Harper’s Index

Number of American cities where all regularly scheduled [AirTravel|airplane] service has been eliminated during the past year

Average word count of top-ten songs during the [1960s|1960s]

Average last year

Number of times per year that [Canada|Canada]’s defense ministry requires a think tank it funds to be mentioned in the press

Number of op-ed pieces the think tank’s staff must publish, including letters

Tons of foreign [Rice|rice] that [Japan|Japan] must buy each year, according to WTO agreements

Portion of it that [Japan|Japan] allows to be [Business|sold] for human consumption

Maximum per-day purchase of [Rice|rice], in pounds, that Sam’s Club has limited each customer to since [April|April]

Percentage change since 2006 in the price of used cooking [Oil|oil], which can be [GreenEnergy|recycled] to make biodiesel fuel

Percentage of all worldwide [GlobalWarming|carbon emissions] attributable to tourism

Percentage of U.S. [Student|students] aged 12 to 17 who say they use text-message slang in their written school assignments

Number of new U.S. [AirTravel|airports] built since [1990s|1993]

Additional cost to U.S. [AirTravel|airlines] this year due to increases in the price of fuel

Total earnings for the U.S. [AirTravel|airline] industry in [1990s|1999], its most profitable year to date

Years that the [EuropeanUnion|E.U.] kept a secret list of items banned from [AirTravel|air travel], before it agreed to publish the list this year

[SocialSecurity|Social Security] number of Todd Davis, [CEO|CEO] of the identity-protection firm LifeLock

Months after he published the number as a dare to thieves that his identity was, in fact, [Crime|stolen]

Weeks apart that a pair of twins in [India|India] were born this year

Number of circumcisions that Kotabaru, [Indonesia|Indonesia], paid for this year to celebrate the city’s anniversary

Number of [Condoms|condoms] shipped to [Antarctica|Antarctica]’s McMurdo Station in [January|January], just before [Winter|winter] began

Percentage of U.S. [Housing|homeowners] who reported last year that they had bought a [Driving|car] using a home-equity loan

Number for the [RepublicanParty|Republican] National Convention

e by 2012 in the after-[Taxes|tax] income of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. earners, under [BarackObama|Barack Obama]’s tax plan

Percentage change under [JohnMcCain|John McCain]’s [Taxes|tax] plan

Percentage of all income gains during the [GeorgeWBush|Bush] Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners

Percentage of Americans who say that they or someone in their [Family|family] has [Marriage|married] in order to get health [Insurance|insurance]

Chance that a [Housing|U.S. home] is currently vacant

Rank of this among the highest recorded vacancy rates in U.S. history

Percentage change between [1980s|1989] and 2007 in the [Media|median] price of an American single-[Family|family] home

Percentage change in the median down payment

Number of [Business|corporations] that have publicly committed to sponsoring the [DemocraticParty|Democratic] National Convention, as of [June|June]

Estimated amount by which per-gallon [Gasoline|gas] prices would change if the [Arctic|Arctic] National Wildlife Refuge were drilled

Number of [USMilitary|U.S. troops] sent to [Iraq|Iraq] and [Afghanistan|Afghanistan] since 2003 after being deemed [Medicine|medically] “non-deployable‚”

Square footage of new [Prison|jail] space slated for construction at Bagram Air Field in [Afghanistan|Afghanistan]

Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006

Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002

Number of skateboards being sent to [Iraq|Iraq] for the “[Baghdad|Baghdad] [Animal|Zoo] and [Entertainment|Entertainment] Experience,‚” now under construction

Number of [Texas|Texas] school districts that keep track of truants with electronic monitoring devices

Percentage of U.S. [Child|children] who think kids who wear glasses are smarter than those who do not