Harpers Index 2009-03-2012 - 39 To Date

HARPERS INDEX
Rank of disappointed among terms used by Americans in an October survey to describe their feelings about the government : 1
Rank of sucks : 4
Percentage of Americans who say government programs dont help their families : 54
Portion of American families that received federal benefits in the past two years : 7/10
Percentage of bills proposed by the last Congress that became law : 3
Percentage change in spending by independent political groups between the 2006 and 2010 midterm elections : +310
Portion of these funds in 2010 that came from organizations not legally required to disclose their donors : 1/2
Percentage of such groups that supported conservative candidates : 80
Estimated percentage of votes cast in Afghanistans parliamentary elections in September that were fraudulent : 23
Portion of Ukrainian voters in an October survey who said they would be willing to sell their vote : 1/4
Percentage of these people who said they would sell it for less than $65 : 47
Fee charged by Myanmars ruling junta for a candidate to appear on the ballot in Novembers national elections : $500
Average annual household income in Myanmar last year : $459
Percentage of Germans who say they would accept a leader with a strong hand : 13
Percentage who favor sharply restricting Muslim religious practices : 56
Percentage who support the expulsion of foreigners during periods of high unemployment : 32
Number of the six Chinese Nobel Laureates who were in prison or living abroad when their award was conferred : 5
Global rank of Chinas economy in 2010, measured by GDP : 2
Rank if GDP is calculated on a per-capita basis : 94
Number of times the word growth appeared in an 18-page statement released by world leaders at the last G-20 meeting : 46
Percentage of developing nations whose economies have grown faster than the United States since 2001 : 89
Percentage that did so between 1991 and 2000 : 48
Number of countries with which the United States has a trade deficit : 77
Percentage change since 2007 in the amount of venture capital raised annually in the United States : 55
Number of offshore oil and gas leases approved by the federal government since 2005 : 4,603
Number of offshore wind projects approved since then : 1
Number of U.S. states that provide paid leave to new parents : 2
Percentage of men and women, respectively, who have accessed this benefit : 21, 79
Estimated market price paid by panhandlers in Johannesburg to rent a baby for the day : $3
Percentage of U.S. parents who rank bullying as their greatest fear for their children : 30
Chance that an American teen suffers from a severe emotional or behavioral disorder : 1 in 5
Amount the state of California spent last year on each minor in its juvenile-detention system : $224,712
Amount spent on each student in the Oakland public school system : $4,945
Number of check-cashing shops currently operating in San Francisco : 141
Number by which this exceeds the combined number of Starbucks and McDonalds franchises : 42
Estimated number of Californians who hold a medical order to purchase marijuana : 355,000
Tons of marijuana the Mexican government burned in October following a major seizure : 148
Estimated number of joints that could have been rolled with this much of the drug : 268,000,000
Number of drug and alcohol addicts who have been sterilized since 1998 in exchange for a payment from a U.S. charity : 1,325
Amount the charity pays per sterilization : $300
Figures cited are the latest available as of November 2010. Sources are listed on page 78.
Harpers Index is a registered trademark.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Median income of U.S. men who are single, childless, in their twenties, and live in a city : $26,000
Of women : $28,000
Chance that an unmarried American under thirty says marriage is becoming obsolete : 1 in 2
Chances that he or she wants to get married : 19 in 20
Percentage of married men and women, respectively, who believe they control the television : 24, 26
Percentage change in the average value of an American home since 2006 : 25
Change between 1929 and 1933 : 25.9
Percentage increase since 2004 in the estimated median household net worth of members of Congress : 22
Percentage of U.S. GDP last year that went to federal job-training and job-search programs : 0.05
Percentage that went to unemployment insurance : 1
Portion of voters in the midterm elections who ranked spending to create jobs as their highest priority for Congress : 2/5
Percentage who said they had an unfavorable view of Democrats : 52
Of Republicans : 53
Estimated number of pigs that could be bought with the money diverted last year to congressional earmarks : 108,200,000
Percentage of the fuel used to power Amtraks Heartland Flyer that comes from rendered beef fat : 20
Portion of all calories consumed by U.S. children that are nutritionally empty : 2/5
Maximum number of calories permitted under San Francisco law for restaurant meals that come with a free toy : 600
Portion of the U.S. population that will have diabetes by 2050, if current trends continue : 1/3
Percentage change since 2008 in the number of confirmed gonorrhea cases in Alaska : +71
Chance that a mammal species declared extinct since 1500 was later rediscovered : 1 in 3
Odds in New York City in 1900 of dying in a horse accident : 1 in 19,000
Odds today of dying there in an automobile accident : 1 in 26,000
Factor by which Joe DiMaggios 1950 salary exceeded the mean U.S. family income : 26
Factor by which Derek Jeters 2010 salary did : 288
Median income in NY-14, the countrys wealthiest congressional district : $60,099
In NY-16, the countrys poorest : $17,995
Distance between the two, in miles : 0.75
Percentage of the pedestrians stopped in 2009 for random searches in Philadelphia who were black : 71
Percentage of the citys population that is black : 44
Portion of the stops that didnt lead to an arrest : 11/12
Miles from land and maritime borders that the U.S. Border Patrol can legally perform warrantless searches : 100
Portion of all Americans who live within that area : 2/3
Percentage of all Internet networks rerouted to a Chinese telecommunications company last spring : 15
Minutes that U.S. government and military traffic passed through Chinese servers : 18
Fine in California for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and for jaywalking, respectively : $100, $108
Amount spent last year by the U.S. government to simulate an attack by pot growers on the nations second-largest dam : $500,000
Number of licensed peyote dealers in Texas : 3
Estimated value of the bulletproof-car market in Mexico : $90,000,000
Average number of times a Canadian apologizes each week : 4
Number of times George W. Bushs memoir refers to his loss of the 2000 popular vote : 0
Figures cited are the latest available as of December 2010. Sources are listed on page 68.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Estimated percentage change since 2000 in the U.S. defense budget, not including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan : +80
Number of American civilians who died worldwide in terrorist attacks last year : 8
Minimum number who died after being struck by lightning : 29
Estimated spending by Afghans on bribes last year : $2,500,000,000
Portion of the countrys GDP to which this figure is equivalent : 1/4
Average bribe : $158
Percentage of Americans who say they believe the war in Afghanistan has been worth fighting : 34
Liters of Saddam Husseins blood used to ink a copy of the Koran completed in 2000 : 24
Price for a cup of ice cream at the Ice Pack, an Iranian-owned dessert franchise, in Baghdad : $2.50
Price for a hamburger at the Freedom Restaurant in the Green Zone : $3
Number of companies in which Senate Armed Services Committee staffers are prohibited from owning stock : 48,096
The senators themselves : 0
Chance that a female West Point cadet was a victim of unwanted sexual contact last year : 1 in 10
Percentage of victims who reported such incidents : 14
Percentage who said they took care of it themselves : 65
Estimated number of people caned in Malaysia every year : 10,000
Minimum number of cockfighting-advocacy groups operating in Texas : 3
Number of divorces in Britain in 2009 that were processed by Divorce-Online.co.uk : 7,316
Portion of these in which the word Facebook appeared in the court filing : 1/5
Percentage of United Kingdom residents accepted into Oxford Universitys undergraduate class last year who are black : 1
Estimated number of U.S. colleges that have Quidditch teams : 81
Percentage of U.S. high school seniors who have smoked a cigarette in the past month : 19
Who have smoked marijuana : 21
Date on which student loans first passed credit cards among the largest sources of private debt in the United States : 6/30/10
Percentage of U.S. households that are shared by more than one family : 13
Minimum number of people living in the flood tunnels beneath Las Vegas : 300
Portion of single or widowed Americans over 65 who receive all their income from Social Security : 1/4
Amount the U.S. economy loses for each murder committed, according to an Iowa State University study : $17,000,000
Pounds of antibiotics produced in the U.S. in 2009 that were consumed by humans : 7,275,254
Pounds consumed by animals raised for human consumption : 28,808,023
Estimated number of red-winged blackbirds that fell dead from the sky in Arkansas on New Years Eve : 4,500 (see page 80)
Estimated percentage of New Hampshires bat population that died in 2010 : 65
Number of the four top-spending congressional candidates in the 2010 elections who lost : 3
Percentage of all global IPO money last year that was raised in the United States : 17
Years since recordkeeping began in which this figure has been lower : 0
Chance that a U.S. $100 bill is currently held outside the country : 1 in 2
Number of suicides last year in one Indian state that a government investigation attributed to unpaid microfinance debts : 54
Rank, in 2010, of the term austerity among the most commonly requested definitions in Merriam-Websters online dictionary : 5
Of pragmatic : 4
Term with the largest percentage gain in number of searches between 2009 and 2010 : shellacking
Figures cited are the latest available as of January 2011. Sources are listed on page 65.
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HARPERS INDEX
Chances that an American describes his or her diet as healthy : 9 in 10
Graduates of the Cattlemens Beef Board Masters of Beef Advocacy program since 2009 : 1,950
Number of U.S. states that have more pigs than people : 3
Radioactive animal droppings found in 2009 near the Hanford nuclear site in Washington : 33
Percentage change since 2001 in the Alsatian great hamster population : 78 (See page 84)
Minimum number of birds that die from crashing into New York City windows each year : 100,000
Percentage of black kite raptors that decorate their nests with white plastic : 82
Maximum occupancy of a Madrid hotel, made entirely from garbage, that opened in January : 10
Portion of Singaporeans who live in public housing : 4/5
Chance that an American benefits from at least one government antipoverty project : 1 in 6
Amount Santa Barbara proposes to spend moving benches to discourage the homeless from panhandling on them : $50,000
Amount Massachusetts has allocated since 2000 to decrease class size and increase teacher pay : $1,200,000,000
Percentage of that allocation that has gone to cover rising health-care costs : 100
Chances that an American opposes any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or education spending : 6 in 10
Minimum number of U.S. religious facilities that have been foreclosed on since 2008 : 195
Percentage by which books on contemporary ethics are more likely than other books to be stolen : 50
Minimum cost of a pleasure palace being built for Vladimir Putin : $1,000,000,000
Number of Bentleys purchased in Russia in 2000 and in 2010, respectively : 0, 113
Rank of Communist China among the greenest regimes in history, based on total atmospheric carbon reduction : 1
Of Genghis Khans Mongol Empire : 2
Estimated portion of registered voters in Zimbabwe who are dead : 1/4
Average annual income of an Englishman living at the start of the Black Death, adjusted for inflation : $1,300
Of a Haitian at the start of the current cholera epidemic : $659
Number of hostages taken by pirates last year : 1,181
Years since record-keeping began in which that number has been higher : 0
Number of militias active in the United States in 2007 and in 2010, respectively : 43, 330
Respective number of states with budget shortfalls in those years : 1, 48
Number of states that have applied for funding under the 2010 Affordable Care Act : 50
Number that have joined a lawsuit challenging the acts constitutionality : 26
Minimum number of U.S. states and territories in which the Army flew unmanned drones last year : 21
Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 29 who think violence against the U.S. government is justified : 17
Date on which Glenn Beck hypothesized that an attempted assassination of Sarah Palin could bring the republic down : 1/10/11
Percentage of Canadians who support increasing their countrys military presence in the Arctic : 58
Number of American soldiers who died in combat last year : 455
Minimum number who committed suicide : 407
Percentage of Ohio voters who think that House Speaker John Boehners willingness to cry is a sign of strength : 36
Average minutes more exercise per week that a heavy drinker gets than a non-drinker : 21
Percentage increase since 2000 in the number of Britons under 30 with alcohol-related liver disease : 53
Chance that a woman undergoing in-vitro fertilization in Israel becomes pregnant : 1 in 5
Chance if she is subjected, before fertilization, to medical clowning : 1 in 3
Figures cited are the latest available as of February 2011. Sources are listed on page 57.
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HARPERS INDEX
Estimated number of feet eastward that Japans main island was moved by Marchs earthquake : 8
Ratio of the amount of energy generated by the quake to the amount consumed by the United States each year : 1 to 1
Percentage by which Saudi Arabias total oil supply might be overstated, according to leaked diplomatic cables : 72
Confirmed number of terrorist plots against the United States perpetrated by Muslims in 2010 : 10
By non-Muslims : 25
Rank of 2010 among the deadliest years for Afghan civilians since the war began : 1
Minimum number of people killed by CIA drone attacks in Pakistan last year : 607
Number of those who appeared on a U.S. list of most-wanted terrorists : 2
Percentage of the U.S. population that served in the military during World War II : 8.6
Percentage today : 0.5
Amount the Defense Department spent last year on military bands : $317,000,000
Number of midshipmen expelled from the U.S. Naval Academy since October for possessing mood-altering incense : 11
Minimum number of man-made objects orbiting Earth : 22,000
Estimated number of behavior-detection officers employed by the Transportation Security Administration : 2,800
Estimated number of people these officers have flagged for examination under the program : 288,600
Percentage of those examinations that led to an arrest : 0.7
Percentage of the GDP that will be taken as federal revenue this year : 14.8
Last year in which the percentage was this low : 1950
Amount of federal subsidies given to the family farm of Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) since 2001 : $154,755
Chance that a U.S. job created last year was in a low-wage industry : 1 in 2
Percentage of voters in the 2010 midterms who were members of a union household : 17
Percent change in U.S. labor productivity since 1972 : +114
Percent change in wages during that same period : 6
Percent increase in food-stamp usage in 2010 : 13
Chances that a U.S. millionaire does not feel wealthy : 2 in 5
Average amount he or she believes would begin to create such a feeling : $7,500,000
Percentage of white Americans who own stocks, bonds, or mutual funds : 49
Of black Americans : 25
Of Hispanic Americans : 16
Percentage of households whose head is nearing retirement age that have 401(k)-type accounts : 60
Chance that such a household has adequate savings to maintain its standard of living into retirement : 1 in 10
Estimated amount spent by Britains National Health Service to outfit London ambulances for obese patients : $341,000
Minimum amount spent in 2010 treating pet obesity in the United States : $25,000,000
Date on which a U.S. patent was issued for a phone with which pets can call their owners : 2/1/11
Percentage by which an American is more likely than a non-American to suffer from bipolar disorder : 100
Number of the ten most popular prime-time television dramas that regularly feature corpses : 8
Age of the youngest person facing life without parole in the United States : 13
Chance that a 2009 New York City high school graduate was deemed college-ready by the states education department : 1 in 4
Average salary difference between a starting New York public school teacher and a first-year private lawyer in 1970 : $2,000
Today : $106,000
Figures cited are the latest available as of March 2011. Sources are listed on page 82.
