1/92Average annual percentage change in the U.S. standard of living since George Bush took office: -0.3

U.S. Senate Budget Committee

    Number of the previous eight presidencies during which the standard of living fell: 0

U.S. Senate Budget Committee

1/92Total U.S. consumer debt in 1991, expressed as a percentage of total disposable income: 96

Federal Reserve System (Washington)

1/92Number of the 1,891 questions asked at presidential press conferences since, 1988 that dealt with domestic issues: 651

James Bennet, The Washington Monthly (Washington)/Harper’s research

    Ratio of the number of questions asked about the President’s health to the number of questions about health care: 2:1

James Bennet, The Washington Monthly (Washington)/Harper’s research

1/92Percentage increase in U.S. health-care costs since January 1990: 16

U.S. Department of Labor

1/92Portion of health-care spending by U.S. businesses that goes to treat mental illness or chemical dependency: 1/10

Employee Benefit Research Institute (Washington)

1/92Percentage of U.S. infant formula sales that are. made to the government for distribution to the poor: 40

U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (Alexandria, Va.)

1/92Chances that an organ transplanted in New York City last year came from a murder victim: 1 in 4

New York Regional Transplant Program (N.Y.C.)

1/92Chances that a vote cast in the 1960 presidential election was cast by a suburbanite: 1 in 4

Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)

    Chances that a vote cast in the 1992 presidential election will be cast by a suburbanite: 1 in 2

William Schneider, American Enterprise Institute (Washington)

1/92Percentage of Californians who voted in 1990 to limit the term of state legislators: 52

California Secretary of State (Sacramento)

    Percentage who voted in 1990 to re-elect their incumbent state legislators: 56

Harper’s research/California Secretary of State (Sacramento)

1/92Portion of his adult life George Bush has spent working inside the Washington Beltway: 1/2

U.S. Representative Patricia Schroeder (Washington)

1/92Total presidential campaign funds raised by George Bush in his first two days of fund-raising last fall: $2,200,000

The White House (Washington)

    Total campaign funds raised by the six Democratic presidential candidates as of last October: $2,200,000

U.S. Federal Election Commission

1/92Number of the six Democratic candidates who say they will not accept PAC funds for their campaigns: 4

Harper’s research

1/92Amount that Senator John Glenn still owes creditors from his 1984 presidential campaign: $2,753,252

U.S. Federal Election Commission

1/92Percentage of all American astronauts who were Boy Scouts: 45

Boy Scouts of America (Irving, Tex.)/NASA (Houston)

1/92Chances that an American is an immigrant: 1 in 14

U.S. Bureau of the Census (Suitland, Md.)

    Chances that a Canadian is: 1 in 6

Statistical Reference Center (Ottawa, Canada)

1/92Number of Germans arrested for assaulting foreigners in 1991: 324

German Information Center (N.Y.C.)

1/92Number of the 6,100 residents of Kuwait detained by the government since last March who are still being held: 2,800

Middle East Watch (N.Y.C.)

1/92Number of journalists killed in Yugoslavia since last June: 16

Committee to Protect Journalists (N.Y.C.)

1/92Percentage of Russians who say that newspapers should be “mainly run by the state”: 41

Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press (Washington)

1/92Percentage of Russians who say they favor a “free-market form of capitalism such as that of the United States”: 17

Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press (Washington)

1/92Ratio of the average productivity of a U.S. automotive engine plant to that of a Mexican plant: 5:4

Harley Shaiken, University of California (San Diego)

    Ratio of the average wages at a U.S. plant to those at a Mexican plant: 17:1

Harley Shaiken, University of California (San Diego)

1/92Average annual amount an American spends on Japanese goods: $378

Robert B. Reich, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Cambridge)

    Average annual amount a Japanese spends on American goods: $344

Robert B. Reich, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Cambridge)

1/92Ratio of the number of Chinese who will watch the Super Bowl this year to the number of Americans who will: 3:1

T.L.I. International (Chicago)/National Football League (N.Y.C.)

1/92Number of the 10 NFL teams whose helmet logos include lettering that have won the Super Bowl: 9

T.L.I. International (Chicago)/National Football League (N.Y.C.)

    Number of the 18 teams whose helmet logos do not include lettering that have won the Super Bowl: 3

Brad Hamilton, The Village Voice (N.Y.C.)

1/92Average number of cheerleading-related injuries reported each day in the United States: 34

Consumer Product Safety Commission (Bethesda, Md.)

1/92Number of Japanese girls who participated in sumo wrestling matches in 1991: 2,500

Junior Chamber (Tokyo)

1/92Number of Polish women who have graduated from the Warsaw School of Grace since it opened in 1988: 5,000

Warsaw School of Grace (Warsaw)

1/92Liters of beer an escaped circus bear in the Ukraine drank in the Kharkov town square before being recaptured: 3

TASS-Ukrinform News Agency (Kharkov, Ukraine)

1/92Number of members of the Cossacks, a Moscow motorcycle gang: 8

Carla Marinucci, San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco)

    Number of motorcycles they own: 1

Carla Marinucci, San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco)