforest losing the equivalent of 8.4million football pitches.
The shocking reduction of the vast jungle known as the worlds lungs has accelerated since 2010 with logging and commercial farming.
The Amazon rainforest has lost the equivalent of 8.4million football pitches since 2010
The stat was chosen by the Royal Statistical Society.
Chair of the judges Prof Jennifer Rogers said: The judging panel felt this statistic was highly effective in capturing one of the decades worst examples of environmental degradation.
In second place was the stat that there are now 165million SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) in the world, up from 35million in 2010.
The UK-only most startling stat was judged to be the average annual increase in the countrys productivity in the decade since the financial crisis coming in at just 0.3 per cent.
Two UK-only statistics were highly commended.
The first showed 27 per cent of 20 to 34-year-olds still live at home with parents, up from 23 per cent in 2009.
The second was women hold 30.6 per cent of all board positions in the UKs 350 biggest listed companies up from 9.5 per cent in 2011.
