7/86Percentage of babies born to married American women in 1965 that were unwanted: 20.5
1/85Percentage of Forbes 500 chief executive officers in 1983 who had a “technical background”: 20.6
1/97Average figure given by Americans when asked to estimate what percentage of the population is unemployed: 20.6
Percentage of Americans who are actually unemployed: 5.2
3/86Percentage of adults who say they were told the facts of life by their mother: 21
10/89Percentage decrease, since June 1985, in funds raised by the Democratic National Committee: 14
Percentage decrease in funds raised by the Republican National Committee: 21
12/90Number of the 206 endowed professorships at M.I.T. that have been funded by Japanese companies: 21
2/91Percentage of preschool children who say that if they were president they would eat ice cream for every meal: 21
5/92Percentage of U.S. Department of Agriculture employees who provide services to farmers: 21
10/92Number of the 28 millionaires in the U.S. Senate who are Democrats: 21
4/93Number of Porsches pawned last year at Collateral Lender of Beverly Hills: 21
5/93Average number of laps around the new White House jogging track required to burn off the calories in one Big Mac: 21
4/94Percentage of Germans who believe the world would ‘be a better place “if everyone were like the Germans”: 21
7/94Percentage of Russians who say they would like to return to their country’s “pre-1985 situation”: 21
4/95Number of the 29 divorced members of the House of Representatives who are Democrats: 21
3/96Number of countries to which the U.S. has officially deployed combat ground troops since 1950: 21
Portion of these from which U.S. troops have been withdrawn: 1/2
7/96Ratio of Americans who die from smoking-related illnesses each year to those who die as a result of illegal-drug use: 21:1
11/96Percentage change in the number of gays discharged since Clinton initiated his “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy: +21
9/97Rank of adults under 30 and those over 70 among the age groups most in favor of making cigarettes illegal: 2,1
5/98Percentage of violent offenders in state prisons whose crime was committed under the influence of alcohol alone: 21
11/99Percentage points by which voter turnout for Russia’s last national election exceeded U.S. turnout in 1996: 21
5/00Rank of Bangladesh and Poland among countries accounting for the largest number of U.N. peacekeepers deployed last fall: 2,1
11/00Number of felons enlisted from an Ohio halfway house last July as extras in the Cincinnati Opera’s production of Aida: 21
11/00Hours after an Australian fisherman fell overboard in August that his head was found in the belly of a 98-pound cod: 21
4/01Rank of Oasis singer Liam Gallagher among public figures most reviled by Britons: 3
Rank of Slobodan Milosevic and Adolf Hitler, respectively: 2,1
5/01Average percentage by which an amateur stock website’s forecast was incorrect: 21
7/01Number of Russian news organizations that were sent a press release in February touting a fake company: 21
10/01Percentage of Russian nuclear scientists who say they are willing to work on another country’s missile-defense program: 21
6/02Days the University of Georgia heated its campus last winter by burning chicken fat and other leftover food grease: 21
4/03Number of current and former national leaders slated for war-crimes prosecution by Belgium’s high court: 21
Number of current officeholders left on the list after the court granted Israel’s Ariel Sharon immunity in January: 15
7/03Years by which the 1831 invention of the electric dynamo preceded the first documented use of the word “boredom”: 21
3/04Months after the Justice Department began investigating Enron in 2001 that an Enron executive was jailed: 21
10/04Number of Ohio election boards being sued over erroneously informing parolees that they may not vote: 21
7/05Average percentage of the U.K. population that Britons believe to be immigrants: 21
Actual percentage: 8
5/07Rank of Britain among twenty-one rich countries the U.N. ranked this year for “child well-being”: 21
Rank of the United States: 20
2/09Number of the four Republican-primary “rivals” in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet who left by the end of his first term: 3
Months into his first term that Lincoln told a friend his cabinet was “on the brink of destruction”: 21
5/96Price of a ten-inch Chia Garcia, a bust of Jerry Garcia seeded to sprout green hair: $21.95
3/85Percentage of the annual U.S. potato crop that is french fried: 22
10/86Average percentage of income Americans earning $200,000 or more will pay under the new tax bill: 22
Average percentage they pay today: 22
7/89Average number of times an American opens the refrigerator each day: 22
5/91Percentage of fast-food restaurant workers who admit to doing “slow, sloppy work on purpose”: 22
8/91Number of times the Soviet Union has voted with the United States in the UN General Assembly since 1989: 22
6/92Estimated number of cans of Diet Pepsi an Olympic athlete could consume without failing the USOC’s drug test: 22
4/94Total tax deductions Bill Clinton has claimed since 1986 on charitable donations of used underwear: $22
7/94Number of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves who escaped to join the British during the American Revolution: 22
1/96Purity of the gold New York Life Insurance used last year to gild its headquarters’ dome, in karats: 22
