Harper’s Index

Increase in the value of all U.S. [Economics|stocks] between [1990s|1995] and 2000, as a percentage of [GDP|GDP]

Chances that a [Economics|U.S. job] created since 2001 has been in a [Housing|housing]-related field

Number of consecutive years that the value of [Economics|housing] in [Japan|Japan] has dropped since its [Housing|housing] bubble burst

Number of years that the world’s tallest hotel has stood uncompleted in [NorthKorea|North Korea]

Number of consecutive years that [China|China] has [Prison|jailed] more reporters than any other nation

Percentage of [AsianAmerican|Asian-Americans] whose primary source of news is not in [EnglishLanguage|English]

Increase in the total value of U.S. residential property since 2000, expressed as a percentage of [Economics|GDP]

Year in which [Environment|perfluorochemicals], used in Teflon and other nonstick products, were first introduced

Numeral whose underlying concept has been partially understood by a [Massachusetts|Massachusetts] [Animal|parrot], according to [Science|scientists]

Percentage of U.S. [Child|children] who now have one of these nonbiodegradable chemicals in their bloodstreams

Amount that pharmaceutical companies spent on R&D in [1990s|1997] per new drug they launched

Amount last year

Amount allocated for investigating [Medicine|health-care fraud] in 2003 that the [FBI|FBI] cannot account for

Minimum number of [PrescriptionDrugs|prescription drugs] currently under investigation for [HealthCare|Medicaid] price-gouging or [Advertising|marketing] [Corruption|fraud]

Percentage [Business|markup] that Abbott Laboratories charged in 2001 on solutions of sodium chloride, i.e., salt water

Year by which [Brazil|Brazil’s] government will have switched its [Computer|computers] entirely to open-source [Technology|software]

Amount they expect the switch will save each year

Number of [Denmark|Danish] graduate [Student|students] who last [December|December] released a [IntellectualProperty|copyright]-free [Cookery|recipe] for an “open-source [Beer|beer]‚”

Number of times the [Internet|website] has been accessed so far

Average amount an [Ohio|Ohio] [Men|man] paid [Child|children] to berate him for being [Obesity|obese], until he was arrested in [April|April]

Average number of $75 [Fashion|anal bleachings] that an L.A.-area salon performs each day

Number of [Chickens|chickens] trained by [Europe|European] [Science|scientists] to choose between photos of human faces by pecking

Chances that [College|college] [Student|students] select as “most desirable‚” the same face chosen by the [Chickens|chickens]

Amount it paid a consultancy to conduct “social [Advertising|marketing]‚” of [Mosquito|mosquito] nets

Amount the U.S. spent last year on [Mosquito|mosquito] nets to fight malaria in [Africa|Africa]

Number of times that the [UnitedNations|U.N.] has extended its peacekeeping mission in [SierraLeone|Sierra Leone]

Ratio of the number of peacekeeping troops in [Kosovo|Kosovo], per capita, to that in [Afghanistan|Afghanistan]

Ratio of the world’s reconstruction aid given to postwar [Kosovo|Kosovo], per capita, to that given postwar [Afghanistan|Afghanistan]

Stipend that a [CIA|CIA] scholarship program gives annually to undisclosed undergraduates for overseas “fieldwork‚”

Minimum number of American universities with their own [Student|student]-run [Sex|erotic] [Magazine|magazine]

Average percentage who do so in districts where a majority of [Student|students] are [AfricanAmerican|black] or [Hispanic|Latino]

Average percentage of [Student|students] in [NewYork|New York State’s] majority-[Caucasian|white] school districts who [Education|graduate in] four years

Chance that a teacher in a U.S. [PublicSchools|public school] is a [Men|man]

Total [Economics|annual spending] controlled by functionally [Literature|illiterate] U.S. consumers

Total paid by U.S. catastrophe [Insurance|insurers] since [1980s|1984] for claims due to “civil disorders‚”

Number of anti-globalization protesters who were [Torture|tortured] last year by [Mexico|Mexican officials]

Months after his 2004 defeat that Ralph Nader said the [DemocraticParty|Democratic Party] had made him feel “like a [AfricanAmerican|nigger] ‚”

Rank of “time to buy‚” in the [Economics|futures markets], among the first thoughts Brit Hume said he had after the [London|London] bombings

Percentage of [Arab|Arab] Americans for whom this is true