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HARPERS INDEX
Average amount NATO spends each week enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya : $1,930,000
Estimated value of arms sent by NATO countries to Muammar Qaddafi since 1969 : $10,000,000,000
Minimum amount Qaddafi held in U.S. banks at the time his assets were frozen in February : $29,700,000,000
Percentage of Americans in 2009 who believed the free market is the best system on which to base the future of the world : 74
Percentage of Americans who believe so today : 59
Percentage of Chinese who do : 67
Minimum number of journalists imprisoned without charges by the U.S. military between 2004 and 2010 : 14
Amount of blood money reportedly paid to the families of two Pakistanis killed by a CIA contractor in January : $2,340,000
Number of homes whose mortgages a U.S. advertising firm offered to pay in exchange for converting the homes to billboards : 10
Number of applications the firm received in the first week after making the offer : 11,575
Percentage of Republicans who said in March that they fear that ACORN will steal the 2012 election for Obama : 25
Date on which ACORN shut down : 11/2/10
Number of Congress members who gave up some portion of their 2010 salary for federal debt reduction : 3
Total amount of these gifts : $15,223.56
Number of seconds it takes for the federal debt to grow by that amount : 0.34
Date on which Standard & Poors revised its U.S. debt outlook to negative : 4/18/2011
Number of times it has previously been anything other than stable : 0
Amount of federal money that went to National Public Radio in 2010 : $2,700,000
To Jerry Falwells Liberty University : $446,000,000
Percentage by which young adults with high religious participation are more likely than their peers to become obese : 50
Number of Germans who left the Catholic faith last year : 180,000
Date on which National Front leader Marine Le Pen compared Islam in France to the Nazi occupation : 12/10/2010
Percentage of French people who said they approved of the comparison : 39
Amount a Liechtenstein marketing agency charges for fifty people to rent the nation for one night : $20,000
Minimum hours that Armenia went without Internet after a Georgian woman cut a cable while scavenging for copper : 5
Number of people added to Indias population in the past decade : 181,000,000
Number of free condoms handed out by the Brazilian government in advance of Carnival this year : 84,740,000
Price for a six-pack of Hotshots, a brand of extra-small Swiss condoms made for adolescent boys : $8.79
Chance that a teenage girl in America has a sexually transmitted infection : 1 in 4
Average age at which women consider themselves old, according to a study by a British funeral planning company : 29
At which men do : 58
Percentage of men who said they would start feeling old when music sounded too loud in bars : 22
Chances that a convict will be granted parole if his case comes up right after a judge has had breakfast : 7 in 10
Chance right before lunch : 1 in 4
Minimum number of female employees party to a sex-discrimination class-action lawsuit against Walmart : 1,500,000
Percentage change in domestic violence when the local NFL team unexpectedly loses a game : +10
When it loses to a traditional rival : +20
Base hit awarded for each misdemeanor arrest in the Bell County, California, police departments baseball game : double
For each felony arrest : home run
Figures cited are the latest available as of April 2011. Sources are listed on page 63.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Portion of Americans who think the death of Osama bin Laden will make it easier to win the global war on terror : 2/5
Portion who thought that the capture of Saddam Hussein would : 3/5
Percentage of Americans who feel safer since bin Laden was killed : 16
Who feel less safe : 14
Percentage likelihood established in a 2009 study by a UCLA geographer that bin Laden was in Abbottabad : 88.9
Date of a classified memo, released by WikiLeaks, suggesting he was there : 9/10/2008
Amount bin Laden paid to replace each cricket ball hit into his compound, according to a local boy : $0.59
Length in years of the contract a Dutch soccer team offered a one-year-old boy after seeing him kick soccer balls on YouTube : 10
Chance an item of girls clothing sold in the United States has sexualizing characteristics, according to a May study : 1 in 3
Percentage by which a person born in the spring is more likely than one born in the fall to become anorexic : 31
Value of currency eaten by termites at a bank in Uttar Pradesh, India, in April : $221,900
Size of Indias annual deficit in female births, based on 2011 census data : 600,000
Estimated number of people in the developing world employed collecting virtual resources for online gamers : 100,000
Chance that a Russian believes the sun revolves around the earth : 1 in 3
Chance that a U.S. high school biology teacher is an advocate of evolution : 1 in 4
Percentage of Mississippians who are unhappy with the outcome of the Civil War : 27
Date on which a Mississippi Riverthemed museum in Memphis was closed due to the flooding Mississippi : 5/6/2011
Amount FEMA is demanding from natural-disaster claimants to whom it mistakenly gave funding : $21,908,141
Minimum percentage of mortgages in Las Vegas that are currently underwater : 70
Incidents of suspected mortgage fraud in 2010 : 70,472
Percentage change in such incidents since 2000 : +1,900
Date on which U.S. student-loan debt is expected to reach $1,000,000,000,000 : 12/1/2011
Chance that an American who earned a bachelors degree in 2008 will be paying off student loans in 2028 : 1 in 3
Percentage of private-sector workers with pension plans in 1979 whose plans were defined-benefit : 62
Today : 7
Minimum number of times the calculation of the Consumer Price Index has been improved since 1980 : 20
Current rate of inflation, officially : 3.2%
As measured by the unimproved metric : 10.7%
Chance that a retiree reports spending more savings than planned to meet basic expenses last year : 1 in 3
Percentage increase since last year in roadside calls to AAA from drivers who have run out of gas : 14
Minimum percentage of U.S. electricity that is consumed by marijuana growers : 1
Percentage of Americans who think the federal government has too much power : 58
That lobbyists do : 71
Amount spent on lobbying in 2000 : $1,600,000,000
In 2010 : $3,500,000,000
Number of public statues of individuals in the United States : 5,193
Number that depict women : 394
Portion of all 800-numbers held by one Philadelphia company that redirects calls to phone-sex lines : 1/4
Opening-weekend box-office draw in Hong Kong of Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, a pornographic 3D movie : $1,660,031
Of Iron Man 2 : $1,529,782
Figures cited are the latest available as of May 2011. Sources are listed on page 69.
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HARPERS INDEX
Chance that an American believes the country is still in a recession or depression : 1 in 2
Estimated percentage change in chief executive pay at Americas publicly traded corporations in 2010 : +11
Factor by which the likelihood that a father will spank his child increases if the father is depressed : 4
By which women find proud men more attractive than happy men, according to a June study : 3
By which men find happy women more attractive than proud women : 5
Percentage by which a couple is likelier to divorce if one partner has a commute greater than 45 minutes : 40
Percentage change in the number of unmarried cohabitating couples in the United States between 2000 and 2010 : +97
Percentage of men and women, respectively, who have been photographed nude, according to a June Playboy poll : 27, 23
Change since 1960 in calories expended during the average workday of an American man and woman, respectively : 140, 120
Percent that working mothers give to their employers, according to Donald Trump : 84
Portion of employers who say they conduct criminal-background checks on potential employees : 3/4
Chance that an American adult has a criminal record : 1 in 4
Chance that a U.S. man who has been incarcerated will make it out of the bottom economic quintile within 20 years : 1 in 50
That a man who was never incarcerated will : 1 in 7
Number of Americans serving life without parole for crimes they committed when they were 14 or younger : 73
Percentage change in the number of U.S. whites under the age of 18 in the past decade : 9.8
Blacks : 2.3
Hispanics : +38.8
Percentage of applicants offered undergraduate admission to Harvard this year : 6.2
Percentage of applicants accepted for employment on McDonalds National Hiring Day in April : 6.2
Estimated percentage of the U.S. college class of 2011 who are moving back home after graduation : 85
Chance that a student in Berlin could imagine doing sex work to pay for school : 1 in 3
Average hourly rate he or she imagines charging : $1,300
Members of Malaysias Obedient Wives Club, which encourages women to be good sex workers to their husbands : 1,050
Percentage of Americans who believe Osama bin Laden was greeted by 72 virgins in heaven, according to a Fox News survey : 3
Percentage who believe he met a more negative end : 80
Estimated percentage of Afghanistans gross national product that comes from U.S. aid and other foreign sources : 97
Percentage of Egyptians who say that improving economic conditions is very important : 82
Who say that honest elections are : 55
Minimum number of punches thrown during a December brawl in the Ukrainian parliament : 12
Chairs thrown : 2
Amount the Chinese government is paying to create the Robert Mugabe School of Intelligence in Zimbabwe : $98,000,000
Minimum number of goose- and gull-chasing falcons laid off by John F. Kennedy Airport last year : 15
Percentage decrease in tweets by U.S. elected officials in the week following Weinergate : 28
Rank of Dont Know, None, and Bill OReilly, respectively, among Americas most trusted political journalists : 1, 2, 3
Value of state tax breaks approved in May for a Bible-themed amusement park in Kentucky : $43,000,000
Average percentage by which the French overestimate the Jewish population of France : 655
Percentage of French people who call themselves somewhat or a little bit racist : 13
Centimeters by which an electron falls short of being perfectly round : 0.000000000000000000000000001
Figures cited are the latest available as of June 2011. Sources are listed on page 72.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Average lag, in months, between economic recovery and employment recovery after the nine previous recessions : 10
Projected lag, in months, after this recession : 60
Percentage of the $46 billion allocated by TARP to help homeowners refinance that has been used for that purpose : 4.3
Percentage of Americans who say they have a great deal of confidence in the nations banks : 23
In Congress : 12
Number of the 612 races in Californias last four statewide elections in which the incumbents party won : 605
Amount paid at a Texas auction for the vanity license plate freedom : $2,500
For america : $3,000
For ferrari : $15,000
Percentage of mortgage-interest-deduction recipients who say they have not used a government social program : 60
Of federal student-loan recipients : 53
Of food stamp recipients : 25
Percentage of Americans who say their household couldnt come up with $2,000 in thirty days : 47
Years it will take lenders in New York State, working at their current rate, to foreclose on all houses currently in default : 61
Percentage change in the likelihood that a U.S. college-educated couple will divorce if housing prices fall by 10 percent : +29
Percentage by which a woman who lost her virginity before the age of 16 is more likely to get divorced later in life : 80
Chance that a child born to a mother with a college degree will be born out of wedlock : 1 in 17
That a child born to a mother without a college degree will : 1 in 2
Percentage by which Americans prefer having boys to girls : 40
Number of U.S. counties in which life expectancy for women is lower than or the same as it was in 1997 : 860
Percentage of Americans who believe pornography is morally wrong : 66
Percentage who believe the death penalty is : 28
Percentage of gays in the military who are out to at least some of their unit, according to the advocacy group OutServe : 78
Number of members in Irans moral police force, which is charged with enforcing national dress codes : 70,000
Number of health-care workers arrested in Bahrain for tending to the wounds of antigovernment protesters : 48
Chance that a Pakistani approves of the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden : 1 in 10
Number of suspected leakers of classified information who have been prosecuted since Obama took office : 5
Number who were prosecuted under the Nixon Administration : 2
Date on which the federal government declassified the Pentagon Papers : 06/13/2011
Date on which rinderpest became the second disease officially eradicated from the earth : 6/28/2011
Price for which the head of St. Vitalis of Assisi, the patron saint of genital disease, was sold at auction in May : $5,000
Value of public-health benefits for every dollar spent on pollution control, according to the EPA : $30
Percentage by which the risk of type 2 diabetes increases for every two hours a day that a person watches television : 20
Estimated percentage change in the abuse of antianxiety drugs in the United States since 9/11 : +176
Number of the 48 wrestlers who participated in 1991s WrestleMania who are now dead : 13
Hours more media consumed each day by the average minority youth than by the average white youth : 4.5
Percentage of U.S. video-game players who are over the age of 50 : 29
Last day on which ancient Greek was taught at Michigan State University : 4/29/2011
Date on which Greek rush week begins for the Michigan State Spartans : 9/11/2011
Figures cited are the latest available as of July 2011. Sources are listed on page 72.
