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Cost of a baby-stroller cleaning, with wheel detailing, at Tot Squad in New York City : $119.99

Percentage of Americans worth $25,000,000 or more who make at least $10,000 in charitable contributions each year : 65

Who spend at least that much on home improvement : 69

Amount Germany paid in November for Thomas Mann’s Los Angeles home, which was in danger of demolition : $13,250,000

Percentage of German garbage that is recycled : 47

Of Turkish garbage : 0

Amount invested by the Obama Administration in training former coal workers to operate drones : $2,200,000

Estimated percentage of Florida homes that will be underwater by 2100 : 13

Percentage by which a person reduces their paper consumption immediately after chopping down trees in virtual reality : 20

Net change, in acres, in the world’s forested land since 1990 : –319,000,000

In China’s : +126,500,000

Percentage by which the global wildlife population has declined since 1970 : 58

Amount the United States will spend to train giant African rats to detect illegal shipments of plants and wildlife : $100,000

Number of federal agencies that conducted experiments on dogs during the 2015 fiscal year : 5

Portion of those experiments that involved “significant pain and distress” : 1/4

Percentage change since 2010 in calls to the Pet Poison Helpline about pets that have eaten marijuana : +448

Date on which the British government publicly confirmed the presence of animal fat in the new five-pound note : 11/28/2016

Number of British notes that were destroyed in 2015 for being chewed or eaten : 5,364

Portion of the Canadian military that is overweight : 1/2

That is obese : 1/4

Number of Canadian jobs that were abolished when the government launched a more efficient payroll system last year : 700

Of Canadians who then experienced payment delays because of system errors : 80,000

Percentage of Zimbabwean government spending that goes toward paying public employees : 97

Number of participants in a 2016 poll on North Koreans’ political attitudes, the largest such poll ever conducted : 36

Factor by which the number of Chinese students attending U.S. high schools has increased over the past ten years : 43

Percentage of college admissions officers who look at applicants’ social-media accounts : 40

Minimum portion of the fifty largest U.S. police departments that use “predictive policing” software : 2/5

Percentage change in downloads of Signal, an encrypted text and calling app, since the presidential election : +400

Value of donations given to the American Civil Liberties Union in the week after the election : $7,200,000

In the week after the 2012 election : $27,806

Number of Supreme Court decisions repudiating Korematsu v. United States, which legalized Japanese-American internment : 0

Rank of 2015 among years with the most reported hate crimes against U.S. Muslims : 2

Of 2001 : 1

Days after becoming the first Somali-American lawmaker that Ilhan Omar was harassed in a cab for being Muslim : 28

Minimum number of individuals whom Donald Trump has directly insulted on Twitter since he declared his candidacy : 160

Date on which Trump tweeted that the musical American Idiot was an “amazing theatrical experience” : 4/21/2010

Number of floors by which the Trump World Tower’s advertised height exceeds its actual height : 19

Minimum number of countries in which Trump has business interests : 25

Rank of corrupt government officials among Americans’ greatest fears : 1

Of climate change : 17

Figures cited are the latest available as of December 2016.

“Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.


February Index Sources

1 Tot Squad (Los Angeles)
2,3 Spectrem Group (Lake Forest, Ill.)
4 Coldwell Banker Previews International (Beverly Hills, Calif.)
5,6 O.E.C.D. (Washington)
7 The White House (Washington)
8 Zillow (Seattle)
9 Tobin Asher, Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.)
10,11 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Rome)
12 World Wildlife Fund (Washington)
13 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Falls Church, Va.)
14,15 U.S. Department of Agriculture
16 Pet Poison Helpline (St. Paul, Minn.)
17,18 Bank of England (London)
19,20 Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (Ottawa)
21,22 Public Services and Procurement Canada (Gatineau)
23 Stephen Chan, SOAS, University of London
24 Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington)
25 U.S. Department of Homeland Security
26 Kaplan Test Prep (N.Y.C.)
27 Upturn (Washington)
28 Signal (San Francisco)
29,30 American Civil Liberties Union (N.Y.C.)
31 David Alan Sklansky, Stanford Law School (Stanford, Calif.)
32,33 Federal Bureau of Investigation
34 Ilhan Omar for State Representative (Minneapolis)
35,36 Harper’s research
37 New York City Department of Buildings
38 Harper’s research
39,40 Chapman University (Orange, Calif.)


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