9/84Percentage of Americans who say they would not accept a job if a lie-detector test was required: 55
12/84Percentage of all playground injuries that occur on the monkey bars: 55
4/85Average number of Health and Human Services Department employees it takes to answer a letter to the secretary: 55
8/88Percentage change, since last year, in the number of yellow-pages listings for tanning salons: +55
For solar-energy equipment wholesalers: -48
12/88Estimated percentage increase, since 1977, in the number of U.S. businesses owned by Hispanics: 55
5/89Percentage of Japanese overseas development assistance in 1987 that was tied to the purchase of Japanese goods: 28
Percentage of U.S. overseas development assistance in 1987 that was tied to the purchase of American goods: 55
4/90Percentage of men living in Bangladesh who live past the age of 65: 55
Percentage of Americans who say they would not be willing to pay anything at all: 55
5/00Number of endangered tortoises that U.S. Customs agents discovered in a man’s trousers last December in Miami: 55
Percentage who consider the practice “gross”: 55
11/02Years after inventing the Kalashnikov that its namesake said in July that he wished he had made a lawn mower instead: 55
4/06Percentage of U.S. adults in 1985 who said they found overweight people less attractive than others: 55
Percentage who said this last year: 24
4/08Percentage of Americans who believe that their home is still gaining in value: 55
6/85Percentage of American women who said they liked sports cars in 1976: 39
Who say that today: 56
12/88Percentage of doctors who say they would allow a woman to choose a sperm donor based on his religion: 56
11/89Percentage of Americans who say they would never vote for someone who disagrees with their view on abortion: 56
2/90Average number of Russian Orthodox churches reopened in the Soviet Union each week last year: 56
1/92Percentage of Californians who voted in 1990 to limit the term of state legislators: 52
11/92Average number of cleat-dents made in each square foot of playing field during a professional football game: 56
2/93Percentage of Americans who favor military intervention in countries where there is “mass killing”: 56
7/96Days in jail to which a British retiree was sentenced in February for excessive pigeon feeding: 56
10/98Hours it took two men last July to win a contest to decode the federal government’s data-scrambling system: 56
12/99Percentage of U.S. children who say their greatest wish for their parents is that they make more money: 23
2/00Percentage change in the number of marijuana arrests since Bill Clinton became president: +56
8/00Percentage of the trailers provided North Carolina’s Hurricane Floyd victims last fall that were still in use in May: 56
3/01Number of times Colin Powell said, “I don’t recall” or, “I can’t recall” during his 1987 Iran-Contra testimony: 56
5/02Days after scientists this year cited the universe’s average color as pale turquoise that it was amended to light beige: 56
10/02Percentage of Americans who said in August that they had a clear idea of why the U.S. would consider attacking Iraq: 56
7/04Years after symptoms of his deranging genetic disorder appeared that King George III held the throne in England: 56
5/06Minimum number of ranches in Texas where one can shoot a zebra: 56
Percentage last year: 18
3/86Amount Pat Paulsen has raised for his 1988 presidential campaign: $57
3/87Percentage of feature films made in the United States in 1986 that were shot somewhere other than California: 57
5/88Percentage of 1987 congressional roll-call votes in which legislation supported by the President was rejected: 57
9/88Percentage of Texas voters who say they do not consider George Bush “a real Texan”: 57
11/90Percentage of Americans who oppose reducing federal deposit insurance coverage from $100,000 per account: 57
2/91Percentage of the recruitment ads for the U.S. military broadcast since the Iraqi invasion that include combat scenes: 57
Percentage of the ads broadcast before the invasion that did: 0
9/91Percentage of business students at American universities who admit to having cheated on an exam: 57
7/92Number of times President Bush spoke of “change” in speeches and public appearances last year: 57
Number of these times that he was referring to a foreign country: 50
11/92Percentage of arms-transfer agreements signed by Third World countries in 1986 that involved the United States: 8
Percentage of arms-transfer agreements signed by Third World countries last year that involved the United States: 57
5/93Number of minutes of network evening news devoted to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the first ten weeks of 1993: 57
7/95Number of people who developed food poisoning after attending a Connecticut Food Association reception last spring: 57
6/96Percentage of racial epithets published in the New York Times last year that consisted of the word “nigger”: 57
1/00Years after Portuguese adventurers brought guns to Japan in 1543 that Japan owned more guns than any other country: 57
5/00Estimated percentage of people living in Russia’s Ingushetia province last February who were Chechen war refugees: 57
Percentage who are actually enrolled in a foreign-language course: 8
9/07Number of the 121 U.S. biofuel refineries that have been cited by the EPA since 2004 for polluting: 57
9/07Percentage of Americans who report being able to get a same-day or next-day doctor’s appointment when sick: 51
4/08Number of consecutive months that sales at McDonald’s franchises have increased: 57
2/85Percentage of the radio and TV equipment industry’s output purchased by the Pentagon in 1982: 58
Number of feet it moves to the south: 29
8/86Percentage of the proposed 1987 Star Wars budget that is allocated for “demonstration projects”: 58
6/87Percentage increase, since 1980, in the number of U.S. military personnel stationed in sub-Saharan Africa: 58
6/87Percentage of delegates to the 1988 Republican convention who will be selected by March 15, 1988: 58
Percentage of delegates to the 1984 Republican convention who were selected by March 15, 1984: 17
12/88Percentage of American teenagers who do not know the meaning of the date stamped on dairy products: 58