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage of the current U.S. debt that was accumulated during Republican presidential terms : 71
Portion of debt-ceiling elevations since 1960 that have been signed into law by Republican presidents : 2/3
Percentage of profits American corporations paid in taxes in 1961 : 40.6
Today : 10.5
Portion of the increase in U.S. corporate profit margins since 2001 that has come from depressed wages : 3/4
Percentage of Americans who say they did not have money to buy food at all times last year : 18.2
Percentage change in the median household wealth of white families since 2005 : 16
Of Hispanic families : 66
Number of minors sent back to Mexico by U.S. immigration authorities in 2010 : 20,438
Percentage who were sent unaccompanied by an adult : 57
Percentage of the worlds population that could fit in Texas by living with the population density of New York City : 100
Estimated value of government subsidies that will go to the oil and gas industries between now and 2015 : $78,155,000,000
Average amount the tooth fairy left for a tooth in 2010, according to a survey by Visa : $3
Average so far in 2011 : $2.60
Price for an iPad case made out of Bernie Madoffs Polo Ralph Lauren blue chinos : $350
Percentage of millionaires who said in a July survey that they are concerned about global unrest : 94
Percentage of Egyptians who say they want the new government to amend or abandon the Camp David accords : 70
Estimated number of Syrians killed during pro-democracy protests since March : 1,700
Number of people killed in Ecuador since July by bootleg liquor : 35
Portion of the Indian Ocean that is underexplored by scientists because of pirates : 1/4
Amount an unemployed Utah man is charging for the opportunity to hunt and kill him : $10,000
Portion of non-interest federal spending that is dedicated to programs for the elderly : 1/3
Chance that a person will remember something if he thinks he can look it up later : 1 in 5
If he thinks he cannot : 1 in 3
Percentage of U.S. college grades that are As : 43
Portion of Americas college students who attend for-profit schools : 1/10 (see page 51)
Portion of federal financial aid that goes to such schools : 1/4
Portion of college students who believe alcohol improves their ability to tell jokes : 3/4
Who believe it improves their sexual encounters : 1/3
Percent increase in armed robberies at pharmacies since 2006 : 81
Chance that an American fast-food customer uses posted calorie information to make food-buying decisions : 1 in 6
Number of states in which less than 20 percent of adults are obese : 0
Percentage of private-sector workers who believe that public-sector workers receive better benefits : 60
Percentage of public-sector workers who believe this : 44
Percentage of Americans who believe China has passed or will pass the United States as the worlds leading superpower : 46
Percentage of Chinese who do : 63
Of French : 72
Percentage of Americans who say they would vote for a well-qualified homosexual candidate for president : 67
For a well-qualified atheist : 49
Percentage of Americans in a July poll who said they approve of Gods job performance : 52
Figures cited are the latest available as of August 2011. Sources are listed on page 68.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Number of the 100 highest-paid American CEOs who earned more than their employers paid in taxes last year : 25
Date on which the Lake Erie Correctional Institution became the first U.S. state prison sold to a private company : 8/31/2011
Amount the Corrections Corporation of America paid the State of Ohio for the prison : $72,700,000
Percentage of U.S. Postal Service expenses that go to labor costs : 89
Of FedEx and UPS expenses, respectively : 41, 48
Percentage of Americans who disapprove of a deficit-reduction plan with no tax increases : 60
Amount of the 2009 stimulus package that the federal government has yet to spend : $127,000,000,000
Estimated annual cost to the U.S. economy of worker disengagement : $400,000,000,000
Estimated annual cost of rust and other corrosion to the Defense Department each year : $23,000,000,000
Estimated percentage of Americans aged 17 to 24 who are ineligible to join the military : 75
Respective rank of obesity, drug and alcohol problems, and low aptitude among the most common reasons for ineligibility : 1, 2, 3
Date on which WikiLeaks announced pre-litigation action against the Guardian newspaper for leaking information : 9/1/2011
Number of chopsticks made each day by Georgia Chopsticks in Americus, Georgia, for use in China : 2,100,000
Percentage increase in the number of Chinese students applying to U.S. graduate schools this year : 21
Portion of unemployed people in the United States who are covered by primary unemployment insurance : 1/4
Percentage change since 2001 in applications for Social Security disability benefits : +50
Number of Americans currently receiving them : 13,600,000
Year by which the program will be unable to pay benefits, according to congressional estimates : 2018
Chances that a U.S. corporation is considering ending health benefits when federal insurance exchanges begin : 3 in 10
Percentage of all oxycodone sold to doctors in the U.S. last year that went to Florida : 89
Date on which Florida began requiring potential welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving benefits : 7/1/2011
Percentage who have failed the test : 2.5
Estimated amount this will save the state over the next year in denied benefits : $98,000
Amount that Rick Perry has received in federal farm subsidies : $72,687
Number of the top 50 donors to Perrys gubernatorial campaigns who received an appointment to a state post : 22
Percentage increase in the sales of luxury goods within the United States in the past year : 7.3
Number of designer vagina operations paid for by the British National Health Service last year : 2,000
Percentage of women seeking the procedure who were deemed to have normal genitalia in a 2010 study : 100
Minutes of television that the average British dog watches each day : 50
Number of times the average British man will fall in love, according to an August study : 3
Number of times the average British woman will : 1
Percentage change in the gap between the wages of U.S. men and women since 1998 : +9
Amount by which a typical good-looking U.S. worker will out-earn a typical ugly one over a lifetime : $230,000
Estimated amount that discrimination against the ugly costs America each year : $20,000,000,000
Percentage of cell phone owners who admit they have pretended to be on the phone to avoid talking to someone in person : 13
Percentage of female scientists who say they have fewer children than they wanted because of their careers : 45
Percentage of male scientists who do : 25
Date on which Joe Walsh (R., Ill.) said Washington cant put one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids : 7/13/2011
Amount that Walsh currently owes in back child support : $98,422
Last year in which the U.S. government did not do everything wrong, according to Ron Paul : 1987 (or possibly 1988)
Figures cited are the latest available as of September 2011. Sources are listed on page 77.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage decrease in the median U.S. household income during the Great Recession : 3.2
During the subsequent recovery : 6.7
Portion of income growth since the end of the recession that has gone to corporate profits : 9/10
Minimum number of pigs stolen in Minnesota this September : 744
Amount the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program returned to the Treasury after its allocation deadline passed : $568,000,000
Minimum amount the U.S. government overpaid for federal services in 2010 : $26,000,000,000
Percentage by which the average contracted project costs the government more than the equivalent government-run project : 83
Estimated percentage of U.S. public schools that will fail this year under the standards set by No Child Left Behind : 82
Chance that a school has lowered its proficiency standards to inflate test scores since 2005 : 1 in 2
Price the Berkeley College Republicans charged white men for baked goods at their September Increase Diversity Bake Sale : $2
Price they charged black men : $0.75
Date on which Governor Rick Scott said that Florida doesnt need more anthropologists : 10/10/2011
Date on which Scotts daughter received her anthropology degree : 1/11/2008
Rank of the U.S. Congress among world legislatures for gender parity : 89
Portion of U.S. mothers who read People magazine : 1/3
Percentage of Americans who say news organizations hurt democracy : 42
Chance that an American between 18 and 24 has read a book in the past year that wasnt required for school or work : 1 in 2
Portion of the Millennial Generation that is absolutely certain God exists : 2/3
Rank of non-denominational Christianity among the fastest-growing religions in America during the past two decades : 2
Rank of none : 1
Number of Bibles that have been to the moon : 100
Number of messages in bottles sent out by one resident of Prince Edward Island since 1996 : 5,230
Number of responses he has received : 3,201
U.S. patent number assigned to a device for building the perfect snowman : 8,011,991
Number of codes in the current nationwide system for describing medical services on insurance bills : 17,849
Number in the new federally mandated system : 141,058
Code number for crushed by alligator, initial encounter : W5803XA
For crushed by alligator, subsequent encounter : W5803XS
Odds a West Virginia driver collided with a deer in the past year : 1 in 53
Date on which Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, unveiled a sculpture commemorating the Beatles 1964 visit there : 9/18/2011
Hours that the Beatles spent in the town : 1
Date on which the Chinese city of Chaohu was canceled by government decree : 8/22/2011
Percentage of Icelanders who believe that the existence of elves is probable or certain : 25
Number of Italian earthquake experts currently on trial for manslaughter for downplaying the risk of a 2009 earthquake : 7
Percentage of the vote received by the Pirate Party in Berlins September municipal elections : 8.9
Number of sex dolls distributed to SS soldiers by Heinrich Himmler, according to a book released this September : 50
Number of Afghan army battalions currently able to fight without coalition support : 0
Number of major threats the Transportation Security Administration has detected in the decade since its creation : 0
Portion of adults under thirty who think Hollywood is a threat to their values : 1/3
Minimum number of times Newt Gingrich has seen The Hangover : 7
Figures cited are the latest available as of October 2011. Sources are listed on page 86.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Number of letters from Americans President Barack Obama reads each evening : 10
Number of staffers in the Correspondence Office responsible for selecting those letters from the 11,000 received each day : 7
Number of states that have delayed filling judicial vacancies for budgetary reasons : 34
Amount employees of private-equity firm Bain Capital have donated to the campaign of its co-founder Mitt Romney : $69,500
To the Obama campaign : $119,900
Date on which Obama said that donations from lobbyists dont contribute to the public interest : 8/4/2007
Minimum amount Obamas 2012 campaign has so far accepted from bundlers connected to lobbyists : $2,800,000
Amount former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf paid a lobbying firm for access to top U.S. lawmakers : $175,000
Number of U.S. senators he met on a single day within a month of signing the contract : 6
Percentage of Republicans who say the current economic order favors a very small portion of the rich : 62
Percentage increase in total congressional net worth since 2008 : 24
Chance that a member of a U.S. corporations compensation committee is someone the CEO considers a friend : 1 in 3
Portion of New Yorkers making more than $100,000 a year who support Occupy Wall Street : 3/5
Percentage of all Americans who consider themselves part of the top 1 percent of U.S. earners : 13
Percentage of Hispanic Americans who do : 28
Chance an American thinks it is at least partly true that secret government airplanes release chemicals into the air : 1 in 7
Number of tickets Virgin Galactic has sold for spaceflights it hopes to begin launching by the end of the year : 460
Amount the Defense Department has requested for new Gray Eagle and Reaper drones and parts in 2012 : $1,908,600,000
Minimum number of U.S. colleges that offer courses in unmanned-drone operation : 5
Portion of the Veterans Health Administrations budget devoted to veterans with mental-health or addiction problems : 1/3
Factor by which a person experiencing long-term unemployment is more likely to report a first instance of mental illness : 3
Percentage of workers with only a high school diploma who received employer-based health insurance in 1979 : 70
Percentage of workers with a bachelors degree or higher who receive it today : 66
Chance that a U.S. worker is of normal weight and without a chronic health problem : 1 in 7
Number of working-age people for every person over sixty-five worldwide in 1950 : 11.7
Number today : 8.6
Projected number in 2050 : 3.9
Number of people deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the 2011 fiscal year : 396,906
Rank of that number among the highest in the agencys history : 1
Percentage of Americans who believe it is extremely important to halt the flow of illegal immigrants at the border : 53
Who believe that illegal immigrants already in the country should be allowed to stay and become U.S. citizens : 64
Minimum number of weapons confiscated from visitors to the Statue of Liberty last year : 11,448
Estimated tons of debris from the Japanese earthquake headed for the West Coast of the United States : 5,000,000
Date by which the debris is expected to begin reaching shore : 10/1/2013
Percentage of Chinese and Americans, respectively, who struggled to pay for food in 2008 : 16, 9
In 2011 : 6, 19
Estimated number of stray dogs killed in Ukraine in preparation for the Euro 2012 soccer tournament : 27,000
Sale price for five frozen straws of semen from Gladiators Hammer, a breeder deer, at a Texas auction last August : $21,000
Chances that a top brand of imported extra-virgin olive oil is not extra-virgin : 3 in 4
Maximum years in jail a new bill introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy proposes for the selling of fake Vermont maple syrup : 5
Figures cited are the latest available as of November 2011. Sources are listed on page 78.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Number of members of Congress among the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans by net worth : 57
Average annual tax savings for members of the top 1 percent of earners under the Bush tax cuts : $66,384
Average annual income for the other 99 percent : $58,506
Factor by which an American is more likely to cite unemployment than the deficit as the countrys most important problem : 3
Factor by which a wealthy American is more likely to cite the deficit than unemployment : 3
Chance a Florida Republican thinks the party is intentionally stalling the economy to prevent Obamas reelection : 1 in 4
Number of jobs lost by African-American women during the recession : 233,000
During the first two years of the recovery : 258,000
Percentage of former NFL players who experience financial distress within five years of retirement : 86
Estimated number of jobs created by every $1,000,000,000 of military spending : 11,000
By the same amount devoted to education : 27,000
Portion of states that allow children to take all their classes online : 3/5
Number of students enrolled full-time in cyberschools : 250,000
Minimum global population of robots, excluding toys and household appliances : 1,107,000
Minimum amount by which Facebook is overvalued, according to a November study : $70,000,000,000
Percentage of U.S. children age two or younger who have an online presence : 92
Percentage decrease in birth weight when the first trimester of a U.S. pregnancy occurs during an economic downturn : 4
Amount by which sales of ADHD medications increased between 2006 and 2010 : $3,400,000,000
Rank of hydrocodone among the most prescribed drugs in the United States : 1
Factor by which U.S. deaths due to painkiller overdoses increased between 1999 and 2008 : 4
Estimated percentage of comatose patients diagnosed as vegetative who are actually minimally conscious : 40
Cost of a pack of cigarettes delivered to a gravesite at a Vietnam cemetery through an online ancestor-worship service : 71
Minimum number of Tibetan monks and nuns who self-immolated last year in protest against Chinese rule : 12
Average number of U.S. veterans who commit suicide each day : 18
Percentage of Americans who believed our culture is superior to others in 2002 : 60
Who believe this today : 49
Factor by which the number of Americans age ninety and over has increased since 1980 : 3
Projected percentage increase in food production required by 2050 in order to sustain the worlds population : 70
Portion of the worlds land considered highly degraded due to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and water pollution : 1/4
Percentage of Americans who believed in anthropogenic global warming in 2001 : 75
Today : 44
Percentage change since 2006 in the value of U.S. residential land : 70
In the value of U.S. cropland : +18
Amount U.S. millionaires received in federal land-preservation grants for ranches and estates in 2009 and 2010 : $89,000,000
Percentage of California residents who were born in the state, according to the last census : 53
Number of previous decades on record in which a majority of Californians were native born : 0
Number of states in which adultery is a criminal offense : 22
Number of reservations White Castle expects nationwide for its candlelit Valentines Day dinner : 6,400
Amount Tampas Penthouse Club spent on renovations to prepare for the Republican convention : $1,000,000
Chance that a page in Michele Bachmanns memoir contains an exclamation point : 1 in 3
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage of political ad spending during 2010 elections that would have been prohibited before Citizens United : 72
Percentage increase since 2009 in investment fraud targeting adults over 50 : 100
Age at which a typical persons financial decision-making ability peaks : 53.3
Amount in BP oil-spill recovery funds spent this winter on a prom for senior citizens in Panama City Beach, Fla. : $166,000
Number of its 1,875 streetlights the city of Highland Park, Mich., has stopped illuminating in the past year to cut costs : 1,387
Amount of Homeland Security funds spent in Michigan last year on Sno-Cone machines : $6,279
Cost of an IED-resistant Tactical Protector Vehicle purchased by the Fond du Lac, Wis., Sheriffs Department : $220,000
Estimated number of parking spaces per car in the United States : 3
Width, in feet, of the narrowest home in New York City : 9.5
Cost of a 50-square-foot storage unit in the basement of the One57 building on West 57th Street in Manhattan : $200,000
Median sale price of a single-family U.S. home sold last year : $166,200
Years by which the average life span of a homeless person is shorter than the overall average : 30
Number of U.S. home sales double-counted by the National Association of Realtors between 2007 and 2010 : 2,970,000
Annual savings the U.S. Mint estimates will result from aborting its efforts to circulate $1 coins : $50,000,000
Factor by which the average white resident of the District of Columbia out-earns the average black resident : 3
Rank of D.C. among urban U.S. school districts with the widest achievement gap between black and white students : 1
Factor by which a black American is more likely than a white one to use Twitter : 2.4
Percentage of the worlds Christians who lived in sub-Saharan Africa in 1912 : 1
Today : 24
Number of Predator drones patrolling the U.S. border with Mexico : 6
Minimum number of persons whose remains the U.S. Air Force dumped in a landfill between 2003 and 2008 : 274
Number of U.S. servicepeople dismissed for pre-existing personality disorders between 2002 and 2007 : 22,656
Amount that each dismissal saves the federal government in annual treatment costs : $13,890
Percentage increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States in 2010 : 50
Estimated amount of money Hezbollah laundered through U.S. used-car dealers between 2007 and 2011 : $329,552,000
Date on which Saudi Arabia last executed a woman for sorcery : 12/12/11
Number of contestants in an elephant beauty pageant held in Sauraha, Nepal, in December : 5
Percentage increase since 2001 in female participation in target shooting in the U.S. : 46.5
Percentage of Americans who have been arrested by the age of twenty-three : 30
Chances that a U.K. diaper-changing table carries trace amounts of cocaine, according to a 2011 Guardian Media study : 9 in 10
Estimated number of methamphetamine labs busted in Missouri in 2011 : 2,000
Percentage of bypass-machine doctors who admitted to talking on cell phones during heart surgery in a 2010 survey : 55
Amount Miamis Miller School of Medicine pays female professional patients for each student breast or pelvic exam : $40
Amount it pays males for each genital or rectal exam : $30
Chances that an employed American works in the service industry : 6 in 7
Rank of the Mafia among Italys largest lending institutions : 1
Rank of Goldman Sachs employees among the largest funding sources for Mitt Romneys campaign : 1
For Obamas 2008 campaign : 2
Percentage of Americans who believe that the population of the United States exceeds one billion : 28
Who believe that Mitt Romneys first name is Mittens : 2
HARPERS INDEX
March Index final2 cx2.indd_0131 1
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HARPERS INDEX
Average balance of a U.S. 401(k) account in 1998 : $62,000
Average balance today : $45,000
Percentage of all U.S. 401(k) accounts that are worth less than $10,000 : 46
Chance that an employed American over 65 says that he or she works out of a need for money : 1 in 6
Amount of stimulus money spent for each job the Obama Administration claims to have created or saved : $250,000
Average number of minutes unemployed Americans are spending looking for a job each day : 18
Number of applications a weekly newspaper in Denver received for its job of medical-marijuana reviewer : 249
Number of Minneapoliss eleven mayoral candidates in November who listed their party affiliation as Is Awesome : 1
Minimum number of House candidates in Florida this year who are running as Whigs : 3
Amount that a Florida attorney spent in 2008 on the cake for Governor Charlie Crists birthday party : $52,000
Number of party fund-raisers President Obama has attended since taking office : 26
Number George W. Bush attended during his first year as president : 6
Date on which Obama tied Bush for the number of rounds of golf played while in office : 10/25/09
Date on which a Goldman Sachs vice president of business intelligence became the head of enforcement at the SEC : 10/13/09
Chance that a Guantnamo detainee has been cleared for release or transfer but remains in prison there : 1 in 2
Number of Americas 93 federal prisons where sexual abuse or misconduct by employees has been reported since 2001 : 92
Number of tickets Dallas police officers have issued since 2006 for not speaking English : 39
Factor by which the total fees to become a U.S. citizen today exceed those in 1989 : 5
Percentage of Americans who think that most Americans do not live up to their responsibilities as citizens : 68
Percentage change since 2008 in the number of formal neighborhood-watch groups in the United States : +40
Estimated percentage change since 2007 in the U.S. market for technology to monitor employees and workplaces : +43
Number of Confucius Institutes the Chinese government has established at U.S. universities to spread Chinese ideas : 61
Number of different levels of allegiance to Kim Jong Il that North Koreans are classified under : 3
Portion of the population that is classified at the lowest level, complex : 1/4
Number of its three Icelandic locations that McDonalds closed in October, citing a complex operational environment : 3
Tons by which U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions would be reduced if our obesity rate were cut to 3 percent : 185,000,000
Tons of CO2 that All Nippon Airways expects to save per month by asking passengers to use the bathroom before boarding : 4.2
Factor by which the carbon footprint of a German shepherd exceeds that of an SUV : 3
Estimated annual cost of the security detail that the will of hotel magnate Leona Helmsley provided for her dog : $100,000
Number of bottles of champagne currently held in reserve by local producers : 1,215,000,000
Ratio of the total explosive energy of opening this many bottles to that from a ton of TNT : 4:1
Factor by which the current global species-extinction rate exceeds what ecologists consider the natural rate : 100
Number of members of the Amazonian Akuntsu tribe in 1995, when it was first contacted by the Brazilian government : 7
Number today : 5
Date on which the fifty-millionth man-made chemical was registered : 9/7/09
Number of registered drug-company lobbyists in Washington, D.C., for every member of Congress : 2
Average amount spent on congressional lobbying, per day, by U.S. health-care companies in 2009 : $1,500,000
Average amount the U.S. government spends on each child during his or her first eighteen years : $140,000
Chance that a U.S. child reports having been assaulted in the past year : 1 in 2
Percentage of these children who were assaulted by siblings : 63
Figures cited are adjusted for infl ation and are the latest available as of November 2009. Sources are listed on page 56.
