6/84Number of people who have applied for the job of executioner in New Jersey: 50
11/84Percentage decrease-in the cost of seven ounces of Beluga Imperial caviar, from 1982 to 1983: 50
11/84Percentage of nuts that squirrels lose because they forget where they put them (according to Beatrix Potter): 50
12/84Percentage of U.S. car owners who keep maps in their glove compartments: 50
8/03Average number of micrograms by which replicas of the international reference-kilogram cylinder now exceed it in mass: 50
5/86Percentage of Costa Ricans who say that Nicaragua interferes “too much” in Costa Rica’s internal affairs: 40
Percentage who say that the United States interferes too much: 50
4/87Fine for burning a cross without a permit in Charlotte, North Carolina: $50
6/87Number of feet separating President Reagan from reporters as he walks from the White House to his helicopter: 50
Number of feet that separated President Carter from reporters: 2
7/87Amount Dennis Levine earns each month working on the maintenance crew at Lewisburg Federal Prison: $50
8/87Percentage increase in South Africa’s 1988 defense budget: 30
9/87Percentage of U.S. hospitals that have applied for patents on inventions using human tissues and cells: 50
9/87Total number of vetoes cast by the United States in the U.N. Security Council: 50
Number of vetoes that have been cast by the Soviet Union since 1980: 2
1/88Percentage of children age 4 or younger living in Israel and the occupied territories who are Arab: 50
4/88Number of states that claim test scores in their elementary schools are above the national average: 50
5/88Percentage of Americans who think that “many problems” are beyond President Reagan’s grasp: 50
10/88Ratio of G.I. Joe dolls to American G.I.s: 50:1
12/88Percentage of doctors who say they would reject an unmarried woman’s request for artificial insemination: 50
3/89Percentage of Americans who watch television during dinner: 50
4/89Average cost per square foot to dig a wine cave in California: $50
5/89Estimated number of galleries that have exhibited paintings and prints by Tony Bennett in the last eight years: 50
10/89Percentage of job applicants to the Houston Police Department who say they have used marijuana: 50
Average age today: 26
2/90Percentage decrease, since 1979, in the number of professorships in American studies in Britain: 50
2/90Percentage of the song dedications that deejay Casey Kasem reads on the air that he says choke him up: 50
4/90Percentage of two-income families whose income would drop below the poverty line if the wife did not work: 50
5/90Estimated percentage increase in handgun sales in South Africa since President de Klerk legalized the ANC: 50
11/90Number of U.S. states that dispose of hazardous waste in another state: 50
7/91Percentage change, since last year, in the number of Americans unemployed for longer than six months: +50
12/91Estimated number of regions worldwide that have declared themselves independent or autonomous since 1989: 50
4/92Number of FBI agents who will be reassigned this year from counter-intelligence to investigations of health-care fraud: 50
11/92Percentage change in housing prices near Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reactor since its cleanup began in 1989: +50
12/92Number of Japanese tour groups scheduled to visit the new Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, this year: 50
4/93Percentage change, since 1991, in the number of New York Times stories mentioning Elvis: +50
7/93Percentage change, since 1983, in the number of listings under “housekeeping” in the New York City yellow pages: +50
9/94Number of Civil War battlefields within a 50-mile radius of the proposed site of Disney’s America historical theme park: 50
10/94Percentage of Americans who say “nothing the U.S. could accomplish in Haiti would be worth the life of one U.S. soldier”: 50
5/95Ratio of federal spending on foreign aid last year to federal spending on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: 50:1
6/96Number of contestants in the Championship Race for Riding Lawn Mowers, held in Rockford, Illinois, last June: 50
1/97Rank of Texas, the state with the least generous welfare program, among states with the highest adolescent birth rate: 2
Rank of North Dakota, the state with the most generous program: 50
11/97Number of Thanksgiving turkeys granted a presidential pardon since 1947: 50
11/98Portion of the $19.98 price of a video of President Kennedy’s 1963 assassination that goes to the Zapruder family: 1/5
