2/86Percentage of Americans who can’t name an Asian country “near the Pacific Ocean”: 42
10/86Percentage of first-year graduate students in physics at U.S. universities who are foreigners: 42
3/87Percentage change in the average fare per mile of air travel since deregulation: +42
10/87Percentage of Americans who believe that “some civil liberties must be suspended in the war on AIDS”: 42
7/89Percentage of their income American CEOs derived from stock options and other long-term incentives in 1978: 15
Percentage today: 42
5/90Percentage increase, since 1985, in the number of all-talk radio stations in the United States: 42
11/90Percentage of the Department of Energy’s proposed 1991 R&D budget that would be spent on defense: 42
1/93Number of states where a single parent earning 75 percent of the poverty level is eligible for welfare: 5
4/93Percentage of Americans who favor prenatal genetic manipulation to improve intelligence: 42
7/93Percentage of the French who say that the beheading of King Louis XVI in 1793 was “unjust,” “inexcusable,” or “revolting”: 42
11/93Percentage of the world’s cranberries that are grown in Massachusetts: 42
11/94Tons of carbon dioxide produced by one U.S. automobile in its lifetime: 42
1/95Percentage of Americans who said last October that they had “never heard of” Newt Gingrich: 42
6/95Average number of minutes an American father of a four-year-old spends alone with his child each day: 42
10/97Seconds of booing elicited by Apple’s announcement of its deal with Microsoft at a trade show last August: 42
4/98Percentage of Americans who believe that Jesus Christ sinned during his lifetime: 42
Percentage who believe that senators have “very high ethical standards”: 2
7/01Percentage of George W. Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42
10/01Percentage of his presidency that George W. Bush has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 42
3/04Rank of Texas among states in which the largest percentage of citizens lack health insurance: 1
5/04Percentage of senior management positions in medium-size Russian companies that are held by women: 42
Percentage of senior management positions at equivalent U.S. companies that are: 20
9/06Minimum number of different U.S. government agencies that mine the personal data of citizens: 42
12/06Number of times President Bush has declared an event or outcome not to be “acceptable” so far this year: 42
Number of times he said this the previous three years combined: 33
Percentage today: 43
8/86Percentage of Americans between the ages of 15 and 19 who say they have shoplifted: 43
9/87Number of states that have paid more in taxes to finance SDI than they have received in SDI contracts: 43
12/88Number of times Abbie Hoffman has been arrested: 43
11/89Percentage of network news coverage of President Bush when he is out of the country that is negative: 19
Percentage of coverage when he is in the country that is negative: 43
12/89Total weight of the pages of advertising in the September issue of Vogue, in ounces: 43
Total weight of the pages of editorial content, in ounces: 14
3/91Amount of oil used by the Pentagon last year, expressed as a percentage of total U.S. oil imports from Saudi Arabia: 43
3/91Percentage of voters who say they don’t see any important differences between the Democratic and Republican parties: 43
6/92Percentage of black students in the Northeast attending public schools whose enrollment is 95 percent nonwhite: 43
8/94Percentage of Europeans who cannot name another European country they consider their “most reliable political ally”: 43
10/96Number of states in which local welfare reform was already legal before the passage of July’s welfare bill: 43
3/98Percentage change since then in the number of allegations of excessive force made against the city’s police: +43
8/99Percentage of the medical supplies bought since 1996 under Iraq’s oil-for-food program that has been distributed: 43
12/99Number of toxic spills reported within one mile of the Clintons ‘ new house in Chappaqua, New York: 43
1/03Percentage change since 1998 in the number of federal convictions for health-care fraud: +43
2/03Percentage of African Americans who have dated at least one white American: 43
Percentage of white Americans who have dated at least one African American: 17
4/03Percentage of California’s economy that is accounted for by agriculture: 7
Percentage of the state’s water that is used for agriculture: 43
6/07Percentage of white-collar Americans who brought work with them on vacation in 1995: 23
Percentage last year: 43
11/07Percentage change, since the beginning of the surge, in the number of internally displaced Iraqis: +43
2/09Percentage of Russians who say one goal of U.S. foreign policy is “the complete destruction of Russia”: 43
12/84Number of states in which some part of the B-1 bomber is manufactured: 44
Who don’t recognize George Bush: 44
7/88Percentage of executives who rank themselves as their “most trusted confidant in an ethical situation”: 44
5/86“Product categories” for which the 1988 Olympic organizers are selling official sponsorships: 44
4/87Percentage of Hispanics in California who voted to make English the state’s official language: 44
3/89Percentage of the world’s stock-market capital accounted for by the shares of U.S. corporations: 29
Percentage accounted for by the shares of Japanese corporations: 44
4/89Number of metaphors George Bush used in his inaugural address: 44