HARPERS INDEX
January Index final2 rev.indd 1
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HARPERS INDEX
Number of executives at Wall Street banks so far who have been tried on criminal charges related to the financial crisis : 2
Number acquitted : 2
Percentage tax rate that Goldman Sachs paid on its profits for year 2008 : 0.6
Average profit that films with budgets over $100 million have generated since 2007 : $348,000,000
Estimated percentage change since 2007 in the average tabloid payout for a celebrity photograph : 30
Number of architects nominated to design the 2010 New American Home for an annual home-builders convention : 3
Portion of the home completed by November, when the builder ran out of money : 3/4
Chance that a child in the United States will be on food stamps at some point during his or her upbringing : 1 in 2
Price last fall for which a North Carolina middle school allowed students to buy extra credit points on any test : $20
Factor by which the average time a 15-to-19-year-old U.S. girl spends doing housework each day exceeds that of a boy : 2
Percentage of Americans who think that women are more intelligent and honest than men, respectively : 38, 50
Percentage who think they make better political leaders : 6
Portion of men whose attractiveness is judged by U.S. women to be worse than average : 4/5
Portion of women about whom U.S. men say this : 2/5
Number of five-star and one-star reviews, respectively, given to Sarah Palins memoir on Amazon.com : 355, 213
Number of two-, three-, and four-star reviews combined : 65
Percentage of Republican voters who say they would seriously consider voting for Palin for president : 65
Percentage who think she is qualified for the job : 58
Percentage of Republicans who believe President Obama was legitimately elected : 27
Percentage of Fox News viewers who say the network is mostly liberal : 17
Number of the thirteen states most heavily backing John McCain in 2008 that have Democratic governors : 7
Number of the ten states most heavily backing Obama that have G.O.P. governors : 5
Percentage of the California state budget in 1979 that went to higher education and prisons, respectively : 15, 3
Percentage today : 12, 10
Chance that a would-be enlistee to the U.S. military aged 17 to 24 is rejected because of a criminal record : 1 in 20
Chance that he or she is rejected because of physical unfitness : 1 in 3
Estimated number of U.S. veterans under 65 who died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance : 2,266
Factor by which this exceeds the number of U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan last year : 5
Estimated percentage change in U.S. GDP by 2011 that would be caused by ending the Afghan war today : 0.4
Chance that an Afghan reports having been tortured during his or her lifetime : 1 in 5
Number of Cubans convicted in Guantnamo province last February of being in an unemployed state of dangerousness : 35
Length, in minutes, to which Hugo Chvez called upon Venezuelans last fall to limit their morning showers : 3
Portion of all U.S. freshwater used each year that goes toward making food Americans waste : 1/4
Percentage of all food in the U.S. supply chain that is wasted : 40
Ratio of the minimum number of medical-marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles to the number of Starbucks : 4:1
Percentage of Americans under 35 who say they text, tweet, or check their Facebook pages right after sex : 36
Percentage of women using the withdrawal method of contraception who will get pregnant within a year : 4
Percentage of women who will if their partners use condoms : 2
Chance that a female U.S. street prostitute during any given week will be arrested by a police officer : 1 in 67
Chance that she will have sex with a police officer : 1 in 33
HARPERS INDEX
Index Final2 Rev.indd 1
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage of Americans last fall who said the United States should mind its own business internationally : 49
Number of years since the poll began in 1964 that this number was so high : 0
Percentage of Americans who think torture is sometimes or often justified to gain information from terror suspects : 54
Chance that a name currently on the U.S. terrorism watch list also appears on the no-fly list : 1 in 117
Earliest year that Afghanistan will be able to pay for its own internal security, according to President Hamid Karzai : 2024
Age at which Muslim children can be radicalized, according to a memo last fall from a U.K. counterterrorism official : 4
Number of Islamic minarets in Switzerland, which banned the construction of new ones in November : 4
Number of times last year that any of them broadcast a call to prayer : 0
Date on which a Swiss nationalist youth group broadcast a call to prayer in Geneva, to stimulate support for the ban : 11/7/09
Percentage of non-Muslim Americans who know a Muslim : 45
Percentage of South Koreans who say they have never knowingly spoken to a foreigner : 42
Days that North Korea gave its citizens last November to exchange all their currency for new notes : 7
Maximum value of the currency they were allowed to trade in, as estimated by recent black-market values : $30
Percentage of Chinese government officials who said last November that their health was not too good : 98
Percentage increase in the price of garlic in China since March 2009 : 286
Date on which Chinas first state-owned gay bar opened : 12/20/09
Chance that a female same-sex couple in the United States is currently raising a child : 1 in 4
Percentage of U.S. public grade-school teachers who say they buy food for hungry students every month : 63
Average number of words consumed each day by a U.S. adult during his or her leisure time : 105,000
Projected percentage decline in U.S. job listings for tenure-track language and literature professorships this year : 37
Total percentage decline in those disciplines since 2001 this will represent : 51
Number of U.S. university presidents who currently earn more than $1 million per year : 24
Number who did in 2002 : 0
Total annual revenue of the management-consulting industry worldwide : $300,000,000,000
Percentage of French people who say that capitalism is fatally flawed, and a different economic system is needed : 43
Percentage of Americans who had a high opinion of France in 2003 and 2009, respectively : 29, 62
Chance that the U.S. economy will reenter recession in 2010, according to the chief economist at Moodys Analytics : 1 in 4
Percentage of the 780,000 mortgage modifications that have been made permanent so far under a federal program : 8
Percentage that the Obama Administration has said are supposed to become permanent : 57
Percentage of U.S. workers aged 22 to 33 who said in 2008 they hoped to stay with their employer until retirement : 14
Percentage who said this last year : 25
Portion of all U.S. jobs lost during this recession attributable to cuts from small businesses : 3/5
Change in the average number of minutes an American man spends watching TV each day when he becomes unemployed : +74
Change in the average number of minutes of child care he performs : 3
Number of Americans who pay for DNA tests each year to determine their childrens paternity : 400,000
Percentage of American men aged 18 to 29 who believe that standing up during sex is an effective form of contraception : 18
Percentage of population growth Indias health minister says can be reduced through TV, because watchers fall asleep : 80
Percentage by which the average bust size of a Playboy Playmate of the Year is larger in recession years : 3
Minimum number of members the dating site Beautiful People has expelled since December for being too fat : 5,000
Percentage of obese Americans who say they respond to weight discrimination by eating more : 79
HARPERS INDEX
March Index Final2 rev2.indd 1
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HARPERS INDEX
Total profits earned by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank last year : $46,100,000,000
Rank of 2009 among the banks most profitable years on record : 1
Number of U.S. banks receiving federal bailout funds that have missed at least one interest payment to the government : 63
Estimated amount that all U.S. banks charged their customers last year in overdraft fees : $38,900,000,000
Percentage of Americans who say they are satisfied with their jobs and their commutes, respectively : 45, 56
Number of states where the unemployment rate for African Americans is at least twice that of white Americans : 16
Amount that President Obama has added to Americas brand value according to the Nation Brands Index : $2,100,000,000,000
Estimated value of all bribes paid each year in Afghanistan, expressed as a portion of the countrys legal GDP : 1/4
Expressed as a portion of its opium, morphine, and heroin trade : 9/10
Amount of money misused or embezzled by Chinese officials last year, according to a government audit : $34,400,000,000
Percentage of cell phones made by Chinese companies that are unlicensed knockoffs of Western models : 42
Chance that a U.S. automobile accident occurs when at least one of the drivers is texting or talking on a cell phone : 1 in 4
Percentage change since 2008 in the average speed of an Internet connection worldwide : +13
Percentage change in the United States : 2.4
Price paid on eBay in January for a sculpture, by a conceptual artist in Mexico, that automatically sells itself on eBay : $6,350
Date on which Namibia acquired its first mainframe computer : 11/7/2009
Price, from a Michigan company, for a downloadable punctuation mark to indicate sarcasm : $1.99
Average number of hours a U.S. child aged 8 to 18 spends using an electronic device or watching television each day : 7.6
Average number of snacks eaten per day by a U.S. child in 1977 and today, respectively : 1.2, 2.3
Weight, in pounds, of the largest chocolate bunny on record, made last spring in Santa Catarina, Brazil : 6,173
Estimated number of Royal Caribbean passengers who have visited the companys Haitian resort since the earthquake : 36,000
Amount that Chelsea Clinton raised for Haiti by hosting a spinning class in Manhattan : $76,000
Prices paid for a front-row and second-row bike, respectively : $1,000, $500
Number of volunteer ministers sent to Haiti in January by the Church of Scientology : 110
Number of German homeschoolers given asylum in January by a Tennessee court because Germany was persecuting them : 5
Number of rare lizards that New Zealand customs officials found hidden in a German mans underpants in December : 44
Average number of arrests made each year since 2001 by all 4,000 Federal Air Marshals combined : 4
Federal spending this represents per arrest : $200,000,000
Minimum percentage of Arctic warming that has been caused by commercial-airline emissions : 10
Number of arrests in California last year for solar-panel theft : 4
Percentage of the 84,000 chemicals used commercially in the United States that are kept secret under federal law : 20
Percentage of filings to the EPA last year about substantial risk from compounds that involved these secret chemicals : 50
Chance that an American adult claims to wash his or her hands at least ten times a day : 1 in 2
Chance that he or she has a specific phobia of some kind : 1 in 10
Percentage of Protestant pastors in the United States who believe that Islam is dangerous : 66
Percentage of American Muslims who believe the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Arabs : 40
Number of UFO sighting reports made to Englands Ministry of Defence since 1959 : 12,400
Date on which its UFO hotline was scrapped due to the recession : 12/1/2009
Percentage change in the per-capita consumption of alcohol by Britons since 1960 : +102
Percentage change since 1900 : 19
Figures cited are adjusted for infl ation and are the latest available as of February 2010. Sources are listed on page 82.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage of Republicans in a January survey who believed their state should secede from the Union : 23
Percentage who said President Barack Obama wants the terrorists to win : 24
Percentage of Republican party leaders who say they would support a tax increase this year under any circumstances : 4
Projected amount by which U.S. defense spending will rise next year under Obamas spending freeze : $30,569,000,000
Total unfunded retirement liabilities of U.S. state governments today : $1,000,000,000,000
Percentage of health-care spending in India, China, and the United States, respectively, that is private : 75, 59, 54
Average number of minutes that a private-practice doctor in India spends with a patient : 3.5
Average portion of the teachers at government-run primary schools in India that is absent on any given workday : 1/4
Percentage of its faculty a Rhode Island public high school fired in February due to poor student performance : 100
Percentage of its 84 death-row inmates that Louisiana sued in January to block legal challenges to its execution procedures : 100
Percentage change last year in U.S. bank robberies : 11
Number of states that tax the possession of illegal drugs : 19
Amount that Kansas has assessed drug offenders in tax-evasion penalties under such a law : $17,700,000
Percentage change in 2009 in the U.S. rate of violent crime : 4.4
Chances that an American believes crime went up last year : 3 in 4
Percentage of Americans who support allowing homosexuals to serve in the military : 59
Percentage who support allowing gay men and lesbians to serve : 70
Number of reported U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan since Obamas inauguration : 78
Number during George W. Bushs entire presidency : 45
Percentage change since 2007 in worldwide sales of surge protectors : 28
Estimated amount that 2007 regulations on power adapters have saved Americans in electricity costs : $830,000,000
Average increase in cost for each new adapter : $0
Projected change this year in the garbage-collection revenue of Berkeley, California, due to increased recycling : $1,500,000
Number of active farmers markets in the United States : 5,274
Percentage of them that were started during the past decade : 46
Percentage of TV meteorologists in a University of Texas survey who said they thought global warming was a scam : 29
Percentage of Americans who say they trust their TV meteorologists opinions on global warming : 56
Ratio of the number of Republicans in Congress who use Twitter to the number of Democrats who do : 2:1
Minimum number of users on A-Space, the U.S. intelligence communitys online social network : 14,000
Number of members in WELCOM, the exclusive online social network of Davos attendees : 5,000
Number of online subscribers to Newsday three months after the publication imposed a $5-per-week paywall : 35
Number of grammatical errors found by a retired high school teacher in a single issue of The Miami Herald in January : 133
Minimum weight, in pounds, of patrons who can eat free at the Heart Stoppers Sports Grill in Delray, Florida : 350
Man-hours it took to build an entire stage set from Godiva chocolate for a February episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show : 1,400
Minutes it took the audience to break it apart and take it home with them : 30
Number of cannonballs used in the Battle of the Alamo currently owned by singer Phil Collins : 18
Median age in 1982 of Americans who attended a jazz concert that year : 29
Median age today of Americans who had : 46
Percentage of U.S. seniors who favor legalizing marijuana for personal use : 23
Percentage who favor legalizing it for medical use : 69
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Number of current members of Congress who are former congressional staffers : 75
Number of these who were elected to the seat occupied by their former boss : 30
Average age of a sitting U.S. senator : 64
Average age in 1959, 1909, and 1789, respectively : 58, 58, 47
Percentage of all U.S. stimulus funds for renewable energy since last September that have gone to foreign companies : 79
Average percentage of residents without insurance in districts whose representatives voted for health-care reform : 13
Average percentage in districts whose representatives voted against reform : 15
Portion of funding to the U.K. Conservative Party that comes from ten individuals : 1/5
Percentage of British elementary-school students who think Isaac Newton discovered fire : 60
Percentage of its public schools that Kansas City, Missouri, will close before the school year begins : 46
Chances that a U.S. public school cafeteria does not serve either fresh fruits or raw vegetables daily : 2 in 5
Percentage of American public high schools that have vending machines on campus : 97
Percentage, by revenue, of PepsiCos products that the company classifies as good for you : 18
Percentage that it classifies as fun for you or better for you : 82
Number of U.S. corporations that have promoted the Census to their customers and employees this year : 55,000
Minimum number of Americans who receive their Social Security benefits on prepaid debit cards : 1,000,000
Chance that a U.S. household today is multigenerational : 1 in 6
Percentage change in U.S. wages for every one point increase in the percentage of foreign-born workers in the labor force : +0.5
Estimated cost to locate, process, and deport all illegal immigrants in the United States : $285,000,000,000
Percentage change since the fall of 2008 in total DEA seizures of marijuana : +94
Longest period, in days, between formal televised news conferences by George W. Bush : 204
Days that have elapsed since Barack Obamas last such conference : 278
Number of press conferences that Chinas prime minister holds each year : 1
Number of Chinese boys born for every 100 girls born between 1985 and 1989 : 108
Number today : 124
Projected ratio, in 2015, of the total surplus of Chinese boys caused by gender selection to the total population of U.S. boys : 1:1
Percentage change in the past year in the average value of urban real estate in China : +140
Percentage of Chinese who say they intend to start a business within the next three years : 23
Percentage of Colombians and Americans, respectively, who say this : 57, 7
Total value of the 10,149 U.S. companies acquired since 2001 by foreign interests : $1,480,000,000,000
Percentage of the French who think it somewhat or very possible they will one day become homeless : 56
Number of homeless people in France and the United States, respectively, per 1,000 residents : 2, 5
Median net worth of a white American woman aged 36 to 49 : $42,600
Median net worth of a nonwhite American woman that age : $5
Number of Americans who wrote in Negro to describe their race on the 2000 Census : 56,175
Retail price at one Louisiana Walmart in March for an African-American Ballerina Barbie doll : $3