Percentage by which Abraham Zapruder underreported his initial profits from the film to the Warren Commission in 1964: 50
11/98Price a Houston company charges for sending a DNA sample into outer space for possible cloning by aliens: $50
7/99Percentage of the people living in France during the French Revolution who spoke French: 50
10/99Minimum number of TV markets in which last August’s FCC vote will allow networks to own more than one station: 50
Days after the FCC vote that a TV executive told the [NewYorkTimes|New York Times that he was eager to play the “duopoly game”: 1
12/99Percentage change in the number of Israelis living on the West Bank since the signing of 1993’s Oslo peace accords: +50
1/00Percentage of the French government’s 1788 expenditures that went to support the court at Versailles: 6
Percentage that went to finance war debt resulting from France’s support of the colonies in the American Revolution: 50
2/01Estimated percentage of U.S. Army troops deployed in Bosnia who will be replaced by National Guardsmen in 2002: 50
6/01Age range in which a heterosexual U.S. man is most likely to acknowledge having once had a homosexual experience: 50-65
9/01Amount the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, police began offering high-school students this year to inform on their classmates: $50
11/01Percentage of Manhattan’s population killed during the cholera epidemic of 1832: 50
4/02Price that a Canadian firm charges for a ten-inch cement “Garden Liberal” resembling Prime Minister Jean Chretien: $50
8/02Percentage of Afghans who will “soon” get AIDS if adulterous women are not jailed, according to a government deputy: 50
11/02Percentage of U.S. college students who believe the “next Bill Gates” is among today’s generation of college students: 50
Percentage who say they are the next Bill Gates: 24
3/04Minimum number of nuclear weapons in the oceans as a result of U.S. and Soviet accidents: 50
4/04Percentage discount that Lesotho’s prostitutes offered truckers in 2002 who used a condom: 50
10/04Days a House committee postponed July hearings on antidepressants while its chair considered a pharmaceutical-lobbyist job: 50
10/04Ratio of the minimum number of beheadings by the Saudi government last year to those by Saudi terrorists so far this year: 50:1
11/04Percentage by which John Ashcroft cut the number of judgeships on the federal Board of Immigration Appeals in 2002: 50
12/04Average black-market price in Baghdad of a DVD showing the beheading of a foreigner or Iraqi “collaborator”: 50¢
1/05Percentage by which British university graduates are less likely than non-graduates to phone their mothers regularly: 20
Percentage by which they are less likely to make regular visits: 50
3/05Percentage of songs on Billboard’s Top 20 list during 2004 whose lyrics mention at least one brand name: 40
3/05Percentage that Libyan nuclear compliance “contributed” to President Bush’s reelection, according to Muammar Qaddafi: 50
1/06Percentage of all music on Venezuelan radio that must be homegrown, according to a new law: 50
Percentage of the homegrown music that must also be “traditional”: 50
6/07Cost, from a California company, for a headset that can control a video game with brain waves: $50
7/07Percentage of national news at Russia’s largest independent radio network that management says must now be “positive”: 50
10/07Number of copies a book of poems must sell per week to make the Poetry Foundation’s bestseller list: 50
1/08Percentage of NYU students who say they would “permanently forfeit” their vote for $1 million: 50
6/08Estimated percentage of the 143 million pounds of U.S. beef recalled in February that had already been eaten: 50
7/08Price for which a McCain donor could enter a contest last winter to win a day on the Straight Talk Express: $50
12/08Percentage by which the $750 billion bailout exceeds the total U.S. GDP of a century ago, adjusted for inflation: 50
Percentage by which it exceeds the cost of the entire New Deal: 33
1/09Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
2/09Standard hourly rate at Manhattan’s Liberty Inn, whose slogan is “Your Rendezvous for Romance”: $30
10/84American firms doing business in El Salvador: 51
2/92Percentage of Americans who say that Magic Johnson “should have known better and is now paying the price”: 51
1/88Average number of publications issued each year by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission from 1957 to 1983: 51
