Chances today: 1 in 17
6/96Percentage of the U.S. retail price of a pair of Pocahontas pajamas that is paid to the Haitian who sewed them: 0.06
11/86Chances that a working American has worked at a McDonald’s: 1 in 15
8/91Chances that a worker anywhere in the world is employed by the travel and tourism industry: 1 in 15
4/92Chances that a tax return filed by a U.S. corporation in 1980 was audited: 1 in 15
Chances today: 1 in 39
9/02Ratio of the amount the U.S. pays to service this debt to the total amount developing countries pay: 1:15
3/01Estimated chance that a U.S. prisoner is mentally retarded: 1 in 14
4/96Chances that an American adult has suffered from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 13
3/97Chance that an American family can afford to pay full tuition at a private four-year college: 1 in 13
8/89Chances that an American woman will be the victim of a rape or an attempted rape in her lifetime: 1 in 12
4/94Chances that a U.N. member paid its dues on time last year: 1 in 12
9/96Chance that an American parent requires that children do their homework before watching TV: 1 in 12
12/03Chance that a civilian federal worker is employed by the Department of Homeland Security: 1 in 12
11/92Chances that a ram is homosexual: 1 in 11
3/95Chances that a black House staffer worked for a Republican last year: 1 in 11
3/99Ratio of the price of a gallon of crude oil to the wholesale price of a gallon of Evian water: 1:11
4/01Chance that a TV character engaging in sexual intercourse during the 1997-98 season was a teenager: 1 in 33
Chance last season: 1 in 11
9/01Chance that a U.S. sixth- to tenth-grader reports being bullied weekly: 1 in 11
Chance that a sixth- to tenth-grader reports bullying others: 1 in 12
1/86Chances that a male North Dakotan is an Elk: 1 in 10
12/87Portion of all trading on the New York Stock Exchange this year that involved Japanese investors: 1/10
2/89Chances that an American born this year will have been exposed to illegal drugs in utero: 1 in 10
5/89Chances that a Palestinian male in the occupied territories has been arrested at least once since 1979: 1 in 10
12/89Ratio of the total weight of the earth’s human population to that of its termite population: 1:10
1/90Chances that a Palestinian male in the occupied territories has been arrested at least once since 1980: 1 in 10
1/92Portion of health-care spending by U.S. businesses that goes to treat mental illness or chemical dependency: 1/10
3/91Chances that a Californian owns a convertible: 1 in 10
7/92Chances that a dollar loaned by a bank to a U.S. business this year will come from a Japanese bank: 1 in 10
7/92Chances that a teenage American male has seen Wayne’s World at least three times: 1 in 10
3/93Chances that a child in the U.S. public-school system has been classified as mentally or physically disabled: 1 in 10
3/95Chances that a professional athlete in the United States is black: 1 in 10
9/95Chances that a black resident of South Dakota is in prison: 1 in 10
11/96Chance that the winning candidate in a 1994 congressional race spent less than his opponent: 1 in 10
5/97Blood-alcohol level a driver would need in order to be as dangerous as a driver using a cellular phone: 0.1
3/98Maximum ratio of curvature to length allowed a Grade 1 cucumber under the E.U.’s new produce regulations: 1:10
9/98Chance that an American would characterize the President’s alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky as “harassment”: 1 in 10
11/98Estimated ratio of satellites in the path of the last Leonid meteor shower in 1966 to those in its path this November 17: 1:10
Chance that a Native American woman will be: 1 in 10
7/99Ratio of people killed this year in the Kosovo war to those killed in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war: 1:10
10/99Percentage of the 2.3 million gallons of blood Americans could donate each month that they actually do: 0.1
12/99Chance that an American favors the resumption of any form of nuclear-xweapons testing: 1 in 10
5/00Chance that a police officer in South Africa is not licensed to drive: 1 in 10
11/00Percentage of Americans killed by faulty auto parts in the 1990s who were killed by Firestone tires: 0.1
12/00Ratio of the number of bushels of wheat one barrel of oil could buy in 1950 to the number it could buy today: 1:10
5/01Chance that a page in the middle-school textbook Science Insights contains a serious factual error: 1 in 10
6/01Ratio of the amount of insecticides used in the U.S. in 1945 to the amount used last year: 1:10
6/03Portion of sales of its “Impeach Bush French Fries” that a California cafe will donate to an impeachment campaign: 1/10
6/04Chance that a Western European has a positive opinion of George W. Bush: 1 in 10
