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
9/98Chance that a U.S. public high school has at least one police officer stationed there full-time: 1 in 5
12/98Chance that an American adult does not have a checking account: 1 in 5
1/99Chance that an American believes Bill Clinton is “a bigger threat to the American way of life” than Saddam Hussein: 1 in 5
6/99Estimated portion of the $4.8 billion that the IMF loaned Russia last July that has been lost or stolen: 1/5
11/99Ratio of the average annual amount a white American spends on lottery tickets to what a black American spends: 1:5
3/00Chance that a U.S. nuclear power plant’s indoor waste-storage facility is full: 1 in 5
7/00Portion of the funding for a national monument to black Revolutionary War soldiers that has been raised since 1985: 1/5
7/00Chance that a U.S. major league baseball player is foreign-born: 1 in 5
7/01Chance that an American will develop skin cancer in his or her lifetime: 1 in 5
12/01Chance that a “GMO-free”food product studied last April contained no genetically modified ingredients: 1 in 5
1/02Ratio of the number of U.S. soldiers killed by hostile fire since 1990 to the number who have committed suicide: 1:5
1/02Chance that a potentially dangerous item was missed by screeners that year, according to the GAO: 1 in 5
3/02Chance that a homeless-shelter resident in a major U.S. city holds a full- or part-time job: 1 in 5
7/02Chance an American believes it is very likely that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will lead to World War III: 1 in 5
7/02Chance that a prescription drug approved by the FDA will be recalled or require relabeling within 25 years of its release: 1 in 5
12/02Chances of getting a hotel room in Bethlehem on Christmas in 2000 and 2001, respectively: 0, 9 in 10
1/03Chance that a drug dose prescribed to a U.S. hospital patient is either administered improperly or forgotten: 1 in 5
4/03Chance that a member of a U.S. firm’s executive-compensation committee has financial or familial ties to its CEO: 1 in 5
6/03Chance that a U.S. senior citizen reports having skipped medications or not filled prescriptions because of cost: 1 in 5
3/04Chance that a resident of China has never heard of AIDS: 1 in 5
6/05Portion of the world’s motor vehicles that are in China: 1/17
Portion of the world’s annual traffic fatalities that are: 1/5
9/05Chance that a teacher in a U.S. public school is a man: 1 in 5
3/06Chance that a nation lacking resource wealth will have a civil war in any given five-year span: 1 in 100
4/06Chance that an American believes his or her phone has been tapped by the federal government: 1 in 5
4/06Chance that a passenger on a flight of two and a half hours or longer will have a cold within a week: 1 in 5
9/06Chance that a federal prisoner in the United States is a noncitizen: 1 in 5
6/08Chance that a French man aged 18 to 24 is “uninterested in sex,” according to a government study: 1 in 5
7/08Chance that a result on an Internet search relating to suicide will be an anti-suicide website: 1 in 8
1/09Chance 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 5
5/92Chances that a white American earning less than $28,000 per year will be denied a mortgage: 1 in 4.3
Chances that a black American earning more than $42,000 per year will be denied a mortgage: 1 in 4.7
Today: 1/4
12/85Portion of the New York City Ballet’s annual ticket income derived from The Nutcracker: 1/4
4/89Estimated portion of U.S. savings-and-loan insolvencies last year that resulted from fraud or abuse: 1/4
5/05Chance that a U.S. adult thinks a “conservative” is someone who supports affirmative action: 1 in 4
4/86Portion of El Salvador controlled by guerrillas in 1980: 1/4
Portion controlled by guerrillas today: 1/8
3/87Portion of consumer purchases in the United States that are paid for in cash: 1/4
6/87Portion of goods imported by the United States that were subject to trade restrictions in 1980: 1/8
1/88Portion of immigrants to the United States who settle in California: 1/4
Chances that an American worker is: 1 in 6
10/88Portion of all drought insurance premiums that are paid by the federal government: 1/4
11/88Chances that Dan Quayle will become president within the next eight years if George Bush is elected: 1 in 4
12/88Estimated portion of chlorofluorocarbons produced worldwide that is manufactured by Du Pont: 1/4
12/88Estimated portion of carbon-dioxide emissions worldwide that is the result of deforestation: 1/4
12/88Chances that a white American man is self-employed: 1 in 7
Chances that a foreign-born Korean-American man is: 1 in 4
2/89Portion of all single-family homes sold in the United States each year that are mobile homes: 1/4
3/89Portion of all corporate bonds currently outstanding in the United States that are junk bonds: 1/4
3/89Chances that a pregnant American woman will choose to have an abortion: 1 in 4
9/89Portion of Supreme Court opinions this year that have been decided by 5-to-4 votes: 1/4
5/91Portion of all cars that will have a microwave oven in the year 2000, according to the Campbell Soup Company: 1/4
Chances today: 1 in 4
1/92Chances that an organ transplanted in New York City last year came from a murder victim: 1 in 4
2/92Estimated portion of Israel’s water supply that comes from aquifers supplied by rainfall in the West Bank: 1/4
5/92Chances that an American child living with both biological parents will have to repeat a grade in school: 1 in 9
8/92Portion of medical school obstetrics-gynecology programs that offer routine training in first-trimester abortions: 1/8
9/92Portion of Supreme Court decisions last term in which David Souter did not vote with the majority: 1/13
Portion in which Clarence Thomas did not vote with the majority: 1/4
3/93Chances that a patient seeking medical care in a border city in Mexico is an American citizen: 1 in 4
12/93Chances that a Jewish-American child believes in Santa Claus: 1 in 4
1/94Chances that a member of the Hempstead, Texas, high school cheerleading squad was pregnant last fall: 1 in 4
2/94Chances that a supermarket customer in an express checkout line has more than the allowed number of items: 1 in 4
4/94Chances that an American who commits murder in his or her workplace will finish by committing suicide: 1 in 4
6/95Chances that a U.S. police chief believes the death penalty “significantly reduces the number of homicides”: 1 in 4
8/95Chances that a job in one of the ten largest industrialized countries is industrial: 1 in 4
2/96Ratio of visits to Bosnia made by President Clinton since 1992 to those made by the editor of Soldier of Fortune: 1:4
2/96Chances that an ad in the January issue of Esquire offers products or services relating to hair loss: 1 in 4
2/96Chances that the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high on any given trading day last year: 1 in 4
2/96Chances that a New York City public school is heated with coal: 1 in 4