4/85Percentage of requests by Poles for asylum in the United States that were granted last year: 30

U.S. Immigration arid Naturalization Service

    Percentage of requests by Salvadorans: 3

U.S. Immigration arid Naturalization Service

    Percentage of requests by Nicaraguans: 14

U.S. Immigration arid Naturalization Service

4/85Estimated contributions to the contras from private American groups and citizens in the last year: $8,000,000

National Public Radio (Washington, D.C.)

4/85Number of animals freed from U.S. research laboratories by animal rights groups in 1984: 225

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Washington, D.C.)

4/85Estimated number of cockroaches in the Pentagon: 2,000,000

Capt. Brian Thoreson, Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington, D.C.)

4/85Number of U.S. government employees who have authority to classify documents: 2,491,555

U.S. Government Accounting Office/U.S. General Services Administration

4/85Average number of Health and Human Services Department employees it takes to answer a letter to the secretary: 55

“The Grace Commission Report” (U.S. Government Printing Office)

4/85Portion of hospital beds in American cities that were in public hospitals in 1950: 1/3

“The Reconfiguration of Urban Hospital Care,” by Alan Sager, in Cities and Sickness (Sage)

    In 1984: 1/7

“The Reconfiguration of Urban Hospital Care,” by Alan Sager, in Cities and Sickness (Sage)

4/85Percentage decrease in the patient population of U.S. psychiatric hospitals since 1955: 70

National Institute of Mental Health (Bethesda, Md.)

4/85Percentage of Vietnam veterans who have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder: 25

U.S. Veterans Administration

4/85Percentage of Thai women between the ages of 15 and 30 who are prostitutes: 10

The Progressive (Madison, Wis.)

4/85Percentage increase in South Korean exports to the United States in 1984: 30

U.S. Department of Commerce

4/85Percentage decrease in the gross national product of the Philippines in 1984: 5.5

The World Bank (Washington, D.C.)

4/85Percentage of international telephone conversations that are conducted in English: 85

United Telecom (Kansas City, Mo.) and Charles Berlitz (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

4/85Percentage increase in direct foreign investment in the United States since 1979: 144

U.S. Department of Commerce

4/85Number of manufacturing jobs New England has gained since 1982: 64,650

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

4/85Yearly percentage growth in the U.S. robot population: 30

World Future Society (Bethesda, Md.)

    Yearly percentage growth in the U.S. population: 0.9

World Future Society (Bethesda, Md.)

4/85Number of U.S. firms that offered employees child-care benefits in 1978: 115

The Conference Board (New York City)

    In 1984: 1,850

The Conference Board (New York City)

4/85Percentage increase, since 1973, in 3- and 4-year-olds attending nursery school: 77

U.S. Census Bureau

4/85Total annual expenditures of U.S. corporations on employee-education programs: $60,000,000,000

Center for Public Resources (New York City)

    Total annual expenditure of U.S. four-year public and private colleges and universities: $60,000,000,000

“Corporate Classrooms,” by Nell Eurich, for The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Princeton. N.J.)

4/85Number of billboards that are in violation of the 1965 Highway Beautification Act: 171,579

U.S. Government Accounting Office

4/85Rank of cruise control among options new car buyers desire most: 1

J.D. Power and Associates (Westlake Village, Calif.)

4/85Amount of laundry an average American family of four washes in a year (in tons): 1

Procter & Gamble (Cincinnati)

4/85Pieces of luggage Tatum O’Neal brought with her when she moved in with John McEnroe: 22

People magazine

4/85Pairs of toe shoes the New York City Ballet orders for principal dancer Suzanne Farrell each season: 350

The New York City Ballet

4/85Number of weeks, since April 1981, that Danielle Steele has not had a book on a national best-seller list: 0

Delacorte Press (New York City)

4/85Average percentage by which art that has been donated is overvalued for tax purposes: 600

U.S. Treasury Department

4/85Amount Americans spend to have their federal income tax forms prepared each year: $11,700,000,000

“Reform”? or A Rational Tax System, by Richard L. Rosenthal (Citizens Utilities, Stamford, Conn.)

4/85Portion of U.S. retail sales accounted for by franchise businesses: 1/3

International Franchise Association (Washington, D.C.)

4/85Percentage of supermarket buying decisions that are made in the store: 65

Point of Purchase Advertising Institute (Fort Lee, N.J.) and Du Pont (Wilmington, Del.)

4/85Total acres in the United States occupied by shopping centers and malls: 59,129

National Research Bureau (Chicago)

    By vegetable gardens: 1,300,000

Gardens for All (Burlington, Vt.) and The Gallup Organization (Princeton, N.J.)

4/85Number of beer cans manufactured since they were introduced in 1935: 610,000,000,000

Can Manufacturers Institute (Washington, D.C.)

4/85Portion of its normal size to which a baseball is compressed when hit squarely: 3/4

Sport Science, by Peter J. Brancazio (Simon & Schuster)

4/85Portion of America’s annual rainfall that falls in April: 1/12

National Climatic Data Center (Asheville, N.C.).