Harper’s Index

Change since 1987 in a U.S. household's average annual spending on health insurance: +$323.28

Change since then in a household's annual spending on medical services, supplies, and drugs: -$99.69

Percentage of American ER viewers who say they learn important health-care information from the program: 53

Percentage change since 1995 in the number of surgeons worldwide using maggots to cleanse wounds: +400

Estimated portion of annual spending on the treatment of gunshot wounds that comes from the federal government: 1/2

Estimated tons of depleted-uranium from bullets fired in the Gulf War that are still scattered across the battlefields: 320

Total U.S. arms sales to Indonesia since it invaded East Timor in 1975: $1,200,000,000

Amount by which the President's ten-year defense budget exceeds that of House Democrats: $158,000,000

Amount by which it exceeds that of House Republicans: $206,000,000

Total votes by which Democrats lost six key districts and the chance to regain control of the House last year: 21,898

Percentage points by which voter turnout for Russia's last national election exceeded U.S. turnout in 1996: 21

Ratio of the revenue Russia expects to collect this year to the revenue New York City collected: 7:8

Average number of arrests made last year in New York City for every crime reported there: 1.1

Number of East Harlem ATM machines offering free service for the neighborhood's 11,000 welfare recipients: 7

Number of Upper East Side ATM machines offering free service for the neighborhood's 700 welfare recipients: 120

Average percentage of revenue on a Wisconsin for-profit welfare agency's contract this year that will be profit: 17.1

Average percentage of revenue of a Fortune 500 company last year that was profit: 5.3

Chance that a Texan living below the poverty line receives welfare: 1 in 10

Federal anti-poverty funds granted Texas since 1996 that have not been spent: $149,000,000

Ratio of the average annual amount a white American spends on lottery tickets to what a black American spends: 1:5

Number of marchers: 4

Portion of the fifteen languages in which the Census Bureau will run ads this month that are Asian: 2/3

Portion of the words in Webster's New World Dictionary memorized by one non-English-speaking Thai Scrabble champ: 2/3

Percentage of the tiles included in Scrabble games produced in the U.S. this year that will be made in China: 100

Ratio of the number of live turkeys imported to the U.S. last year to the number exported: 3:2

Percentage of turkeys tested by the Agriculture Department in 1996 and 1997 that were infected by campylobacteria: 90

Rank of campylobacteria among the most common bacterial causes of diarrheal illness in the U.S.: 1

Percentage change since 1996 in the number of American adults using the Internet to obtain health-care information: +218

Margin by which the ten-member Kansas Board of Education voted to drop human evolution from the curriculum this year: 2

Number of presidential candidates besides Bill Bradley who have publicly criticized the Kansas board's decision: 0

Average NBA player's salary in Bill Bradley's rookie season: $46,700

Number of the last ten WNBA coaching vacancies that have been filled by men: 7

Ratio of lines devoted to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 1999 Who's Who in America to those devoted to her husband: 4:1

Percentage of Americans who said in November 1991 that they had not “heard enough” about Bill Clinton: 82

Number of consecutive days last spring that Michael Moore trained a camera on Lucianne Goldberg's apartment: 45

Number of months that a Christian group has trained a camera on Jerusalem's Golden Gate, hoping to film Christ's return: 7

Number of films about Y2K disasters that Hollywood studios are planning to release in the next four months: 0

Number about battling Satan: 2

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