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
3/96Chances that an employee of a pro basketball team is a player: 1 in 4
7/96Ratio of professional jobs available in Mexico in the 1980s to the number of Mexicans who graduated from college then: 1:4
1/97Chances that a Republican man believes that “poor people have hard lives”: 1 in 4
6/97Symbolic portion of Gene Roddenberry and Timothy Leary shot into orbit last April, in ounces of ashes apiece: 0.25
9/97Chance that a U.S. prison inmate over the age of 55 has been incarcerated for less than a year: 1 in 4
1/98Chances that a person diagnosed with high blood pressure presents normal pressure when not at the doctor: 1 in 4
2/98Chance that an American parent believes that teenagers are usually “lively and fun to be around”: 1 in 4
4/98Chance that a woman first elected to the U.S. House or Senate before 1993 was a congressional widow: 1 in 4
7/98Chance that an American woman considers herself a victim of injustice: 1 in 5
Chance that an American man considers himself a victim of injustice: 1 in 4
12/98Chance that a gay Massachusetts teenager reports being threatened or injured at school in the last year: 1 in 4
2/99Chances that a dollar spent on lobbying by a major oil company in 1997 came from Exxon or Mobil: 1 in 4
4/99Chance that a U.S. abortion clinic suffered a severely violent attack from protesters last year: 1 in 4
8/99Chance that the murder of a student at school in the last two years was caused by beating, strangling, or knife wounds: 1 in 4
Chance of this: 1 in 20
12/99Chance that an American without health insurance earns at least $50,000 per year: 1 in 4
1/00Chance that an African American who is a New York State resident today lives below the poverty level: 1 in 4
1/00Chance that a 14th-century European was killed by bubonic plague: 1 in 4
9/00Estimated portion of U.S. coastal homes whose plots will be obliterated by erosion by the year 2060: 1/4
11/00Ratio of the average cost of a gallon of gas in Britain last September to that of a gallon of Starbucks coffee: 1:4
2/01Chance that a democratic national election held last year was marred by violence or a disputed outcome: 1 in 4
4/01Chance that an American’s Streptoccocus pneumoniae infection is resistant to penicillin: 1 in 4
9/01Chance that a Denver middle-school student was suspended at least once during the 1999-2000 school year: 1 in 4
9/02Chance that a U.S. employer faced with a union drive in 1998 or 1999 illegally fired a pro-union worker: 1 in 4
10/02Chance that one of the 264 barrios of Medellin, Colombia, is controlled by right-wing paramilitaries: 1 in 4
Estimated chance last year: 1 in 10
12/02Ratio of the annual tariffs that developed nations impose on one another to those they impose on developing nations: 1:4
6/03Maximum portion of the chemical energy in gasoline that is used by an internal combustion engine: 1/4
8/03Ratio of the estimated number of people killed worldwide by war last year to the number killed by traffic: 1:4
9/03Chance that an American believes that “suicide is an acceptable solution in certain circumstances”: 1 in 4
8/04Chance that a member of New York’s Army National Guard was in Iraq in June: 1 in 4
7/05Chance that a four-to-six-year-old U.S. boy plays video games every day: 1 in 4
10/05Portion of all U.S. foreign aid that goes to helping the recipients buy U.S.-produced weapons, equipment, or services: 1/4
2/06Portion of prison inmates in Mozambique who have been tried in a court of law: 1/4
4/06Portion of the grants in President Bush’s $15 billion AIDS initiative that has gone to religious groups: 1/4
7/07Portion of the worldwide revenue from food retailing accounted for by ten corporations: 1/4
7/07Percentage of workers at Russia’s retail markets that can be foreign-born, according to a law that took effect in April: 0
Portion of the stalls at these markets that are now empty: 1/4
8/07Chance that an inmate serving a life sentence in Italy signed a May letter asking to be sentenced to death: 1 in 4
6/08Portion of Barack Obama supporters who said in April they would not vote for Hillary Clinton if she became the nominee: 1/5
9/08Chance that an American says his or her workplace is a “dictatorship”: 1 in 4
9/08Chance that a U.S. black believes the country has “gone too far in pushing equal rights”: 1 in 4
10/08Portion of the laws passed by the current Congress that have involved the renaming of post offices: 1/4
1/09Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4
1/09Portion of the $3.3 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents: 1/4
3/09Chance that a U.S. Gulf War veteran still suffers from “Gulf War illness,” according to a federal panel: 1 in 4
9/96Ratio of tax dollars spent each day on a U.S. public-school student to the amount spent on a prisoner: 2:7
11/90Chances that an animal caught in a trap will be discarded because it is not the targeted animal: 3 in 10
8/01Chances that a Mississippi African American opposes removing the state flag’s Confederate emblem: 3 in 10