10/96Years since states were last allowed to distribute federal welfare funds to able-bodied, childless adults: 22
1/97Percentage change between 1980 and 1992 in the number of HIV-negative Americans who died of infectious diseases: +22
3/97Percentage change since 1990 in the number of Americans filing for personal bankruptcy: +22
4/97Estimated percentage change in the size of Canada’s Native-American population since 1500: +22
Estimated percentage change since then in the size of the Native-American population of the U.S.: -76
7/97Percentage of American smokers who say that tobacco companies are to blame for smoking-related illnesses: 13
Percentage of Americans who have never smoked who say this: 22
9/97Number of former or sitting Chicago aldermen convicted of a federal crime in the last 25 years: 22
3/99Percentage by which Iraq’s oil sales last year fell short of the maximum allowed under U.N. sanctions: 22
4/02Months that a Denver bookstore has been refusing court orders to identify a buyer of a book about making illegal drugs: 22
5/03Factor by which industry funding for university biomedical research has increased since 1980: 22
7/03Number of years Neil Bush was married before asking his wife for a divorce via email last summer: 22
8/03Number of magicians who won damages from Brazil’s largest TV network in May after their tricks were revealed on the air: 22
9/03Months after the first manned flight that Wilbur Wright identified “war” as a potential use for airplanes: 22
2/04Percentage increase since 1999 in U.S. households in which there was hunger due to poverty during the year: 22
11/04Days after the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that Dick Cheney married, securing a draft deferment: 22
4/06Estimated labor cost of complying with the U.S. tax code each year, expressed as a percentage of U.S. tax receipts: 22
5/06Number of Harlequin novels published last year that feature love between a Western woman and an Arab sheikh: 15
Number by 2008 that will feature NASCAR races: 22
3/09Total number of guns that five of the six candidates for RNC chairman bragged about owning during their January debate: 22
Number of the candidates who said he had “too many to count”: 1
11/85Percentage of federal district court judges appointed by President Carter who are millionaires: 4
11/85Weekly sales per square foot near the cash registers in the average supermarket: $22.80
Per square foot elsewhere in the store: $7.76
3/96Price of a potted four-leaf clover, from 1-800-BIG-LUCK: $22.95
By Protestants: 5
The average New Englander: 23
1/87Number of entries under “journalistic ethics” in the 1961 Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature: 0
7/87Number that paid to use the logo of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution: 23
10/87Number of states that have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1968: 23
Number that have voted Democratic in every election since 1968: 0
2/89Amount of time it would take for all the Coca-Cola ever sold to flow over Niagara Falls, in hours: 23
4/89Percentage of Americans who like dogs on TV commercials because they are “more exciting than people”: 23
8/90Average number of South African police officers who have resigned each day this year: 23
9/90Percentage of men who are chronically constipated: 12
Number of these invasions the United States sent troops to help repel: 3
6/91Percentage of Americans who say they watch “too little” television: 23
7/92Percentage of Americans who believe that the president can suspend the Bill of Rights during wartime: 23
Chances that an American does not know that the Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution: 2 in 3
9/93Number of the 37 contested elections for seats in state legislatures this year that were won by Republicans: 23
11/95Age, in years, of the oldest frozen turkey about which Butterball’s hot line has ever fielded a “freshness” question: 23
8/96Number of nonskid strips the Delaware Correctional Center affixed to its gallows steps before a hanging last January: 23
10/97Rank of Hillary Clinton, among the best-selling Halloween masks last year at Washington’s Backstage costume shop: 1
Rank of Bill Clinton and the Cryptkeeper: 2,3
9/98Percentage of Americans who are in favor of outlawing cigarettes: 23
5/99Number of subscribers to Eternal Ink, the official newsletter of the Christian Tattoo Association: 23
7/99Hours after NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last May that the U.S. apologized to China: 23
4/01Hours after taking office in 1993 that Bill Clinton ordered a five-year delay on lobbying by ex-White House officials: 1
4/01Percentage of U.S. high school sex-ed teachers who say that abstinence is the only birth-control method they cover: 23
9/01Number of American states that permit public-school teachers to inflict corporal punishment on students: 23
11/01Prison sentence, in years, received in June by an Oregon activist for setting fire to a car dealership: 23
3/04Number of the 420 demonstrators arrested at Philadelphia’s 2000 Republican National Convention who were convicted: 23
Number whose cases are still pending: 9
7/04Number of states where a shift of no more than three seats this fall could change party control of a legislative chamber: 23
9/05Ratio of the world’s reconstruction aid given to postwar Kosovo, per capita, to that given postwar Afghanistan: 23:1
