The death of 9/11 terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan means more than the numbers can say, and the media, the public and the government will be working out the true meaning of this event for months, and possibly years, to come. However, statistics can help ground the contextual framework in which we process meaning. 

Osama Bin Laden was killed Sunday

Here are some interesting numbers related to the lead-up to Bin Laden's death and the wild internet reaction that followed. 

116 months: Time lapsed from 9/11 attacks to bin Laden’s death

5: number of meetings Obama held with National Security Council in March and April regarding operation before giving green light to take out Bin Laden. (NYT timeline)

$443 billion: Cost of the war in Afghanistan for fiscal year 2011. (Congressional Research Service)

$1.3 trillion: Total costs of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. (CRS)

98,000: Estimated coalition boots on the ground in Afghanistan. (CRS)

$300 million: Cost of the war in Afghanistan per day. (AFP)

2,819: Number of people killed in 9/11 attacks (New York magazine)

2,265: US deaths in Afghan war. (WSJ)

2777: Estimated civilian deaths in Afghanistan war in 2010. Most were killed in IED explosions and suicide attacks. (United Nations)

4,000: Tweets per second sent during President Obama’s speech announcing the death of bin Laden.

98,550 percent: Increase in Yahoo! searches for Osama Bin Laden Sunday. (Web Pro News)

100: Percentage of top 20 Google searches dominated by Bin Laden-related topics (WPN)

Do you have interesting facts and figures to share? Please do so in our comments section.

Reach Ryan Faughnder here. Follow on Twitter here.