11/89Percentage increase, since 1979, in the number of Americans unemployed for longer than six months: 51
1/91Number of on-the-job injuries to Library of Congress employees in 1989 that “involved hot substances”: 15
Number that “involved floors or other walking surfaces”: 51
4/91Estimated percentage of all deposits in America’s nine largest banks that are held in foreign branches: 51
5/91Number of Americans who received veterans’ benefits last year for a relative’s service in the Civil War: 51
9/93Percentage change, since 1991, in the number of on-the-job sexual-harassment complaints filed with the E.E.O.C.: +51
4/95Average age of the 3 white professional athletes with the largest incomes in the United States last year: 51
Average age of the 3 black professional athletes with the largest incomes: 27
10/96Years it took the Japanese government to apologize for using South Korean POWs as “comfort women” for its troops: 51
8/98Percentage of Americans who have watched Seinfeld who say they will miss it “not very much” or “not at all”: 51
5/99Percentage change since 1997 in the number of illegal immigrants deported by the U.S.: +51
8/99Number of days last year that a British art museum exhibited a mound of dung from Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep: 51
12/00Percentage of the votes cast in Chechnya last March that went to Putin, according to the Russian government: 51
7/01Number of General Electric employees who have the title “chief executive officer”: 51
11/01Percentage of Americans who say “no one” is the leader of the Democratic Party: 10
Percentage who have no opinion: 51
1/03Percentage of federal discretionary spending in 2001 devoted to “homeland security” or the Department of Defense: 51
5/04Percentage of U.S. companies that threaten to close the work site when faced with a unionization effort: 51
6/04Number of countries given weapons-grade uranium since the 1950s under the U.S. Atoms for Peace program: 51
1/06Percentage of Americans who said in November that the Valerie Plame leak scandal was of “great importance”: 51
Percentage who said, two months before President Nixon resigned, that Watergate was “very serious”: 49
Percentage who said it was “just politics”: 42
7/06Volume of new reserves added by major oil companies in 2005, expressed as a percentage of oil pumped that year: 51
12/06Percentage of Americans in October who said that Congress should impeach President Bush: 51
2/07Percentage of Germans today who say they are unsatisfied “with the way [their] democracy functions”: 51
5/07Number of L.A. branches of Bank of America that now offer credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers: 51
9/07Percentage of Republicans who said in June that they favored universal health care: 51
6/08Percentage of John McCain supporters in March 2000 who said they would not vote for George W. Bush: 51
6/86Percentage of the federal income taxes paid by individuals in 1981 that went to military programs: 45.5
About being elected to political office: 6
9/85Percentage of fifth graders who say they think a lot about hunger and poverty in the United States: 52
Percentage of ninth graders who say this: 31
12/89Percentage of Americans who say they approve of searching homes without a warrant in order to combat drugs: 52
2/07Percentage of solved cases of identity theft in which the victim turns out to know the thief personally: 52
1/88Percentage of Salvadoran government revenues in 1986 that consisted of U.S. aid: 52
7/89Percentage of Muscovites who say that “average people don’t have any say about what the government does”: 43
Percentage of New Yorkers who say this: 52
8/89Average age of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives: 52
Average age of an American voter: 47
Average age of a member of the Rolling Stones: 46
11/89Percentage of Americans who say that “lack of opportunity due to poverty” is a main cause of teenage violence: 50
Percentage who say that “rock music lyrics that glorify sex and violence” are a main cause of teenage violence: 52
4/92Percentage of Americans who say that the United States is “blaming Japan for its own economic problems”: 52
12/93Gross earnings of Madonna last year, expressed as a percentage of the gross earnings of Oprah Winfrey: 52
6/94Percentage of Americans who would rather spend a week in jail than be president of the United States: 52
3/95Number of Evergreen State College students enrolled in a yearlong program composed of courses based on Star Trek: 52
