Harper’s Index

Percentage of U.S. [Teenager|teens] who say they are “completely satisfied‚” with themselves

Percentage of Americans who think their lives serve “an important purpose‚”

Minimum per-capita [Finance|debt] that [Iceland|Iceland] owes to foreign depositors as a result of its [Banking|banking] collapse

Amount [Italy|Italy] spent last year to bail out its Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano [Cheese|cheese] industries

Last year in which total world trade shrank, before it did so in 2008

Number of months since record keeping began in [1940s|1947] that U.S. consumer prices declined as steeply as in [November|November] 2008

Percentage of them who were a month or more behind on their payments six months after the relief

Minimum number of U.S. [Housing|homeowners] whose [Banking|banks] improved their mortgage terms in the first quarter of last year

Number of people who showed up

Number of [Days|days] in [November|November] that a [Family|family] [Agriculture|farm] near [Denver|Denver] opened up its fields for free picking

Date by which the head of [Russia|Russia]’s foreign-service academy says the United States will have totally disintegrated

Number of [Days|days] by which the median age of [Europe|Europe] increases each week

Number of countries in which the group has aired them

Number of serialized [Television|TV] and [Radio|radio] melodramas in favor of population control produced by a [Vermont|Vermont] group

Average number watched by those aged 26 to 42 and those aged [Teenager|14 to 25], respectively

Average number of [Hours|hours] of [Television|television] watched per week by Americans aged 43 to 61

Years in [Prison|prison] to which he might be sentenced at his upcoming trial

Extra points that a [California|California] [Student|student] added to his GPA last year by hacking into a school [Computer|computer]

Chance that a U.S. high-school [Student|student] says he or she has [Crime|stolen] something from a store in the past year

Percentage of residents of former Communist-bloc nations who say they live better now than in [1980s|1989]

Total number of [Gun|guns] that five of the six candidates for RNC chairman bragged about owning during their [January|January] debate

Number of the candidates who said he had “too many to count‚”

Amount an undisclosed buyer offered the [Minneapolis|Minneapolis]–St. Paul [AirTravel|airport] last year for the [Mendacity|Larry Craig] [Homosexuality|bathroom stall]

Number of times that Caroline [JohnFKennedy|Kennedy] said “you know‚” during a 45-minute interview with the [NewYorkTimes|New York Times]

Number of different occupations that [Barbie|Barbie] has held during her 50-year run

[Days|Days] after going on sale that tickets to [July|July]’s National [Barbie|Barbie] Doll Collectors Convention [Business|sold] out

Minimum number of nations that currently have plans to build a [Folly|Ferris wheel] larger than the current record holder

Number of exotic [AquaticLife|marine animals] that a new [Dubai|Dubai] hotel keeps in its 3 million gallons of [Folly|decorative tanks]

Pounds of “restaurant-quality‚” [Fish|seafood] the [Animal|animals] are fed each day

Price, at a [Iceland|Reykjavík] [Food|restaurant], of a [Whale|whale] kebab called “Moby Dick on a Stick”

Percentage of the estimated total population of extraterritorial U.S. [Prison|prisons] that is held at Guant?namo

Average rating they assigned the same shock when they believed it to be intentional

Average pain rating, on a scale of 1 to 7, given by study participants to a shock they believed to be unintentional

Number of people [Death|killed] by [Hamas|Hamas] rocket attacks since 2001

Estimated total [War|fired] into [Israel|Israel] by [Palestine|Palestinians] last year

Estimated total, in pounds, of explosives dropped by [Israel|Israel] on [Palestine|Gaza] during the first week of this [Winter|winter]’s attack

Percentage of [PTSD|PTSD] patients in an earlier study who reported improvement after taking Zoloft

Number of twenty [PTSD|PTSD] patients in a 2008 study who reported significant improvement after being treated with [Drugs|ecstasy]

Chance that a U.S. [GulfWar|Gulf War] [Veterans|veteran] still suffers from “[Disease|Gulf War illness]‚” according to a federal panel

Per-capita reparations required of [Germany|Germany] in the Treaty of Versailles