3/06Number of books published in Britain since 2004 that have “shit,” “shite,” or “ crap ” in their titles: 23
4/06Percentage of U.S. couples who regularly sleep in separate beds: 23
7/06Percentage of Republicans who viewed “Hillary Clinton” favorably in an April poll: 16
Percentage who viewed “Hillary Rodham Clinton” favorably: 23
4/07Percentage of G.O.P. House and Senate members in an April 2006 poll who believed humans are causing climate change: 23
7/07Percentage of U.S. soldiers who say they “know for certain” that someone in their unit is gay or lesbian: 23
5/08Percentage of Britons who believe that Winston Churchill is a mythical figure: 23
6/08Minimum number of U.S. Army generals fired or replaced for cause during World War II: 23
Number during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined: 1
3/09Number of serialized TV and radio melodramas in favor of population control produced by a Vermont group: 18
Number of countries in which the group has aired them: 23
5/00Years before Indonesia hired Henry Kissinger last winter that he was the U.S. adviser on its invasion of East Timor: 23.5
Median age today: 23.7
12/84Percentage of American teachers who say that if they could start over, they would not teach: 24
5/85Percentage increase in admissions for malnutrition at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital from 1981 to 1983: 24
8/85Percentage of American women who receive no prenatal care during the first three months of pregnancy: 24
3/87Percentage of Americans who say that AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuality: 24
Percentage spent today: 24
5/87Percentage decrease in the average winning bid at the Keeneland thoroughbred auction in 1986: 24
5/88Percentage of 1987 United Nations General Assembly votes in which Honduras voted with the United States: 24
9/88Number of lines in Ronald Reagan’s entry in the 1988-89 edition of Who’s Who: 8
Number of lines in Nancy Reagan’s: 24
8/89Price of a two-hour Scandal Tour of Washington, D.C.: $24
12/90Number of the 26 human bodies frozen in the hope of being brought back to life that are in California: 24
10/91Percentage of Japanese who say that the Soviet Union is the greatest threat to their nation: 22
Percentage who say the United States is: 24
6/92Number of Alcoholics Anonymous groups formed in Moscow since 1987: 24
5/93Number of cardigan sweaters worn by Mr. Rogers on his TV show since 1968: 24
11/93Average number of members of Congress charged with a crime each decade between 1789 and 1970: 2
6/94Percentage of 15- to 24-year-old French workers who are unemployed: 24
Percentage of U.S. pediatricians who do not accept Medicaid: 23
6/95Ratio of soft-money contributions made to the Republican National Committee last January to those made in January 1993: 24:1
10/95Hours per day that the L.A. Central Jail runs its dry-cleaning machines to prepare prisoners’ street clothes for storage: 24
3/97Price for which a Kissimmee, Florida, woman allegedly offered to sell her five-year-old niece to a stranger last December: $24
3/97Percentage of British women who find Prime Minister John Major “attractive”: 2
Percentage who find Labour Leader Tony Blair “smarmy”: 24
8/98Number of bids received by the Russian government last May when it put its remaining national oil company up for sale: 0
Percentage by which the asking price was reduced a month later: 24
12/98Number of days this year during which Norway’s Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik was “too depressed” to work: 24
5/99Ranking points by which the name Monica has dropped in popularity among those given U.S. girls since 1997: 24
9/99Maximum amount of time that a suspect in Florida can be held in jail without being assigned a lawyer, in hours: 24
Average percentage by which the amount of East Coast rainfall on a Saturday exceeds the amount on a Monday: 22
9/01Hours that Amherst College agreed to ban coffee last term as part of a student’s performance piece about the drug war: 24
3/02Total number of opposition candidates who ran for the 84 seats in Singapore’s parliament last November: 24
9/02Number of weapons seized in a 1962 desegregation riot at a fraternity then headed by future senator Trent Lott: 24
10/02Months since his release from prison that nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee has been looking for work: 24
5/04Years in prison to which two ex-Pentagon officials were sentenced last year for taking bribes of money and prostitutes: 24
9/04Number of Afghanistan’s 33 provinces with no NATO peacekeeping presence: 24
9/05Ratio of the number of peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, per capita, to that in Afghanistan: 24:1
5/07Percentage of Pakistanis and Indonesians who say that attacks on civilians are sometimes justified to defend Islam: 8
Percentage of Americans who say that attacks on civilians are sometimes justified: 24
10/07Percentage change since 1980 in the average amount of solid waste generated by an American: +24
10/08Number of states that have refused to accept federal grants for pro-abstinence sex education this year: 24
For workers in the Soviet Union: 15
12/84Percentage of Americans who believe their presence at a sports event influences its outcome: 25
2/85Percentage increase since 1980 in U.S. military recruits who hold high school diplomas: 25