7/95Percentage change in the number of rural Americans living in mobile homes between 1980 and 1990: +52
9/96Hours of study required to lose a Long Island accent, according to Long Island’s Professional Voice Care Center: 52
9/98Percentage of Jerusalem’s Jewish population that is ultra-Orthodox: 30
Percentage of Jerusalem’s Jewish kindergarteners who are: 52
5/99Percentage of children born in New York City last year who are living in poverty: 52
1/00Number of years between the invention of the first photocopier technology in 1938 and the first commercial-copier sale: 21
Average annual number of copies produced per American six years later: 52
11/03Percentage of votes cast in U.S. elections last year that were counted by the largest voting-technology firm: 52
5/04Average percentage of African-American men age 16 to 64 in New York City who were employed each month last year: 52
7/05Percentage of U.S. auto travel that occurs on two-lane roads: 28
Percentage of traffic fatalities that do: 52
5/06Percentage of white-collar Chinese workers who have personal blogs: 52
Percentage of Chileans who say they feel “boredom,” “indifference,” or “antagonism” toward politics: 53
2/87Percentage of Americans who don’t recognize Dan Rather: 53
3/89Percentage increase, since 1980, in average attendance at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ spring-training games: 53
6/89Percentage of American Southerners who say they support Roe v. Wade: 53
4/92Percentage of urbanites in the former Soviet Union who say they would like to own a weapon: 53
6/92Average number of hours per year that a Japanese automaker in the United States spends training each production worker: 53
6/93Percentage of Americans who say they “don’t know enough” about reports of Serbian atrocities to believe them: 53
11/94Percentage who think U.S. military forces should be used to “protect the interests of U.S. corporations”: 53
12/94Percentage change since 1983 in the number of opinions issued by the Supreme Court: -44
1/95Number of all congressional races last fall contested by only one major-party candidate: 53
8/95Average percentage of local-TV evening news time that is devoted to crime and disaster coverage: 53
10/95Percentage by which today’s minimum wage would be increased if its growth since 1968 had kept pace with inflation: 53
11/97Percentage of white Americans who say that they would vote for Colin Powell over Al Gore for president: 53
3/98Number of lawsuits brought against the Cult Awareness Network by members of the Church of Scientology: 53
Number of months since the network went bankrupt in 1996 that Scientologists have owned and operated it: 15
7/98Number of witnesses called in the House campaign-finance investigation who have taken the Fifth: 53
11/99Percentage of American ER viewers who say they learn important health-care information from the program: 53
4/00Percentage change between 1965 and 1995 in the number of U.S. households that pay for housecleaning: +53
12/00Number of Falun Gong members arrested in China who have died in, en route to, or shortly after their release from prison: 53
9/01Percentage of U.S. ninth-grade boys who say we should stop “outsiders” from influencing American traditions and cultures: 53
3/02Number of boxers who have died in the United States since 1970 from injuries sustained in the ring: 53
2/03Percentage change since 2000 in the average value of goods stolen in each U.S. shoplifting incident: +53
2/03Percentage of Jamaicans who say they would be “better off today” had Jamaica remained a British colony: 53
4/04Number of the 76 reported attempts by bears to break into New Jersey homes last year that were successful: 53
8/05Number of Palestinian communities that will be surrounded by the new Israel security fence on at least three sides: 53
3/09Number of twenty PTSD patients in a 2008 study who reported significant improvement after being treated with ecstasy: 20
In a parked car: 12
10/85Percentage of Americans who say television news portrays politicians “too favorably”: 46
Who say it portrays professional sports stars “too favorably”: 54
4/86Percentage increase in the number of Americans planning trips to the Soviet Union in 1986: 54
10/88Percentage of Americans who favor random car searches by police as a way of dealing with the drug problem: 54
9/89Percentage of Americans who can correctly name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: 9
Percentage who can correctly name the judge on The People’s Court: 54