This is the preprint of a letter that is under review in the Journal of Glaciology. The abstract is as follows: Large-scale remote-sensing data on ice loss in the Himalaya and other glacierised regions indicate that the differences in glacier area do not significantly influence the glacier-to-glacier variability of the thinning rate. An analysis of the available data from several regions across the globe reveals another general feature of the recent shrinkage glaciers: the rate of area loss grows sub-linearly as a function of glacier area. These two general characteristics of recent glacier change data are shown to be consistent with each other when the well-known area-volume scaling relation for mountain glaciers is considered. These empirical trends may be helpful in benchmarking simulations of recent and future glacier shrinkage.