Index Archive

Chance that the U.S. economy will reenter recession in 2010, according to the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics

: 1 in 4

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

Number of years since the poll began in 1964 that this number was so high

: 0

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 children’s paternity

: 400,000

Chance that a female same-sex couple in the United States is currently raising a child

: 1 in 4

Percentage of Americans last fall who said the United States should “mind its own business internationally”

: 49

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 China’s first state-owned gay bar opened

: 12/20/09

Percentage of U.S. public grade-school teachers who say they buy food for hungry students every month

: 63

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 India’s 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

Harper’s Index

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