8/04Chance that an African national leader who left office between 1960 and 2003 did so because he lost an election: 1 in 10
2/08Portion of the $1.7 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents: 1/10
9/97Chance that a kilowatt hour of electricity used in the U.S. last year was generated from a renewable resource: 1 in 9
6/88Portion of the defense budget it would take to lift every American family over the poverty line for one year: 1/9
10/04Chance that a southern Sudanese woman will die in childbirth: 1 in 9
2/06Chance that a boy in a U.S. high school plays cards for money at least once a week: 1 in 9
3/06Portion of New York Senate districts that would not meet the minimum population level without their inmates: 1/9
3/08Chance that a British man admits to fantasizing about his favorite sports team during sex: 1 in 9
10/91Chances that an American believes that the country’s domestic problems are “beyond solving”: 1 in 8
5/88Chances that a restaurant bill is incorrect: 1 in 8
1/93Chances that a working American is self-employed: 1 in 13
6/93Chances that there were no deaths from political violence in an African country last year: 1 in 8
11/94Chances that an American knows who Harry and Louise are: 1 in 8
12/96Ratio of RAM needed to run the Space Shuttle’s onboard computers to that needed to run WordPerfect for Windows ‘95: 1:8
Chance that an American woman believes this: 1 in 9
2/03Chance that an American says the new Department of Homeland Security makes the nation “a lot safer”: 1 in 8
5/03Chance that a British military reservist called up since January has asked to be excused from duty: 1 in 8
6/05Chance that a resident of the former East Germany wants the Berlin Wall back: 1 in 8
11/06Fraction of Manhattan real estate that could be bought with the annual gambling earnings of Native American tribes: 1/8
7/08Projected annual budget of the enlarged cabinet, as a portion of Kenya’s total government revenues: 1/8
12/08Chance in 2003 that a Fortune 500 company was based in an emerging-market country: 1 in 14
Chance today: 1 in 8
6/88Chances that an American adult will report having had a ”great” night last night: 1 in 7
7/89Chances that a West German conscript will refuse to serve in the military: 1 in 7
9/90Estimated portion of the street price of crack in New York City that goes to growers, processors, and importers: 1/7
6/92Chances that a child in New York City lives in a household headed by neither parent: 1 in 7
11/92Chances that a delegate to the Republican Convention in August is a member of Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition: 1 in 7
10/93Chances that a US. resident is foreign-born: 1 in 13
5/94Ratio of the average speed of growth of human hair to the average speed of growth of Kentucky bluegrass: 1:7
8/94Chances that an actor who played a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz is still alive: 1 in 7
5/97Chance that an African-American man was ineligible to vote last year due to former or current imprisonment: 1 in 7
5/99Portion of the domestic market that the proposed merger between Exxon and Mobil will control: 1/7
1/00Chance that a New York State resident in 1776 was a slave: 1 in 7
5/01Chance that a page in this year’s February/March issue of Bride’s magazine had editorial content on it: 1 in 7
9/01Chance that an eighty-year-old American is left-handed: 1 in 100
Chance that a ten-year-old is: 1 in 7
6/05Chance that a Russian scientist says he or she would consider working for North Korea: 1 in 7
1/06Chance that an airliner has dangerous levels of disease-causing pathogens in its drinking water: 1 in 7
5/06Chance that a British youth reports having been bullied via text message: 1 in 7
9/08Portion of U.S. troops in Iraq who are on psychiatric medications: 1/8
Portion of troops in Afghanistan who are: 1/7
12/08Chance that a person worldwide lacks adequate drinking water due to socioeconomic conditions: 1 in 6
5/86Chances that a female graduate student in psychology has had sex with one of her professors: 1 in 6
4/92Chances that an American pediatrician has treated a child for a gunshot wound in the last year: 1 in 6
6/92Chances that an American having an abortion will describe herself as a born-again or Evangelical Christian: 1 in 6
10/93Portion of the 107,000 manufacturing jobs lost in California since 1987 that went to Mexico: 1/6
1/95Chances that a legal immigrant to the United States from the former Soviet Union receives welfare: 1 in 6
8/96Ratio of annual federal spending on Atlanta’s homeless in the last five years to the amount spent this year: 1:6
7/97Chance that a Hong Kong resident is “very worried” about the loss of personal freedom under Chinese rule: 1 in 20
