There is a saying that goes: "One death is a tragedy, thousands of deaths is a statistic".
This is used by the media as well as politicians to promote various causes that lead to statistics...
Slightly off topic but who had heard of Alexei Navalny a few weeks ago. Then suddenly this individual is headline news (the lead story) for days on end. We are heading for 8 billion people and yet when I look at the news I say to myself what relevance has this got to do with my local situation and life. People consume the news and consume narratives along with it.