Price for a white Ballerina Barbie : $5.93
Fee charged since 1951 by South Carolina to anyone registering as a subversive agent : $5
Total number of registrants before and after, respectively, a news story about the program appeared this February : 0, 13
Number of the thirteen who paid with Confederate money : 1
HARPERS INDEX
June Index final CX2.indd 1
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HARPERS INDEX
Estimated cost of the environmental damage caused each year by the worlds 3,000 largest companies : $2,200,000,000,000
Portion of the companies total profits this represents : 1/3
Number of industrial facilities found by the EPA to have been in continuous violation of the Clean Air Act since 2007 : 2,000
Percentage of all political contributions made last year by the ten largest U.S. hedge fund firms that went to Democrats : 71
Percentage of federal bailout loan payments made by GM that have been made with federal bailout funds : 100
Minimum number of children under 18 who have received first-time-homebuyer tax credits from the IRS since 2008 : 582
Amount New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergs foundation deposited in Caribbean tax shelters in 2008 : $288,000,000
Percentage change since 2008 in the number of American expatriates who have given up their citizenship : +220
Number of clemency requests Barack Obama has approved since entering office, of the 2,482 he has considered : 0
Number of other presidents since 1900 who considered this many requests before approving his first : 0
Years that a single Freedom of Information Act request has been under consideration by the government : 18
Chances that a FOIA request, in any given year, has been made by or on behalf of a U.S. non-media business : 3 in 5
Minimum value of all stocks currently held by life- and health-insurance firms in U.S. fast-food companies : $1,880,000,000
Percentage change in the number of registered users at eLayaway.com since December 2008 : +300
Chance that a publicly traded U.S. company started with venture-capital funds was founded by immigrants : 1 in 4
Number of the 25 largest U.S. cities in which immigrants hold more white-collar jobs than blue-collar jobs : 14
Percentage of Mexicans in a 2009 survey who said the primary loyalty of Mexican Americans should be to Mexico : 69
Chances that an Arizonan is Latino : 3 in 10
Chance that an Arizona voter is : 1 in 6
Date that Arizona banned ethnic-studies classes that teach hatred of other races or classes of people in public schools : 5/11/10
Estimated number of wild coyotes killed or trapped by hunters in Arizona last year : 30,000
Estimated number of categories of products that are currently available for sale in the Gaza Strip : 4,000
Number of those that are legally imported into Gaza : 73
Minimum number of Palestinians who have had their residency rights revoked by Israel since 2003 : 6,739
Percentage of Afghan police units that the U.S. military believes are capable of operating without assistance : 12
Chance that a new Afghan police recruit knows how to read : 1 in 10
Minutes of reporting on the Iraq war aired so far this year on network-television news programs : 14
Percentage change since 2007 in the number of alleged sexual assaults committed by U.S. service members : +18
Number of Mexican states where legal penalties for abortion are more severe for women found to be of ill repute : 8
Chances that a young Egyptian woman thinks a man should be allowed to beat his wife for speaking to another man : 2 in 3
Minimum number of people arrested in Lahore, Pakistan, in February for selling or flying kites : 113
Number of U.S. states in which it is legal for first cousins to marry : 19
Percentage of Americans in a 2009 survey who said they were satisfied with their family lives : 90
Number of states that currently ban involuntary implanting of microchips into a persons body : 4
Average number of Americans hospitalized each July with sparkler injuries : 1,020
Percentage of Americans in 1973 and 2006 who considered air conditioning a necessity : 26, 70
Percentage in 2009 : 54
Percentage of English soccer fans in North America who would fast for a week to see their country win the World Cup : 93
Percentage of Italians there who would : 1
Odds, given by an online bookmaker, that the Large Hadron Collider will confirm the existence of God : 100:1
HARPERS INDEX
July Index Final CX.indd 1
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HARPERS INDEX
Total campaign contributions Barack Obama received from BP between 2004 and 2009 : $77,051
Number of politicians who accepted more in donations from BP during that period : 0
Factor by which BPs 2010 first-quarter profits exceed its $75-million liability cap for the Gulf oil spill : 75
Percentage of willful violations by U.S. oil refiners since 2007 that occurred at BP plants, according to OSHA : 97
Percentage of stock-dividend payments made by British companies last year that were from BP : 12
Percentage of all U.S. derivatives that are currently held by five finance firms : 97
Projected amount U.S. state and local governments will lose this year on interest-rate swaps with banks : $1,600,000,000
Estimated amount the Greek government will lose due to tax evasion : $18,000,000,000
Percentage of their personal income Americans paid in taxes last year : 17
Last year in which Americans paid so little : 1971
Percentage of all U.S. personal income last year that came from wages and government programs, respectively : 52, 17
Number of years since record keeping began in 1929 that these figures have been so low and so high, respectively : 0
Percentage change since 2007 in the hourly wage of an American man with a postgraduate degree : +26
Percentage change for a high school dropout : 16
Percentage change since 2007 in the median wealth of white Americans and African Americans, respectively : 34, 77
Minimum number of African Americans running as Republicans in this years congressional elections : 32
Last year in which an African-American Republican was elected to the House : 2001
Number of immigrants deported during George W. Bushs first year as president : 116,782
Number deported during Obamas first year : 387,790
Percentage of Americans in a May survey who thought hiring an illegal immigrant should be a criminal offense : 73
Percentage who thought churches should be required to report illegal immigrants : 33
Percentage of Pakistanis who hold a favorable opinion of China and of the United States, respectively : 84, 16
Number of nuclear reactors currently under construction in China : 23
Date on which the only confirmed survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic-bomb attacks died : 1/4/2010
Number of Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. soldiers in World War II : 464
Number awarded so far in Iraq and Afghanistan : 6
Percentage of all countries that hold prisoners of conscience, according to Amnesty International : 30
Percentage of G-20 countries that do : 42
Price of an i dprk football onesie from a North Carolina sports-apparel company : $12.99
Percentage of Israeli Jews in an April survey who said Israel allows too much freedom of expression : 50
Percentage change since 2001 in the number of personal-injury lawsuits filed against New York City police officers : +97
Chance that a U.S. criminologist thinks abolishing the death penalty would increase the murder rate : 1 in 10
Number of states that have eased restrictions on Sunday alcohol sales since the beginning of the recession : 5
Number of states where it is legal for employers to discriminate on the basis of physical appearance : 49
Percentage of gay marriages performed in Iowa that have been between residents of the state : 40
Percentage of unmarried American men over 45 who use condoms when they have sex : 29
Chance that a sexually active U.S. teenage boy would be pleased if he got a female pregnant : 1 in 5
Chance that a teenage girl has used the rhythm method for contraception : 1 in 6
Percentage of U.S. Catholics who believe there is spiritual energy in trees and mountains : 29
Percentage who believe in the evil eye : 17
HARPERS INDEX
August Index Final.indd 1
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HARPERS INDEX
Number of U.S. states with a projected 2011 budget shortfall of at least 10 percent : 31
Estimated number of states that will hold less than 1 percent of their annual spending in reserve this year : 14
Number of states whose pension plans were fully funded in 2000 : 26
Number whose are now : 3
Projected change since last year in the amount of money states receive from corporate taxes : $2,500,000,000
Pages of documents Goldman Sachs has submitted since May to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission : 2,500,000,000
Number of days federal investigators have been given to review all the documents before issuing their final report : 209
Median bond rating for U.S. corporations in 1981 and 2009, respectively : A, BBB
Percentage of all campaign donations from securities and investment firms that went to Democrats in 2009 : 61
Percentage so far this year : 44
Percentage change in new-home sales in the month after a federal first-time homebuyer program expired in April : 33
Number of prison inmates who received tax credits under the program : 1,295
Number of them serving life sentences : 241
Price that Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, charges for a two-day Home Defense course : $400
Number of people on the federal terrorism watch list who have undergone background checks to purchase guns or explosives : 650
Chances that they were allowed to buy their weapons : 9 in 10
Average annual government expenditures since 2005 on military research and development : $77,000,000,000
Average expenditures on energy research and development : $5,000,000,000
Value of the fuel contracts awarded to BP by the Pentagon last year : $2,200,000,000
Rank of BP among the largest fuel suppliers to the Defense Department : 1
Number of federal environmental-impact study exemptions granted to oil and gas companies in the Gulf since the BP oil spill : 33
Percentage of seafood consumed in the United States that is imported : 83
Number of Americans who have died since 1998 from drinking unpasteurized milk : 2
Estimated number of U.S. children hospitalized last year after hurting themselves on monkey bars, swings, or slides : 173,000
Number of states that applied for federal education funds in the first round of President Obamas Race to the Top program : 40
Number that have received funds : 2
Number of public-school jobs that have been lost in the past year : 85,700
Chances that a public school district plans to increase class sizes in the coming school year : 3 in 5
Percentage of American 16- and 17-year-olds who use text messaging who say they do so while driving : 34
Percentage of adults who do : 47
Minimum number of U.S. colleges that allow household pets to live in student dormitories : 6
Minimum number of dogs killed in Baghdad between April and July as part of a government anti-stray campaign : 58,000
Days it took to try, convict, and execute a man who killed eight schoolchildren last April in Nanping, China : 36
Price paid at a June auction for the Checker Cab Lee Harvey Oswald used as a getaway car : $35,750
Number of New York City bus drivers who filed an assault report last year after being spat on by a passenger : 51
Average number of days of paid leave taken by the drivers to recover from the assault : 64
Number of prisoners at the U.N. detention center in The Hague who have fathered children while awaiting trial for war crimes : 2
Estimated number of cases pending in Indias court systems : 30,000,000
Number of people in India who currently have access to a mobile phone : 617,500,000
Number who have access to a toilet : 366,000,000
HARPERS INDEX
Sept Index final.indd 1
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7/23/10 6:13 AM
HARPERS INDEX
Total number of pages in the financial reform bill enacted by Congress in July : 848
Number of pages in the bills that created Social Security and the Federal Trade Commission, respectively : 29, 8
Percentage of this years federal budget deficit attributable to Bush-era tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan : 38
Net change in the amount of money kept in U.S. stock-based mutual funds since 2007 : $249,400,000,000
Percentage of all revenue earned by S&P 500 companies last year that came from outside the United States : 47
Percentage of all U.S. railway freight cars that are currently in storage : 23
Percentage of municipal workers in Maywood, California, who were laid off in July : 100
Date on which the Oakland Police stopped responding to burglaries not in progress due to a budget shortfall : 8/2/10
Chance that a U.S. worker plans to change jobs when the recession ends : 1 in 3
Date that United Farm Workers began Take Our Jobs, a campaign asking legal U.S. residents to work as farm laborers : 6/24/10
Number so far who have been willing to do so : 14
Percentage of Oklahomas population that is Muslim : 0.81
Date on which its state legislature approved a referendum to ban judges from using shariah law in their decisions : 5/24/10
Date on which an evangelical Christian congregation in Gainesville, Florida, scheduled a Koran burning at its church : 9/11/10
Percentage of Afghans in a July survey who said they believed NATO forces were in Afghanistan to rebuild the country : 1
Percentage who said NATO was there to destroy Islam : 9
Number of Aerial Achievement Medals awarded by the Air Force to drone operators since January 2009 : 3,497
Number awarded to pilots of manned aircraft during that time : 1,408
Minimum number of people prosecuted so far by the Obama Administration for leaking classified documents : 4
Number prosecuted under the Bush Administration : 0
Number of instances in which the New York Times characterized the practice of waterboarding as torture before 2004 : 44
Number of times that it has since then : 2
Estimated number of behavior detection officers employed in U.S. airports to spot potentially dangerous travelers : 3,000
Percentage of the officers 266,000 referrals since 2006 that led to arrests : 0.7
Chance that an American adult is either incarcerated, on probation, or on parole : 1 in 31
Chances that a Chinese criminal prosecution will result in a guilty verdict : 9 in 10
Number of the worlds ten largest banks that were Chinese-owned in 2000 and 2010, respectively : 0, 4
Date on which the Xinglong Big Family Mall in Shenyang, China, opened a venting store for women : 3/8/10
Minimum amount a woman must spend in the mall to enter the store and destroy household furniture and electronics : $6
Percentage change in sales of birth control for women in the United States since 2007 : +13
Chance that a Briton who has sent a sexually explicit text message has sent one to the wrong person : 1 in 5
Price of a lingerie calendar produced by the Czech Public Affairs Party featuring twelve female members of parliament : $20.73
Percentage of Americans who say they would have cosmetic surgery if they could afford it : 69
Percentage increase in the number of U.S. buttock-augmentation surgeries performed since 2008 : 37
Inches by which the average width of a seat in a U.S. performing-arts theater has increased since 1990 : 1
Percentage change since 2008 in the number of Americans who say they exercise regularly : +6
Percentage change in the number who are obese : 0
Number of different Halloween costumes a San Diego company markets for sale as sassy & sexy : 51
Date on which a Dutch porn star pledged to give a BJ to her Twitter followers if the Netherlands won the World Cup : 6/28/10
Number of people who signed up to follow her between then and the World Cup final : 105,269
HARPERS INDEX
October Index final2.indd 1
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8/19/10 8:54 AM
HARPERS INDEX
Date that the Tea Party Bookshop in Salem, Oregon, changed its name to Tigress Books : 8/24/10
Percentage of Republican congressional candidates endorsed by Sarah Palin who won their primary races : 60
Chance that a viewer of Fox Newss prime-time broadcast is African-American : 1 in 100
Number of Ebonics speakers the DEA requested this year to interpret wiretapped conversations of African-American suspects : 9
Percentage of Americans who say they do not know a Muslim : 62
Days after the U.S. military relinquished control of its last prison in Iraq that four prisoners escaped : 5
Percentage of city-dwelling Iraqis who lived in slums in 2003, according to the United Nations : 20
Percentage who do today : 53
Number of active-duty U.S. soldiers who have sought behavioral health counseling so far this year : 32,994
Number of musicians currently serving in U.S. military bands : 7,007
Number of English-language schools operated by the Walt Disney Company in China : 15
Percentage of babies born in Hong Kong last year whose mothers were visitors from mainland China : 36
Percentage of children born in the United States in 2008 with at least one parent in the country illegally : 8
Average amount that U.S. parents spend to raise a child to age 18 : $286,000
Chance that an American teenager in an August survey was considering un-friending his or her parents on Facebook : 1 in 3
Percentage of Americans under age 25 who say they would read a text message while on the john : 24
Percentage who would while having sex : 11
Percentage of 27- to 45-year-old women who have at least four sexual fantasies per week : 35
Percentage of 18- to 26-year-old women who do : 27
Number of women who served on the boards of major corporations last year in Japan and Kuwait, respectively : 15, 30
Net worth of Indias ten richest people, expressed as a percentage of the countrys GDP : 12
Average interest rate currently paid by credit-card holders in Mexico : 32
Number of British households in which no adult has ever been employed : 352,000
Net domestic profits earned by U.S. corporations since the fourth quarter of 2008 : $609,000,000,000
Net decrease since then in the amount these companies spent on wages and benefits : $171,000,000,000
Average value of the 2009 salary and benefits paid to private-sector and federal workers, respectively : $61,050, $115,182
Percentage increase since 1960 in the average weight of a farm-raised U.S. turkey : 72
Percentage of American corporations whose stock is currently rated as a buy, according to Bloomberg : 29
Number of U.S. state and local government jobs that have been lost so far this year : 135,000
Number of Americans who were awarded Social Security retirement benefits last year : 2,740,000
Percentage of these people who opted to apply early in exchange for reduced benefits : 73
Percentage of British businessmen who travel with their teddy bears : 25