8/92Estimated percentage of Latin Americans who live below the poverty line: 44
12/92Percentage of college students who say that their political opinions are similar to those of their parents: 44
6/97Number of legal-research junkets to foreign countries made by members of Timothy McVeigh’s defense team since 1995: 9
Number of lawyers, investigators, and technical experts involved in McVeigh’s court-appointed defense: 44
4/98Percentage of Americans who say they would not want their 21-year-old daughter to intern in the Clinton White House: 44
11/98Percentage of Americans who believe that President Clinton should see a psychotherapist: 44
12/98Percentage of days that Bill Clinton has spent in the White House this year: 44
1/99Ratio of the number of political ads aired last year that used the word “good” to those that used the word “evil”: 44:1
7/99Number of voice commands a Jaguar S-Type sedan understands: 44
3/00Percentage of “born again” New Yorkers who have said they will vote for Hillary Clinton for senator: 44
5/00Price of a sautéed lobster gilded with 24-carat gold at Boston’s Biba restaurant last New Year’s Eve: $44
2/01Percentage of women who chose Al Gore or George Bush from among last year’s presidential nominees to be their valentine: 40
Percentage who refused to choose: 44
4/01Percentage of federal returns audited last year that were filed by poor Americans seeking Earned Income Tax Credits: 44
5/01Average percentage by which a Wall Street analyst’s high-tech-earnings forecast in early 1999 was incorrect: 44
Percentage who say this about Bill Clinton: 44
2/03Percentage change since fall 2000 in the number of documents classified by the federal government: +44
11/03Number of banks and suppliers that Gulf War veterans are suing for aiding Iraq’s purchases of weapons and chemicals: 44
7/05Percentage of the 651 fatal or wounding terrorist attacks worldwide last year that took place in Iraq: 32
3/06Percentage of districts in 1972 that chose one party for President and another for the House: 44
Percentage that did in 2004: 14
11/07Feet on each side of the U.S.-Canadian border that by law are supposed to be kept clear of brush: 10
Percentage of the border that has not been maintained since 2000: 44
4/84Forgeries discovered this year in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: 45
11/84Percentage of American men who admit they wear uncomfortable shoes because they look good: 20
Percentage of American women who admit they wear uncomfortable shoes because they look good: 45
10/98Rank of “enemies” and the President, among people usually prayed for by Americans who say they pray: 4,5
4/86Percentage of white Americans who say peacetime military service is a “very important obligation”: 31
6/86Percentage increase in trade between China and the Soviet Union in 1985: 45
2/87Percentage of the racial incidents reported in Los Angeles County in 1985 whose targets were Asians: 15
4/87Number of manufacturing plants in Tennessee owned by Japanese companies: 45
5/88Percentage of South Koreans who ate named Kim, Lee, or Park: 45
6/88Percentage of all those killed or injured in terrorist bombings worldwide last year who were Pakistani: 45
10/88Percentage of Americans who have never heard of or have no opinion about Shimon Peres: 41
Percentage who have never heard of or have no opinion about P. W. Borha: 45
1/89Percentage of Palestinian journalists who have been questioned at least once by the Israeli government: 45
11/89Percentage of American college students who say that some races are “more evolved” than others: 45
12/89Percentage of Americans who said last year that they didn’t know enough about Dan Quayle to form an opinion: 25
2/91Minimum cost of a personalized romance novel, from Swan Publishing of Placentia, California: $45
6/91Number of U.S. law firms the federal government is suing for “violating their duties” to S&Ls they represented: 45
12/91Percentage of American adults under the age of 30 who say they “almost never” switch channels during commercials: 22
Percentage of Americans over the age of 60 who say this: 45
1/92Percentage of all American astronauts who were Boy Scouts: 45
3/91Number of Ph.D.’s hired last year to “develop” carrot sticks for McDonald’s: 45
10/92Percentage change, since Anita Hill’s testimony last fall, in sexual harassment complaints filed with the EEOC: +45
3/96Hours Shaquille O’Neal spent snowed in at a Pennsylvania hotel in January with the cast of Sesame Street on Ice: 45
1/97Percentage change since 1992 in the number of Latinos registered to vote in California: +45
9/97Percentage change since 1990 in the number of U.S. college students studying to be morticians: +45
11/99Number of consecutive days last spring that Michael Moore trained a camera on Lucianne Goldberg’s apartment: 45
2/00Projected age to which the AIDS epidemic will lower the life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa by next year: 45
8/01Amount the inventor of the yellow “smiley face” had received for it by the time of his death in April: $45
11/02Percentage of their assets that Zimbabwe’s private pension funds are required to invest in government treasury bills: 45
1/03Retail price Mattel suggests that toy stores assign its Lingerie Barbie, dressed in “merry widow” or “peek-a-boo” style: $45
3/03Number of Philadelphia’s public schools run by one of seven private-sector education management organizations: 45