Chance that a Hong Kong resident is very worried about increased corruption: 1 in 6
9/98Chance that a police officer killed in the line of duty in the last ten years was shot with his own gun: 1 in 6
4/99 Portion of Yankee Stadium tickets for last year’s World Series games that were available to the public: 1/6
11/01Chance that a foreign-born U.S. resident’s country of origin has undergone U.S. occupation or attack since 1945: 1 in 6
4/03Chance that the United States bombed Iraq on any given day last year: 1 in 6
4/03Chance that a delegate to Pakistan’s National Assembly is a member of an Islamist party: 1 in 6
11/04Chance that a Republican president has not won the popular vote: 1 in 6
Chance that a Democratic president has not: 0
6/06Chance since 2001 that a criminal case in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has been tried off the docket: 1 in 6
2/07Chance that a U.S. worker in 1970 experienced a drop in income that year of one-half or greater: 1 in 14
Chance in 2002: 1 in 6
6/07Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has “negative equity,” i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 6
3/08Chance that a University of New Hampshire student has taken Ritalin illegally: 1 in 6
12/00Ratio of the monthly salary the U.N. pays its native clerks in East Timor to what it pays its other employees there: 1:5.6
10/85Portion of the disposable income in the United States that is spent by homosexuals: 1/5
7/88Chances that the blood of an American who uses a public water system contains a dangerous amount of lead: 1 in 5
3/91Chances that an American between the ages of 16 and 24 is “very familiar” with the term glasnost: 1 in 5
5/86Portion of the Soviet Union’s urban population that shares a kitchen and bathroom with another family: 1/5
6/88Portion of the Pentagon’s 1986 budget for weapons and R&D that was classified: 1/7
8/88Chances that a New York City traffic officer was assaulted on the job in 1987: 1 in 5
Ratio today: 1:31
8/89Portion of the sentences uttered by George Bush during his June 8 press conference that were ungrammatical: 1/5
3/90Chances that an American woman considers herself a strong supporter of the women’s movement: 1 in 5
4/91Chances that an American who strongly favors the U.S. attack on Iraq is in the market for a house: 1 in 5
Chances that an American who strongly opposes the attack is in the market for a house: 1 in 12
6/91Portion of all office space that is currently vacant: 1/5
12/91Price of a single-serving pizza at Beijing’s Pizza Hut, expressed as a portion of the average worker’s weekly salary: 1/5
12/91Chances that a television set tuned to Good Morning America or The Today Show is not being watched: 1 in 5
4/92Portion of all breast-implant procedures that are performed in California: 1/5
7/92Chances that a dollar in a Hungarian’s savings account is deposited in a Hungarian bank: 1 in 5
11/92Portion of the 267,000 jobs lost in California this year that were defense-related: 1/5
2/93Chances that an American does not know which president appears on the one-dollar bill: 1 in 5
3/93Chances that an American believes that Jews are so shrewd in business that “others don’t have a fair chance”: 1 in 5
7/93Chances that an American who graduated college since 1980 holds a job that does not require a college degree: 1 in 5
7/93Chances that an American adult agrees that “it seems possible” that the Holocaust never occurred: 1 in 5
7/93Chances that an adult Medicaid patient under the age of 65 has been turned away by a doctor or hospital: 1 in 5
1/94Estimated portion of the price of an eight-foot stepladder accounted for by litigation costs and insurance: 1/5
4/94Estimated portion of Shaquille O’Neal’s 1993 income he earned by playing basketball: 1/5
5/94Chances that a man using a computer at work believes that PCs are “too technical for most people to use easily”: 1 in 5
7/95Ratio of children’s emergency-room visits for injuries related to fireworks last year to those related to “desk supplies”: 1:5
11/95Chances that a Texan who registered to vote during the first six months of this year did so in a welfare office: 1 in 5
2/96Chances that the phrase “you will” appears on a page of Bill Gates’s new book, The Road Ahead: 1 in 5
9/96Chance that an American believes the “law of supply and demand” caused last spring’s increase in gasoline prices: 1 in 5
11/96Ratio of the amount the federal government spent last year on Americans under 18 to those over 65: 1:5
3/97Chance that a magazine sold at a U.S. Army, Navy, or Air Force base is an adult magazine: 1 in 5
6/97Chance that a U.S. teenage girl will be pregnant within one month of becoming sexually active: 1 in 5
3/98Chance that a tree in New Orleans is infested with Formosan termites: 1 in 5