Percentage of British men who say they share all [their] secrets with their teddy bears : 15
Percentage of women who say they do : 10
Chance that an American couple who met since 2007 first met online : 1 in 4
Number of people trampled to death in July during a stampede at the Love Parade in Duisburg, Germany : 21
Amount the German environment ministry paid hunters last year for their radioactive wild-boar meat : $590,000
Number of countries in which gay sex is currently illegal : 76
Number of overdue books returned last year to the San Francisco Public Library during a two-week fine amnesty : 29,228
Number of years a copy of George Bernard Shaws Man and Superman had been overdue : 45
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage change in the U.S. unemployment rate since June 2009, when the recession officially ended : +1
Chance that a heterosexual man who moved in with his partner in 2010 had been unemployed for at least a year : 1 in 4
Estimated percentage of all U.S. murders that are committed by women : 10
Percentage of executions for murder since 1977 that were of women : 1
Percentage of U.S. female senior-level executives who say they have had an affair with a male boss : 15
Estimated percentage change since 2000 in the number of management positions in U.S. companies held by women : 0
Percentage change in reading scores for public-school fourth graders since No Child Left Behind became law : +1
Number of delayed-notice search warrants granted by federal judges last year under the Patriot Act : 1,150
Number that were related to drug offenses and terrorism, respectively : 844, 6
Number of times between January and June that Google turned over user information to government investigators : 4,287
Date a congressional report called the number of government entities to be created by health-care reform unknowable : 7/8/10
Value of economic-recovery bonds the State of Louisiana has sold since Hurricane Katrina : $5,900,000,000
Percentage of the revenue that has been spent on projects in New Orleans : 1
Percentage spent on the Lower Ninth Ward : 0
On the states oil industry : 29
Estimated percentage change in the poverty rate in the developing world since 1990 : 40
Change if China is not included in this figure : 18
Estimated value of Chinese household income that goes unreported : $1,400,000,000,000
Portion of Chinas GDP this represents : 1/3
Portion of all pencils, pens, and crayons sold last year that were manufactured in China : 1/3
Percentage of African Americans in a September survey who said they feel their standard of living is improving : 63
Percentage of white Americans who feel this way : 40
Percentage change in the U.S. suicide rate for every 500 meters above sea level : +17
Price a British company charges to have a deceased persons ashes pressed into a package of 30 vinyl records : $4,704
Estimated loss to Japans economy last year from suicides and depression : $29,000,000,000
Percentage of all food consumed in Cuba that is imported : 80
Chance that an Indian child younger than five is chronically malnourished : 1 in 2
Rank of carbonated beverages among the best-selling grocery items in the United States this year : 1
Rank of baked desserts, pizza, and soda as sources of calories for American children, respectively : 1, 2, 3
Number of children born last year on Christmas Day in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania : 3
Chances that an American believes that Jesus Christ will return to earth by 2050 : 2 in 5
Percentage change since 2008 in the number of Jewish Americans who identify themselves as Republican : +77
Chance that an American believes Ramadan is the Jewish day of atonement : 1 in 10
Chance that a U.S. Protestant knows who Martin Luther is : 1 in 2
Percentage of Americans who believe that Stephen King wrote Moby-Dick : 4
Number of U.S. states in which it is legal to own a tiger without a license : 9
Portion of the worlds reindeer herds that are currently in decline : 4/5
Number of poisonous dead mice the USDA airdropped into Guam this year to eradicate an invasive snake species : 316
Milligrams of acetaminophen inserted into each mouse : 80
Number of episodes of Happy Days that aired after the one in which the Fonz jumped a shark : 164
HARPERS INDEX
December Index Final2CX2.indd 1
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HARPERS INDEX
A retrospective of the Bush era
Number of news stories from 1998 to Election Day 2000 containing George W. Bush and aura of inevitability : 206
Amount for which Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999 : $2,500
Year in which a political candidate first sued Palm Beach County over problems with hanging chads : 1984
Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount : $15,400
Percentage of Bushs first 189 appointees who also served in his fathers administration : 42
Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists : 98
Years before becoming energy secretary that Spencer Abraham cosponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Energy : 2
Number of Chevron oil tankers named after Condoleezza Rice, at the time she became foreign policy adviser : 1
Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy : 2/22/02
Number of other officials the GAO has sued over access to federal records : 0
Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheneys Energy Task Force investigated Iraqs oil resources : 6
Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by eco-terrorists : 9
Date on which the first contract for a book about September 11 was signed : 9/13/01
Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11 : 1,182
Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime : 0
Number charged with an immigration violation : 762
Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an elevated terror alert that the level has been relaxed : 0
Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden : 20
Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002 : 105,075
Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D. : 39
Chances an American in 2002 believed the government should regulate comedy routines that make light of terrorism : 2 in 5
Rank of Mom, Dad, and Rudolph Giuliani among those whom 2002 college graduates said they most wished to emulate : 1, 2, 3
Number of members of the rock band Anthrax who said they hoarded Cipro so as to avoid an ironic death : 1
Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bushs 2002 State of the Union standing ovations : 22,000
Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU : 50
Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following : 1,069
Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector : 100
Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents : 0
Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, I truly am not that concerned about him : 3/13/02
Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked Shock & Awe for video games : 1
Days later that the company gave up the trademark, citing regrettable bad judgment : 25
Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Azizs mansion : 2
Number by thenNew York Times reporter Judith Miller : 1
Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime : 3.6
Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence : 120
Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war : 1 in 6
Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003 : 3/4
Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA : 35
Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder : 1 in 4
Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003 : 452,677
Number of eligibility restrictions for admission into the Army that have been loosened since 2003 : 9
HARPERS INDEX
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Percentage change from 2004 to 2007 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite having been charged with a felony : +295
Date on which the White House announced it had stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq : 1/12/05
Years since his acquittal that O. J. Simpson has said he is still looking for his wifes real killers : 13
Minimum number of close-up photographs of Bushs hands owned by his current chief of staff, Josh Bolten : 4
Number of vehicles in the motorcade that transports Bush to his regular bike ride in Maryland : 6
Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president : 5,400
Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots : 1/3
Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfelds vacation home : 25
Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002 : 2,500
Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody : 8
Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006 : 200
Date on which USA Today added Guantnamo to its weather map : 1/3/05
Number of incidents of torture on prime-time network TV shows from 2002 to 2007 : 897
Number on shows during the previous seven years : 110
Percentage change since 2000 in U.S. emigration to Canada : +79
Number of the thirty-eight Iraq war veterans who have run for Congress who were Democrats : 21
Percentage of Republicans in 2005 who said they would vote for Bush over George Washington : 62
Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machines lock and remove its memory card : 10
Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted : 40
Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted : 4
Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners : 3/4
Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level : 3,500,000
Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses : +172
Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bushs privatization plan had passed : 15
Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs : 9
Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so : +121
Number of times FDA officials met with consumer and patient groups as they revised drug-review policy in 2006 : 5
Number of times they met with industry representatives : 113
Amount the Justice Department spent in 2001 installing curtains to cover two seminude statues of Justice : $8,650
Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001 : 196
Number of Democratic officials who have been : 890
Number of White House officials in 2006 and 2007 authorized to discuss pending criminal cases with the DOJ : 711
Number of Clinton officials ever authorized to do so : 4
Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office : 130
Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush : 92
Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding : +466
Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002 : 60
Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change : 4
Number of total additions made to the U.S. endangered-species list under Bush : 61
Average number made yearly under Clinton : 65
Minimum number of pheasant hunts Dick Cheney has gone on since he shot a hunting companion in 2006 : 5
Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheneys office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines : 1
Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans : 4
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HARPERS MAGAZINE / JANUARY 2009
Portion of the $3.3 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents : 1/4
Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the storm : +153
Rank of Nevaeh, heaven spelled backward, among the fastest growing names given to American newborns since 2000 : 1
Months, beginning in 2001, that the federal governments online condom fact sheet disappeared from its website : 17
Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006 : $209,000,000
Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years : $107,000,000
Percentage change from 2003 to 2007 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds : +88
Average annualized percentage return during that time in the Christian and Muslim funds, respectively : +11, +15
Number of feet the Ground Zero pit has been built up since the site was fully cleared in 2002 : 30
Number of 980-foot-plus Super Tall towers built in the Arab world in the seven years since 9/11 : 4
Year by which the third and final phase of the 2003 road map to a Palestinian state was to have been reached : 2005
Estimated number of the twenty-five provisions of the first phase that have yet to be completed : 12
Number of times in 2007 that U.S. media called General David Petraeus King David : 14
Percentage change during the first ten months of the Iraq war surge in the number of Iraqis detained in U.S.-run prisons : +63
Percentage change in the number of Iraqis aged nine to seventeen detained : +285
Ratio of the entire U.S. federal budget in 1957, adjusted for inflation, to the amount spent so far on the Iraq war : 1:1
Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations : $10,350,000,000,000 (see page 31)
Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during Bushs presidency : +31
Percentage change during Reagans and Clintons, respectively : +16, +0.3
Ratio in 1999 of the number of U.S. federal employees to the number of private employees on government contracts : 15:6
Ratio in 2006 : 14:15
Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding : $73,000,000,000
Total in 2007 : $146,000,000,000
Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed : 4
Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB : $71,000,000,000
Minimum number of copies sold, since it was released in 2006, of Flipping Houses for Dummies : 45,000
Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has negative equity, i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value : 1 in 5
Estimated value of Henry Paulsons Goldman Sachs stock when he became Treasury Secretary and sold it : $575,000,000
Estimated value of that stock today : $238,000,000
Salary in 2006 of the White Houses newly created Director for Lessons Learned : $106,641
Minimum number of Bush-related books published since 2001 : 606
Number of words in the first sentence of Bill Clintons memoir and in that of George W. Bushs, respectively : 49, 5
Minimum number of nicknames Bush has given to associates during his presidency : 75
Number of associates with the last name Jackson he has dubbed Action Jackson : 2
Number of press conferences at which Bush has referred to a question as a trick : 14
Number of times he has declared an event or outcome not to be acceptable : 149
Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating : 1
Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term : 37
Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin : 37
Most of the Bush-era figures cited here appeared in the Harpers Index between 2000 and 2008
and have been updated as of November 2008. Sources are listed on page 68.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Number of times in 2008 that the S&P 500 closed up or down 5 percent in a single day : 17
Number of times between 1956 and 2007 it did this : 17
Year that the U.S. stock market first regained its 1929 pre-crash peak : 1954
Profit that the federal government made in 1983 on stock obtained in its 1979 bailout of Chrysler : $311,000,000
Projected percentage change in the number of U.S. new-auto dealerships this year : 8
Percentage of Americans who say they would not buy a car from an automaker in bankruptcy : 94
Amount that GMs car-loan business lost during the first nine months of 2008 : $2,700,000,000
Annual percentage interest rate that Venezuela charged Argentina for a $1 billion loan last August : 15
Date on which Venezuela and Russia conducted a joint naval exercise in the Caribbean : 12/1/08
Percentage of Russians who say one goal of U.S. foreign policy is the complete destruction of Russia : 43
Number of world nations that signed a treaty banning cluster bombs last December : 94
Chances that a nation with known stockpiles of cluster bombs did : 2 in 5
Number of Iraqi stray dogs that Operation Baghdad Pups has helped emigrate to the United States since 2003 : 66
Number currently on the waiting list : 50
Minimum number of Americans since January 2008 who have purchased stem-cell therapy for their dogs : 1,196
Chance that an American over 65 has no natural teeth : 1 in 4
Percentage by which chewing gum reduces anxiety during conditions of mild to moderate stress : 12
Percentage of U.S. school districts that have banned bake sales due to anti-obesity regulations : 29
Number of applications submitted last fall for a $10,000 collegiate blogging scholarship : 1,902
Number that turned out to be spam : 557
Minimum number of Amish households in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that use electricity generated by solar power : 2,000
Price for one D.C. hotels Eco-Inaugural package, which includes use of a Lexus hybrid and a driver for four days : $40,000
Number of members of the Impeach Obama Facebook group as of last December : 8,479
Date on which the group was first posted to : 3/7/2008
Days after the Columbine shootings in 1999 that Eric Holder called for regulations in how people interact on the Internet : 5
Number of the four Republican-primary rivals in Abraham Lincolns cabinet who left by the end of his first term : 3
Months into his first term that Lincoln told a friend his cabinet was on the brink of destruction : 21
Rank of Barack Obamas election among the biggest day[s] ever in the history of marketing, according to an Ad Age columnist : 1
Rank of Guns N Roses Chinese Democracy among musics most anticipated album[s] ever, according to its ad campaign : 1
Rank the album held on the Billboard charts in the first and second weeks of its release, respectively : 3, 18
Amount for which TV Guide was sold in October : $1
Year in which Bhutans king instituted Gross National Happiness as a leading indicator : 1972
Percentage of Bhutanese who are currently happy, according to the countrys new pilot survey : 68
Pounds of ice, sculpted into the word ECONOMY, that artists used last fall to create a literal meltdown in Manhattan : 1,500
Estimated total value in December 2007 of the family fortune of Thomas Friedmans wife : $3,500,000,000
Percentage change in the value of that fortune since then : 97
Percentage of unfaithful female multimillionaires who say they plan to spend less on their paramours this year : 15
Percentage of unfaithful male multimillionaires who say this : 82
Standard hourly rate at Manhattans Liberty Inn, whose slogan is Your Rendezvous for Romance : $30
Percentage discount it was offering first-time visitors last December : 50
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage of Americans who think their lives serve an important purpose : 94
Percentage of U.S. teens who say they are completely satisfied with themselves : 30
Chance that a U.S. high-school student says he or she has stolen something from a store in the past year : 1 in 3