5/03Percentage of Americans who believed in early March that Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11 attacks: 45
Weeks before this poll was taken that President Bush said that he “can’t make [the] claim” of such a link: 5
4/05Estimated number of visitors each week to the grave of Harry Potter, a Briton buried in Israel in 1939: 45
2/06Minutes that the library in Malmö, Sweden, “lent” a gay man and a Muslim cleric for conversation last fall: 45
11/06Estimated percentage of “illegal immigrants” in the United States who have simply overstayed a legal visa: 45
11/06Percentage of U.S. GDP represented by salaries and wages today: 45
6/08Percentage of Republicans and Democrats, respectively, who believe in Hell: 69, 52
Percentage of independents who do: 45
7/85Percentage of Americans who say they don’t know how they could get along without Scotch tape: 46
Who say the “bad effects” of credit cards outweigh the good: 46
9/86Percentage of Frosted Flakes eaters who are adults: 46
Percentage today: 46
11/87Total number of hours the Grateful Dead has played “Dark Star” in concert: 46
2/88Percentage increase in fatalities on rural interstates where the speed limit was raised last year: 46
4/92Percentage by which the IRS has determined that the Reagans underreported their income during the 1980: 46
7/92Percentage change, since last year, in the membership of the National Abortion Rights Action League: +46
3/93Percentage of Americans who say that middle age begins when you start worrying about health-care costs: 41
Percentage who say that it begins when you don’t recognize the names of the music groups on the radio: 46
6/94Percentage of Americans who feel they are being “left behind” by technology: 46
Percentage of these who say they don’t care: 16
10/94Number of stories a New York City cat fell last June without sustaining serious injury: 46
Average number of stories a cat must fall before reaching its maximum falling velocity of 60 miles per hour: 5
3/95Percentage of Russians who say they would prefer the government of Leonid Brezhnev to that of Boris Yeltsin: 46
6/95Number of federal agencies whose officers have the authority to carry firearms and make arrests: 46
12/96Percentage of Americans who say that “government” is the biggest obstacle to middle-class prosperity: 28
1/97Percentage of poor, urban fifth-graders in a University of Michigan study who say that they smoke cigarettes: 6
8/97Percentage of Americans who say they’ve never heard of Marv Albert: 46
4/98Percentage of Germans who believe that those who don’t cheat on their taxes “deserve only pity”: 46
11/02Percentage of Latin Americans who said in 1998 that their nation’s privatization of state industries had been beneficial: 46
Percentage who say this today: 35
Percentage of unmarried, cohabiting U.S. couples that are: 41
1/04Minimum number of political parties registered in the United States: 46
Number of them represented in California’s gubernatorial race last year: 6
3/05Number of homosexual penguins found in Japan’s aquariums and zoos last year: 46
Percentage last year: 19
10/05Number of toilet seats at the EU Parliament building in Brussels that a TV station had tested for cocaine: 46
Number that tested positive: 41
9/07Sentence, in months, received by a Veterans Affairs official last year for taking kickbacks on purchases of red tape: 46
10/07Percentage change since 2004 in U.S. immigration to Canada: +46
Percentage change since then in total retail sales in Crawford, Texas: –27
1/88Percentage of U.S. in vitro fertilization clinics that have reported one or more successful pregnancies: 47
1/86Percentage of American men who say they enjoy sex more than money: 47
Percentage of American women who say this: 26
5/88Percentage of 18- to 24-year aids who prefer President Reagan’s hairstyle to Carter’s and Ford’s: 47
6/88Percentage of all sitting federal judges who were appointed by Ronald Reagan: 47
Percentage of Librans who are: 32
3/89Number of mayors in El Salvador who have resigned or been killed since last September: 47
8/89Number of candidates who have declined the job of under secretary for acquisition at the Pentagon this year: 47
11/89Number of times Rajiv Gandhi mentioned his mother or grandfather in an Independence Day speech in August: 47
11/89Percentage decrease, since 1979, in the number of white males applying to U.S. medical schools: 47
2/92Percentage increase, during 1991, in the number of New Hampshire residents receiving food stamps: 47
7/92Percentage of all record sales represented by rock music in 1986: 47
Percentage today: 36
7/93Percentage of Americans who say they would be likely to donate a deceased family member’s organs without permission: 47
12/93Percentage of South African workers who are unemployed: 47
2/94Percentage of all U.S. paperback-book sales accounted for by romance novels: 47
3/94Number of the 61 children murdered in Chicago last year whose mothers first gave birth as teens: 47
2/95Percentage of ob/gyn chief residents graduating each year who have never performed a first-trimester abortion: 47
10/95Number of times the phrase “affirmative action” appears in the text of California’s proposed Civil Rights Initiative: 0
Percentage of Californians favoring the initiative who do not know that it will eliminate affirmative action: 47
3/99Percentage of America’s nuclear power plants that were found to have “serious security lapses” last year: 47