By Olivia Roos, Anna Brand, Nigel Chiwaya and Joe Murphy

The bigger the number, the bigger the headline?

From $25 million bonuses to $20,000 bitcoins, the largest numbers sometimes command the most attention.

But big news also arrives in small numbers. Like the number of times Mark Zuckerberg apologized to Congress (12). These figures might not be as sensational, but their significance helped shape the past year.

So, with that in mind, here is a small number of small numbers that had a big impact in 2018.

1 American-crowned princess
8 school shootings resulting in 28 killed and 35 injured
At least 1 person killed by a self-driving car
10 states have legalized marijuana, as of Michigan in November
12 boys rescued from a cave in Thailand
3-10 years: Bill Cosby's prison sentence
1 town decimated by the California wildfires
0 times a U.S. president had met with a North Korean leader before 2018
41 GOP House seats flipped by Democrats in the midterm elections
9 hours of Senate testimony delivered by Brett Kavanaugh
9 gold medals won by the USA team at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics
74 hot dogs eaten by the winner of Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest
2 companies were valued at $1 trillion for the first time
12 times Mark Zuckerberg apologized to Congress
3 months: How long the Mega Millions jackpot dragged on
162 confirmed alien planets discovered
1 duck in New York City made national news
0 new "Game Of Thrones" episodes

Sources

Forbes
NBC News
Vox
Governing
The Guardian
NBC News
NBC News
Time
Axios
NBC News
Time
CBS Sports
NBC News
Washington Post, CNN, Wired, Quartz, The Verge
CNBC
The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
BBC News
HBO

See NBC News' 2018 in photos here.

Olivia Roos

Olivia Roos is a member of the NBC News Digital staff.

Anna Brand

Anna Brand is a senior editor for news projects at NBC News Digital.

Nigel Chiwaya

Nigel Chiwaya is the Senior Editor, Data Viz for NBC News Digital.

Joe Murphy

Joe Murphy is a data editor at NBC News.