Extra points that a California student added to his GPA last year by hacking into a school computer : 1.9
Years in prison to which he might be sentenced at his upcoming trial : 38
Average number of hours of television watched per week by Americans aged 43 to 61 : 19
Average number watched by those aged 26 to 42 and those aged 14 to 25, respectively : 15, 11
Number of serialized TV and radio melodramas in favor of population control produced by a Vermont group : 18
Number of countries in which the group has aired them : 23
Number of days by which the median age of Europe increases each week : 2
Percentage of residents of former Communist-bloc nations who say they live better now than in 1989 : 30
Date by which the head of Russias foreign-service academy says the United States will have totally disintegrated : 7/4/2010
Number of days in November that a family farm near Denver opened up its fields for free picking : 1
Number of people who showed up : 40,000
Minimum number of U.S. homeowners whose banks improved their mortgage terms in the first quarter of last year : 73,000
Percentage of them who were a month or more behind on their payments six months after the relief : 55
Number of months since record keeping began in 1947 that U.S. consumer prices declined as steeply as in November 2008 : 0
Last year in which total world trade shrank, before it did so in 2008 : 1982
Amount Italy spent last year to bail out its Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheese industries : $65,000,000
Minimum per-capita debt that Iceland owes to foreign depositors as a result of its banking collapse : $19,100
Per-capita reparations required of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles : $2,400
Chance that a U.S. Gulf War veteran still suffers from Gulf War illness, according to a federal panel : 1 in 4
Number of twenty PTSD patients in a 2008 study who reported significant improvement after being treated with ecstasy : 20
Percentage of PTSD patients in an earlier study who reported improvement after taking Zoloft : 53
Estimated total, in pounds, of explosives dropped by Israel on Gaza during the first week of this winters attack : 40,000
Estimated total fired into Israel by Palestinians last year : 40,000
Number of people killed by Hamas rocket attacks since 2001 : 28
Average pain rating, on a scale of 1 to 7, given by study participants to a shock they believed to be unintentional : 3.0
Average rating they assigned the same shock when they believed it to be intentional : 3.6
Percentage of the estimated total population of extraterritorial U.S. prisons that is held at Guantnamo : 1
Total number of guns that five of the six candidates for RNC chairman bragged about owning during their January debate : 22
Number of the candidates who said he had too many to count : 1
Amount an undisclosed buyer offered the MinneapolisSt. Paul airport last year for the Larry Craig bathroom stall : $5,000
Number of times that Caroline Kennedy said you know during a 45-minute interview with the New York Times : 138
Number of different occupations that Barbie has held during her 50-year run : 108
Days after going on sale that tickets to Julys National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention sold out : 2
Minimum number of nations that currently have plans to build a Ferris wheel larger than the current record holder : 3
Number of exotic marine animals that a new Dubai hotel keeps in its 3 million gallons of decorative tanks : 65,000
Pounds of restaurant-quality seafood the animals are fed each day : 485
Price, at a Reykjavk restaurant, of a whale kebab called Moby Dick on a Stick : $9
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Average number of years after the beginning of a severe economic downturn that economic growth resumes : 2
Average number of years until unemployment reaches its peak : 5
Estimated amount by which the U.S. GDP increases for each additional dollar of tax cuts : $1.03
Amount for each additional dollar of infrastructure spending and food stamps, respectively : $1.59, $1.73
Date on which New York States unemployment trust fund ran out of money : 1/1/2009
Average amount the states labor department is now borrowing each week to continue making payments : $95,000,000
Amount the U.S. government spent last year on its former presidents : $2,500,000
Amount it spent on Bill Clintons telephone service : $79,000
Date on which a U.S. newspaper first claimed that the honeymoon ends for Barack Obama : 1/20/2009
Number of times in 2007 and 2008 that Senate bills were blocked by the minority because cloture votes failed : 51
Number of times this happened in 2005 and 2006, when Democrats were in the minority : 20
Number of Obama campaign promises that the St. Petersburg Times is tracking through its online Obameter : 510
Number so far it has called kept and broken, respectively : 11, 2
Percentage of Americans who supported gay marriage in 1996, when Obama told a Chicago newspaper he did : 27
Percentage of Americans who supported gay marriage in 2008, when Obama opposed it : 39
Years in prison to which one can be sentenced under French law for publishing a childrens book that celebrates cowardice : 1
Percentage change between 1989 and 1996 in the number of democracies worldwide : +71
Percentage change since 1996 : 0
Number of successful military coups in Africa during the 1960s and 1980s, respectively : 24, 21
Number since 2000 : 5
Average number of people in Congo who have died from war-related causes each month since August 1998 : 51,400
Projected number of extra U.S. deaths that the current recession will cause, according to a Texas professor : 71,000
Number of these that will be suicides and homicides, respectively : 1,800, 1,300
Estimated number of jobs that would be created under a U.S. single-payer health-care system : 2,600,000
Ratio of this to the total number of U.S. jobs lost last year : 1:1
Percentage by which workers in open-plan offices are more likely to have hypertension than those in walled offices : 49
Percentage of U.S. dietitians who say the recession is making it more difficult for their patients to lose weight : 56
Percentage of U.S. elementary schools that send obesity report cards home to parents : 23
Ratio of the number of U.S. tenth graders who smoke marijuana in a given month to the number who smoke cigarettes : 11:10
Average number of text messages sent or received each month by an American teen : 1,956
Hours that a fourteen-year-old police impersonator was sent out on assignment by Chicagos police department in January : 5
Total revenue raised last year by the city of New York from fines on parking violations: $623,979,233
Annual budget of the New York City Department of Transportation : $697,786,000
Number of blocks in Washington, D.C., that the city declared a Prostitution Free Zone for the inauguration : 2
Percentage of Americans born in Washington, D.C., who still live there : 13
Percentage of Texans who still live in Texas, the highest for any state : 76
Number of Dallas-area mothers whose conversations a marketing agency covertly monitored in mommy stings : 400
Average number of brand names a group of mothers mentioned per minute of conversation : 1.3
Price for which a Colorado firm will genetically test a one- to six-year-old for sports aptitude : $149
Minimum number of children who have undergone the test so far : 200
Figures cited are the latest available as of February 2009. Sources are listed on page 70.
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Change since March 2008 in the total credit extended to Americans through credit cards : $349,300,000,000
Estimated portion of all new U.S. savings last year that actually was payment of credit-card debt : 3/4
Percentage change in the past year in the number of U.S. cars and trucks repossessed : +12
Percentage change in the number of leisure boats repossessed : +72
Percentage change between 2007 and 2008 in the number of Americans who reported haggling for goods : +29
Chances that an American who has become unemployed since December 2007 is a man : 4 in 5
Percentage of all U.S. men over twenty who are now unemployed or not seeking work : 31
Estimated percentage of Bush Administration political appointees who are currently unemployed : 70
Estimated number of Chinese factory workers who returned to the countryside in January : 14,000,000
Months after a Tokyo hotel shut down last fall that its staff kept it running for no pay : 3
Estimated number of minutes it took riot police to eject them from the premises in January : 15
Percentage change last year in the total net worth of Russias ten wealthiest individuals : 68
Minimum number of jobs currently open in Antarctica : 676
Chances that the range of a North American bird species has moved northward since 1966 : 3 in 5
Average number of miles north these species have moved : 99
Minimum number of bald eagles struck by U.S. airplanes since 1990 : 147
Number known to have survived : 7
Average number of books about Abraham Lincoln released every week since 2007 : 1
Percentage by which the average hourly pay of U.S. white men exceeds that of black men : 27
Percentage by which it exceeds that of biracial Americans : 40
Rank of the Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel, N.Y., among the poorest municipalities in the United States : 1
Percentage of its residents who live below the poverty line : 68
Percentage change since 2000 in the number of multigenerational U.S. households : +24
Number of MySpace accounts deleted since 2007 because they were created by registered sex offenders : 90,000
Average exam score, in a SUNYFredonia study, for students who only listened to a podcast of their professors lecture : 71
Average score for those who only attended the lecture : 62
Percentage change in the fourth quarter of 2008 in the number of new websites created worldwide : 12
Average number of seconds that Drudge Report readers spend on the site per day : 118
Average number that visitors to major newspaper sites do : 26
Current ratio of the price of a Sunday New York Times to the companys share price : 8:9
Factor by which the total rate of U.S. tree death this year will exceed the rate in 1991 : 2
Gallons of coal ash released into a Tennessee river last December by a power plant : 1,100,000,000
Factor by which this exceeds the volume of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez : 101
Gallons of freshwater consumed in the production of a gallon of milk and beer, respectively : 1,000, 300
Number of former L.A. gang members who have been retrained since last June as solar-panel installers : 120
Price for which a group of Palestinian graffiti artists will deface the Israeli security wall in the West Bank : $39
Number of commissions they have turned down because the requested messages linked to Viagra ads : 2
Fee offered in February to Nadya Suleman, the recent mother of octuplets, to star in a porn film : $1,000,000
Number of cloth diapers a rival company offered her to turn down the role : 400
Number of sexual scenarios published in Penthouse Forum so far this year that involve the economic downturn : 1
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Estimated percentage of this years college seniors who will graduate without having secured a job : 70
Percentage of Americans in a February survey who said they would act immorally to keep their jobs : 28
Percentage of U.S. corporations that will reduce or end matching contributions to employee 401(k) accounts this year : 29
Percentage of unemployed Americans who are not currently eligible to collect unemployment benefits : 42
Number of homeless people on a waiting list to move into a tent city in Pinellas County, Florida : 62
Amount by which the total wealth of all American households declined last year : $11,200,000,000,000
Amount of money the FDIC has spent since July 2008 to insure deposits at failed U.S. banks : $20,160,000,000
Percentage of U.S. charities and non-profits whose funding declined last year : 52
Number of applications that a middle school in Massillon, Ohio, received for a janitorial job opening in March : 835
Height, in feet, of a stack of dollar bills constructed with the average bonus at one of Wall Streets largest firms : 76
Percentage of U.S. millionaires who said in January that they may be unable to maintain their current lifestyle : 55
Factor by which U.S. entrepreneurs are more likely than the general population to have dyslexia : 2
Average number of years after an individual is named to the Forbes 400 that he or she will fall off the list : 8
Month in which, for the first time, more automobiles were sold in China than in the United States : 1/09
Minimum number of executives since January 2008 who have been held hostage by striking French workers : 15
Minimum number of inherited slaves currently owned in Niger : 43,000
Estimated percentage of all guns recovered from crime scenes in Mexico that can be traced to U.S. gun shops : 90
Number of infants the World Bank estimates will die over the next seven years because of the financial crisis : 1,400,000
Minimum number of countries where there have been food riots during the past two years : 30
Percentage change in the value of world stock markets since 2000 : 37
Percentage change in the Dow Jones Industrial Average sixty days into Barack Obamas presidency : 8.4
Percentage change in FDRs first sixty days : +43.5
Percentage of Tennesseans in a March survey who said they had heard a racist joke about Obama : 70
Percentage who thought the joke was funny : 16
Percentage who had themselves told the joke : 15
Date on which Barack Obama implemented new ethics guidelines restricting former lobbyists roles in government : 1/21/09
Days later that he waived the guidelines for the deputy secretary of defense : 1
Number of Kentucky officials indicted in March for vote-buying and tampering with electronic voting machines : 6
Number of election years in which they are accused of having changed votes : 3
Minimum value of assets the band U2 has offshored from Ireland to the Netherlands each year since 2006 : $27,400,000
Amount the ABBA tribute band Bjorn Again says it was paid to play a concert for Vladimir Putin in January : $27,500
Estimated street value of drugs seized last March at three Phish reunion shows in Hampton, Virginia : $1,200,000
Average number of sex offenders castrated by the Czech government each year : 9
Percentage by which a Georgia sperm bank cut their sales price for select sperm last March : 38
Percentage of teenage girls who say their boyfriend or girlfriend has hit or slapped them, according to the CDC : 9
Percentage of boys who have been hit by their girlfriends or boyfriends : 11
Rank of Texas among states with the nations highest teen-pregnancy rates : 3
Percentage of Texas public-school districts that teach abstinence as their only form of sex education : 94
Additional hours per day a urology clinic in Austin, Texas, stayed open this March during its Vas Madness promotion : 3
Number of vasectomies the clinic performed during the campaign : 75
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage change since 1985 in the number of U.S. newspapers with reporters covering Congress : 72
Percentage change since 2003 in the number of newspaper reporters covering state legislatures : 32
Number of front-page Boston Globe stories since 2007 that have been written by journalism students : 12
Months after being shot at a city council meeting last year that a Missouri reporter was laid off : 14
Total number of minutes during President Obamas first 100 days that network-TV news shows devoted to Afghanistan : 62
Number they devoted to pirates off the Horn of Africa : 104
Percentage of Somalis last winter who thought pirates were protecting Somalia : 70
Number of new Justice Department lawyers so far who previously represented the Recording Industry Association of America : 5
Minimum number of czars Obama has appointed : 17
Price paid last winter for the foreclosed boyhood home of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke : $83,000
Percentage of Democrats and Republicans, respectively, who approved of Obamas job performance in April : 93, 30
Percentage of Americans in April who identified themselves as Republican : 27
Percentage who said the same month that socialism is better than capitalism : 20
Minimum number of Americans whose health care is paid for by taxes : 83,000,000
Number of U.S. children who attend public boarding schools : 4,040
Number of U.S. senators who have law degrees : 53
Number of the nine members of the Chinese Communist Partys governing body who were trained as engineers : 8
Estimated percentage change since last year in the number of Chinese factories producing fireworks for the U.S. market : 26
Number of the Founding Fathers who were gay, according to Larry Kramer : 2
Estimated value of the unmined uranium under a 100-acre area in southern Virginia : $7,740,000,000
Number of readings and other events listed so far this year on CowboyPoetry.com : 286
Chances that a top-ten U.S. bestselling book since January has been a book about vampires by Stephenie Meyer : 2 in 5
Percentage of six- to nine-year-old American girls who wear lipstick or lip gloss : 46
Minimum number of Spanish collection agencies whose employees wear costumes in order to shame debtors into paying : 15
Amount that Japan is offering unemployed foreigners of Japanese descent to leave the country : $3,100
Minimum value of governmental bailouts of the global financial industry since 2007, per capita worldwide : $1,250
Amount this represents as a percentage of the median annual income worldwide : 39
Estimated total amount that world financial institutions will write off by 2010, according to the IMF : $4,100,000,000,000
Portion of these bad loans and securities that originated in the United States : 2/3
Percentage of rich Americans who say they have lost faith in the integrity of financial service institutions : 64
Percentage who say that they now shop with coupons fairly regularly : 65
Percentage of Americans who have made premature withdrawals from their retirement or college savings since 2008 : 27
Amount that Utah plans to raise by levying an $8 conviction fee against each person found guilty there : $2,800,000
Number of states that have proposed expansion of their gambling laws, including legalization, this year : 16
Projected percentage growth this year in off-the-books transactions in the United States : 9
Percentage change since 2007 in the average cost of a U.S. wedding : 24
Percentage change since last year in the amount Americans spent on canning and freezing supplies : +29
Chance that an American thinks the Jews were moderately or very much to blame for the financial crisis : 1 in 4
Chance he or she thinks they were a little to blame : 1 in 7