6/08Portion of Afghanistan now controlled by its government, according to the U.S. national-intelligence director: 3/10
6/08Average number of inches by which entrepreneurs in China are taller than normal for their demographic: 0.3
3/84Portion of the U.S. land mass owned by the federal government: 1/3
4/85Portion of U.S. retail sales accounted for by franchise businesses: 1/3
10/90Portion of the 403 U.S. biotechnology companies that use human tissue for commercial research: 1/3
7/91Chances that an American believes that “vigilantism is justified under certain circumstances”: 1 in 3
4/97Chance that an American adult under the age of 54 suffers from mental-health and/or substance-abuse problems: 1 in 3
7/97Chance that an American believes freedom of the press should be “protected under all circumstances”: 1 in 3
7/97Portion of the world’s population that he believes might then be prescribed psychiatric drugs: 1/3
4/99Chance that the annual median flow of an unfettered U.S. stream is greater than it was 50 years ago: 1 in 3
4/86Portion of the top 250 industrial companies that had “golden parachute” plans for their executives in 1982: 1/5
Portion that have them today: 1/3
7/86Chances that an American Indian will die before the age of 45: 1 in 3
7/87Portion of the pesticides exported by U.S. companies that are banned domestically: 1/3
7/88Chances that an American earning hourly wages is paid less than $5 an hour: 1 in 3
2/89Portion of the $25,000,000,000 awarded each year in liability lawsuits that goes to attorneys: 1/3
8/89Portion of all U.S. coastal waters that are too polluted for commercial shellfishing: 1/3
10/89Chances that a post-office employee in New York City has failed a drug test during the last year: 1 in 3
3/90Portion of all deaths worldwide that are of children under the age of 5 in developing countries: 1/3
6/90Estimated portion of Czechoslovakia’s hard-currency export earnings that come from arms sales: 1/3
11/90Ratio of Coast Guard employees disciplined for drug violations to drug smugglers caught by the Coast Guard in 1988: 1:3
5/91Average ratio of U.S. funds spent fighting a war to U.S. funds spent on that war’s veterans’ benefits: 1:3
5/91Number of U.S AIDS deaths last year, expressed as a portion of all U.S. AIDS deaths since 1981: 1/3
6/91Portion of all office space in the United States that was built during the 1980s: 1/3
7/91Chances that an unemployed American is receiving unemployment-insurance benefits: 1 in 3
7/91Chances that an American child born this year will spend at least one year on welfare before reaching adulthood: 1 in 3
7/91Chances that an American woman who is not a virgin has had only one sexual partner in her life: 1 in 3
9/91Chances that a chicken sold in a supermarket is infected with salmonella: 1 in 3
9/91Chances that a single American man between the ages of 25 and 34 lives with one or both parents: 1 in 3
10/91Portion of the fan mail received by actors on The Young and the Restless that is addressed to their character: 1/3
12/91Chances that an eastern German acknowledges “some sympathy for radical rightist tendencies”: 1 in 5
3/91Portion of all explosives dropped on Kuwait by allied forces during the Persian Gulf War that remain unexploded: 1/3
3/91Chances that a Californian has earthquake insurance: 1 in 3
6/92Chances that a dollar of discretionary federal domestic spending will go to S&L and bank bailouts this year: 1 in 3
7/92Ratio of the membership of the Robert Redford Fan Club to that of the Mr. Ed Fan Club: 1:3
8/92Chances that a cigar costing more than $1.25 will be smoked by a millionaire: 1 in 3
8/92Chances that a Republican woman running for Congress this fall is pro-choice: 1 in 3
2/93Portion of the $150 million appropriated by Congress in 1991 for defense-worker retraining that has been spent: 1/3
3/93Chances that a person moving to California last year was an immigrant: 1 in 3
Chances that a person who has not seen an Amy Fisher TV movie can cite a reason for the war in Bosnia: 1 in 3
9/93Chances that an American believes that the President’s health-care plan will not improve health care: 1 in 3
12/93Chances that a pedestrian killed by an automobile in the United States last year was drunk: 1 in 3
2/94Chances that an American teenager believes he or she will be shot to death before reaching old age: 1 in 3
3/94Chances that an American girl whose mother receives welfare will also receive welfare as a young adult: 1 in 3
3/94Portion of all nuclear reactors currently under construction worldwide that are of Soviet design: 1/3
6/94Chances that an American knows the position of his or her senators on health-care reform: 1 in 3
6/94Chances that an American can define the term “managed care”: 1 in 3
6/94Ratio of network evening-news time devoted to health-care reform this year to the time devoted to Whitewater: 1:3
12/94Chances that a black suspect pictured on a network TV evening news program will be shown in police custody: 1 in 3
12/94Chances that a domestic U.S. military base ordered closed in 1988 remains open: 1 in 3