Index Archive

Percentage of U.S. dietitians who say the recession is making it more difficult for their patients to lose weight

: 56

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

: 51400

Projected number of extra U.S. deaths that the current recession will cause, according to a Texas professor

: 71000

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

Average number of years until unemployment reaches its peak

: 5

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

: 1956

Hours that a fourteen-year-old police impersonator was sent out on assignment by Chicago’s 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 change between 1989 and 1996 in the number of democracies worldwide

: 71

Average number of years after the beginning of a severe economic downturn that economic growth resumes

: 2

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 State’s unemployment trust fund ran out of money

: 1/1/2009

Average amount the state’s 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 Clinton’s 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 children’s book that celebrates cowardice

: 1

Percentage change since 1996

: 0

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

Harper’s Index

Debug