Number of poppyseed bagels that could be made with Afghanistans annual poppy harvest : 357,000,000,000
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Credit rating to which a Brazilian agency downgraded the U.S. government in May : AA
Amount of governmental support that Canadian banks have required during the financial crisis : $0
Percentage of U.S. and Canadian mortgages, respectively, that are in foreclosure or more than 90 days delinquent : 7.2, 0.4
Chance that a U.S. home purchase in the first quarter of this year was of a foreclosed or short-sale property : 1 in 2
Percentage change between winter 2008 and winter 2009 in the amount of delinquent U.S. credit-card debt: +47
Percentage change in the amount of debt that credit-card companies have written off : +63
Percentage change in the number of credit-card offers Americans have received : 67
Chances that a U.S. college student in May reported feeling down, depressed, or hopeless : 2 in 5
Percentage change between winter 2008 and winter 2009 in sales at the goth- and punk-themed retail chain Hot Topic : +13
Average percentage change over that period in sales at teen-directed retailers overall : 8
Minimum number of U.S. spas that have packages targeted at teenagers : 3,470
Average number of body waxes that one New York spa performs on preteens each week : 15
Number of Louisiana towns the porn star Stormy Daniels has visited on her listening tour for a possible Senate run : 5
Number of years by which the median age of a Penthouse reader has increased during the past five years : 5
Estimated weekly revenue from heroin sales that two Pennsylvania senior citizens were making before their April arrest : $10,000
Tons of active pharmaceutical ingredients dumped into the environment by medical-supply companies since 1988 : 421,500
Projected percentage change by 2050 in the amount of mercury in the Pacific Ocean : +33
Estimated number of cars that it takes to produce as much CO2 as a single large cargo ship : 10,000
Backlog, in years, of retired U.S. nuclear warheads waiting to be dismantled by the federal government : 13
Estimated number of planets in the galaxy hospitable enough to support life as intelligent as humans : 37,964
Projected percentage change in worldwide electricity usage this year : 3.5
Number of years since recordkeeping began in 1945 that usage has declined : 0
Estimated percentage of all existing blogs that have not been updated in four months : 94
Chances that a Twitter user accesses the service only while at work : 2 in 3
Percentage of male British IT workers who say they consider their sex partners needs before their own : 82
Rank of this percentage among the highest for all industries : 1
Percentage by which moderate Internet surfers are more productive in their jobs than non-surfers : 9
Average number of different items that a 17-year-old who grew up poor can hold in his or her memory at once : 8.5
Average number of items that a 17-year-old who grew up middle-class can : 9.4
Median income of a rider on the Washington, D.C., metro-area bus system : $69,620
Median income of a rider on the subway system : $102,110
Minimum amount donated or bundled to President Obamas campaign by the ambassadors he has nominated so far : $3,950,000
Chance that a George W. Bush cabinet member now works for a firm lobbying his or her former department : 1 in 4
Minimum amount raised for the George W. Bush presidential library so far : $100,000,000
Percentage change since 2007 in the number of Texas cattle thefts : +300
Square miles of African farmland acquired by Chinese investors since 2006 : 10,851
Factor by which the average number of hogs on each U.S. hog farm has increased since 1965 : 19
Ratio of the average number of microbes living in or on a persons body to the average number of human cells : 10:1
Percentage of human genes that have been patented so far : 34
Estimated chance that one of these genes is owned by a private company : 1 in 4
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage change since 2002 in average premiums paid to large U.S. health-insurance companies : +87
Percentage change in the profits of the top ten insurance companies : +428
Chances that an American bankrupted by medical bills has health insurance : 7 in 10
Portion of its membership that Washington States subsidized health plan intends to lose this year : 1/3
Average percentage by which it is raising premiums in order to do so : 70
Number of states that have run out of money for unemployment insurance : 16
Total amount they have borrowed from the federal government so far to bridge the gap : $11,743,613,200
Date on which Illinois stopped paying to bury the corpses of the indigent : 7/1/09
Percentage of Michigan counties that have turned at least one paved road into a gravel road since 2007 to save money : 30
Year by which Atlanta plans to have destroyed all its public housing : 2010
Percentage of total U.S. home values that Americans currently own as equity : 41
Percentage in 1945 : 84
Estimated value of troubled assets bought last fall by the federal government from U.S. banks, for each $1 spent : 66
Percentage change last year in North Koreas GDP : +3.7
Rank of the United States among the worlds most peaceful countries, according to the 2009 Global Peace Index : 83
Chance that an American will suffer from a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder in his or her lifetime : 1 in 2
Percentage of GDP spent on higher education each year by governments in the United States and Europe, respectively : 1, 1.1
Percentage spent by their respective private sectors : 1.9, 0.2
Chance that a charter school, in a Stanford study, outperformed comparable traditional public schools in math : 1 in 6
Chance that it lagged comparable public schools : 1 in 3
Minutes of standardized-test prep, on average, that New York City and Los Angeles kindergartners are given each day : 24
Minutes of unstructured playtime : 25
Number of Little Tikes Cozy Coupes, a ride-in toy car, sold in the United States last year : 457,000
Percentage by which this exceeded sales of the top automobile model : 5
Estimated percentage change since 1785 in the average body size of a Western European : +50
Estimated percentage by which brontosauruses were less massive than previously believed, according to a recent study : 50
Chance that both members of a married U.S. couple are obese : 1 in 6
Chance that both members of an unmarried couple are : 1 in 13
Number of fatal or disabling injuries suffered by female high school athletes since 1982 : 112
Percentage of the injured who were cheerleaders : 65
Years, on average, by which the lifespan of a man whose wife is seven to nine years younger than he is exceeds the norm : 2
Years by which the lifespan of a woman who marries a similarly younger man lags the norm : 2
Number of countries where fertility is currently below replacement levels : 76
Projected number of years by which the world median age will have increased by 2050 : 9
Year in which Nick Jonas, of the pop group the Jonas Brothers, intends to run for president : 2040
Number of Intrades top ten G.O.P. presidential hopefuls who will in 2012 have been out of office for two or more years : 5
Number of states in which a plurality of voters currently identify as Republican : 5
Chances that a U.S. conservative displays an implicit preference for white over black people in a psychological study : 4 in 5
Chances that a liberal does : 3 in 4
Chances that an African American does : 2 in 5
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage of their countries respective GDPs that the U.S. and Chinese recession stimulus packages represent : 6, 13
Portion of Chinas stimulus spending that will go toward infrastructure projects : 2/5
Portion of U.S. spending that will : 1/8
Percentage of Americans who could be sent to medical school in China this year on the total U.S. health spending : 100
Minimum number of barefoot doctors that China trained between 1965 and 1985 : 1,500,000
Years that Chinas current minister of health worked as one : 1
Number of U.S. states in which laws exist that require children to pay for the medical care of indigent parents : 30
Minimum number of states where nursing homes have used these provisions to sue children of nonpaying residents : 2
Percentage of patients diagnosed by doctors as vegetative that a Belgian study found to be minimally conscious : 40
Percentage change since 2008 in the number of U.S. households planting gardens : +19
Percentage of the gardeners who say the recession has figured in their planting : 62
Chance a U.S. household that owns a Prius also owns an SUV : 1 in 3
Average number of inches by which high tides in Philadelphia exceeded normal during June : 12
Chance that a merchant ship worldwide is currently unused due to declining trade : 1 in 12
Amount New York City spends each year on air, bus, and train tickets to send homeless people out of town : $500,000
Portion of its highway rest areas that Virginia is closing this year : 1/2
Percentage by which the number of new Washington, D.C., speed bumps so far in 2009 exceeds the last three years combined : 17
Amount that one House Democrat on the Banking Committee lost in a stock scam between 2000 and 2005 : $3,000,000
Percentage rate of U.S. obesity that the Department of Health and Human Services says it hopes to achieve by 2011 : 15
Number of states where less than 20 percent of the population is currently obese : 1
Number of states where the obesity rate declined last year : 0
Average number of calories by which Americans underestimate the total in a hamburger and fries : 463
Number of the past 22 months in which the U.S. pork industry has lost money : 20
Estimated percentage change since 2003 in the number of Christians living in Iraq : 60
Median percentage of people in 21 nations surveyed who trust President Obama to do the right thing in world affairs : 71
Median percentage of respondents who said the same thing about George W. Bush in March 2008 : 17
Number of times Bush and Obama, respectively, used the word evil during their first six months as president : 18, 14
Percentage of unintended U.S. pregnancies that are carried to term : 43
Percentage of U.S. pregnancies that the mothers report to be unintended : 47
Percentage change since last year in the number of Americans looking into sperm or egg donation : +40
Minimum number of Americans named either John or Jane Doe : 212
Number of online virtual worlds that have been created for children and teenagers : 112
Percentage of U.S. Internet users aged 11 or younger who will participate in such virtual worlds this year : 37
Number of spam emails sent for every one that receives a response : 12,414,000
Estimated number of U.S. adults who believe the media did not adequately cover Michael Jacksons death : 6,500,000
Years after his escape that Pepe, a hippopotamus from Pablo Escobars collection, was hunted down and killed in July : 3
Price for which North Carolina drug dealers are selling ecstasy tablets in the shape of Barack Obamas face : $10
Portion of each tablet that is actually caffeine : 1/2
Percentage of unemployed Americans who take a nap each day : 39
Percentage of employed Americans who do : 31
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Percentage of U.S. teens who are currently employed : 29
Number of years since recordkeeping began in 1948 in which this percentage has been so low : 0
Number of states where it is currently legal for schools to use corporal punishment on disabled students : 20
Chances that an American child currently held in an urban juvenile detention center has a mental illness : 2 in 3
Number of Mexican children deported on their own from the United States last year : 18,129
Percentage change since 1992 in the annual number of U.S. workplace fatalities among Hispanics : +76
Change among U.S. workers as a whole : 10
Percentage after five years by which the pay of U.S. workers laid off in a recession lags that of those who kept their jobs : 30
Percentage after twenty years : 20
Chance that such a worker will ever regain his or her income level : 1 in 4
Last year in which the unemployment rate in what is now Silicon Valley was as high as today : 1949
Portion of major-studio motion pictures in 2003 and last year, respectively, that were shot in California : 2/3, 1/3
Nightly rate that one San Diego hotel charges for a Survivor room, which lacks a bed, towels, and toilet paper : $19
Percentage below the asking price at which Hugh Hefner sold his California home in August : 36
Last year that the U.S. divorce rate was as high as in 2008 : 1970
Percentage of U.S. women today who are always, frequently or sometimes embarrassed by their feet : 57
Damages sought, in a defamation suit, by a Chicago landlord from a tenant who complained about mold via Twitter : $50,000
Amount that Israels foreign ministry has budgeted to create an Internet Fighting Team : $150,000
Percentage of white Americans in August who said they considered Fox News reliable : 46
Percentage of black and Latino Americans, respectively, who did : 5, 11
Number of U.S. Army public-affairs specialists who have embedded with corporations for media training since 2001 : 54
Number who have done so at Fox News : 5
Year by which, under international law, the U.S. government must destroy a cache of chemical weapons in Kentucky : 2012
Year by which this is expected to occur, even under an accelerated schedule : 2021
Minimum number of chemical-weapons leaks that have occurred there so far this year : 4
Percentage of fish sampled from 291 U.S. streams for a recent study that were found to be contaminated with mercury : 100
Number of times that Benson, a 64-pound British carp, was caught before dying of mysterious causes in August : 63
Number of years he was voted Britains Favourite Carp by a U.K. fishing magazine : 1
Number of British pubs that have closed since 2007 : 4,030
Percentage change during the past year in U.S. sales of Wild Turkey specialty bourbons : +88
Minimum number of refugees today whose displacement is due to religious intolerance : 9,000,000
Number of Indian headdresses that could be made from the feathers of all U.S. turkeys eaten at Thanksgiving : 43,212,000
Percentage of all U.S. health-care spending that goes to treating conditions caused by obesity : 9
Percentage of U.S. health-care workers who say they would refuse to work during a pandemic flu emergency : 16
Percentage of Americans who think the government should stay out of Medicare : 39
Chance that an American who does not believe Barack Obama was U.S.-born also approves of his job as president : 1 in 6
Percentage change in the volume of the average human brain during the past 10,000 years : 10
Gallons of blood pumped so far by artificial hearts in humans : 165,000,000
Estimated length of human nose removed by U.S. plastic surgeons each year, in feet : 5,469
Factor by which this exceeds the length of George Washingtons nose on Mount Rushmore : 260
HARPERS INDEX
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HARPERS INDEX
Estimated number of Al Qaeda members now operating in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. national security adviser : 100
Number of U.S. troops who would be stationed there if General Stanley McChrystals leaked request were granted : 108,000
Estimated number of Soviet troops there in 1986, at the height of their invasion : 120,000
Chances that an American over 55 thinks more U.S. troops should be sent to Afghanistan : 4 in 9
Chance that an American under 35 thinks so : 1 in 4
Percentage change since President Obamas inauguration in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq : 16
Percentage change in the number of armed private contractors working for the United States there : +52
Minimum amount the U.S. military has spent since 1985 on attempts to develop a missile shield : $150,000,000,000
Factor by which this exceeds spending on the Apollo moon landing and the Manhattan Project combined, adjusted for inflation : 5
Rank of global warming among national priorities cited by Americans in a January poll : 20
Percentage of Americans and Chinese, respectively, who think action on warming is worth it even if prices rise as a result : 41, 88
Rank of politicians among classes of people most trusted by Chinese in a poll this summer : 25
Rank of peasants, clergy, and sex workers, respectively : 1, 2, 3
Number of people in the Chinese province of Xinjiang who have been stabbed this year with needle-like objects : 531
Percentage of all Beijing corporate office space that is currently vacant : 22
Percentage of all Las Vegas homes that are currently worth less than their mortgages : 81
Percentage change during 2008 in the average size of a new U.S. house : 3
Number of consecutive years that the average house size had grown before this decline : 13
Projected amount that lawyers and other advisers will earn from the bankruptcy proceeding of Lehman Brothers : $1,398,000,000
Price for a homeless doll from American Girl : $95
Chances that a refugee worldwide has been displaced for more than five years : 2 in 3
Number of African nations that have extended or removed term limits on their leaders since 2002 : 9
Minimum number of times that G20 nations have broken their anti-protectionism pledge since making it in April : 106
Ratio of journalists to delegates among registered attendees at this falls G20 meeting in Pittsburgh : 5:1
Ratio of Katie Courics salary to the total operating expenses of NPRs seventeen foreign bureaus : 3:2
Percentage of Americans who say they would miss their local newspaper not much or not at all if it disappeared : 42
Number of obituaries that the New York Times currently has pre-written : 1,300
Average portion of its yearly household expenditures that a South African family will spend on a funeral : 2/5
Chances that an American says he or she would like to die at home : 7 in 10
Chance that he or she actually will : 1 in 4
Estimated percentage of Americans injured by medical malpractice who file malpractice claims : 3
Percentage of doctors in Florida who have no malpractice insurance coverage : 34
Number of U.S. states where insurance companies can consider spousal abuse a preexisting condition : 8
Percentage of British women who say they have never had sex while sober : 6
Rank of Adobe Photoshop Secrets among the most frequently pirated e-books this fall : 1
Rank of The Complete Idiots Guide to Amazing Sex : 2
Number of seats in the European parliament currently held by the Pirate Party, an anti-copyright group : 1
Price for which an Australian firm will deliver 5,000 new Facebook friends : $727
Number of U.S. states that have banned texting while driving : 27
Number of these states that offer traffic updates via Twitter : 25
HARPERS INDEX
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