12/89Percentage of Americans who live in an area where the air does not meet the standards of the 1970 Clean Air Act: 58
12/91Percentage of American men who say they would rather have sex with Betty Rubble than Wilma Flintstone: 58
9/92Percentage of Americans who believe that their IQ is higher than average: 58
11/92Number of sea lions illegally killed by gunfire off the coast of northern California this year: 58
8/93Percentage of Americans who think all ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia are equally to blame for the war there: 58
2/94Percentage change, since 1992, in U.N. members abstaining from a vote to condemn Iraq for its human-rights record: +58
2/95Percentage of American adults who say they have “never heard of the Internet”: 58
12/97Percentage of Colombia’s municipalities controlled by rebel groups: 58
5/02Percentage of writers of U.S. clinical-practice guidelines who have financial ties to pharmaceutical companies: 58
9/03Percentage of Americans in June who favored U.S. military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons: 56
Percentage in July who disapproved of the United States waging preemptive attacks on any country: 58
1/05Factor by which an Iraqi is more likely to die today than in the last year of the Hussein regime: 2.5
5/07Percentage of Americans in February who said they would be unlikely to vote for a candidate who has been divorced twice: 26
Percentage who said they would be unlikely to vote for a 72-year-old: 58
Percentage who said they would be unlikely to vote for an African American or a smoker, respectively: 6, 21
8/07Number of different nationalities represented among the staff at the headquarters of Coca-Cola: 58
Percentage of Republicans who do: 58
1/86Percentage of Jeeps sold in 1984 that were bought by people living in urban or suburban areas: 59
10/86Percentage of Americans who say the United States should not send troops if Nicaragua invades Honduras: 59
2/90Tons of the Berlin Wall shipped to the United States since November by Hyman Products of St. Louis: 59
Change, since the opening of the Wall, in the value of stock of the top 10 U.S. defense contractors: -$1,140,000,000
2/92Average approval rating, two months before the New Hampshire primary, of U.S. presidents who won a second term: 59
Approval rating of President Bush two months before the New Hampshire primary: 41
11/92Price of one 20-pound crate of kindling from trees “felled by natural causes,” from Eddie Bauer: $59
10/93Percentage of Americans who believe that Clinton’s advisers make “most of the important decisions in the White House”: 59
Percentage who said this about Ronald Reagan’s advisers ten years ago: 58
12/93Average amount of fat consumed by an American each year, in pounds: 59
11/94Percentage of Americans who said last year that they favored national health insurance financed by new taxes: 59
4/96Percentage of Americans who believe that “most people can be trusted”: 35
3/97Ratio of attendance at U.S. bingo games last year to attendance at professional basketball games: 59:1
4/97Percentage of black teenagers who say it is “extremely important” to learn U.S. history and geography in high school: 59
5/98Number of consecutive hours that a Maryland man spent kissing a motorboat last winter in order to win it in a contest: 59
8/98Percentage by which India expects to increase the budget of its Department of Atomic Energy in the next year: 59
6/99Percentage change since 1990 in the number of U.S. traffic disputes in which one driver kills or injures another: +59
2/00Number of the 65 international trade disputes settled through the WTO that led to a change in national policy or law: 59
Number of the 10 disputes involving environmental or public heath issues that led to a weakening of national laws: 10
11/00Percentage of U.S. public school teachers who hold a second job: 59
2/03Percentage of Americans surveyed in October who chose the word “hopeful” to describe their feelings about the economy: 37
Percentage who chose “angry,” “worried,” or “confused”: 59
10/06Number of the 66 U.S. senators favoring the anti-flag-burning amendment in June who signed up as its named sponsors: 59
11/06Average percentage change in the U.S. aid a country receives when it sits on the U.N. Security Council: +59
1/08Percentage of Republicans today who say that free trade is bad for the U.S. economy: 59
3/86Percentage of families living below the poverty line in which at least one member is employed: 60
9/86Percentage of the 2,000 referendums on water fluoridation held since 1950 that have been voted down: 60
3/87Price of a Latin mass on videocassette: $60
7/87Percentage increase, since 1978, in the number of full-time workers who are paid minimum wage: 60
9/88Number of West Berlin prostitutes the government has placed in other lines of work: 60
1/89Percentage of Americans who have little or no sympathy for “people who get AIDS from homosexual activity”: 60
7/89Length of the entry for the word “set” in the 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, in pages: 60
2/90Number of times Tammy Faye Bakker mentions crying in her two books I Gotta Be Me and Run to the Roar: 60
8/90Estimated percentage of AIDS carriers, worldwide, who contracted the virus through heterosexual sex: 60
1/91Percentage of Medicaid-application rejections that result from problems with paperwork or documentation: 60
8/91Percentage of Americans who say that a nuclear power plant in their own community would be “unacceptable”: 60
10/91Percentage of blacks who say that race “should never be a factor” in choosing a justice of the Supreme Court: 60
10/91Percentage of Canadians who say they have “never thought about” having sex with a co-worker: 60
Percentage who rate U.S.-produced steel as “excellent”: 8
9/92Average percentage of each candidate’s supporters who say their commitment to him is “strong”: 29
Percentage of soft-drink consumers who say their commitment to their brand is “strong”: 60
12/92Number of people who will participate in the first annual China Beach Surfing Contest in Vietnam this month: 60
8/93Percentage of Americans who say they have never heard the term “managed competition”: 60
12/93Maximum speed at which the seeds of the dwarf mistletoe are expelled when ripe, in miles per hour: 60
1/94Price of a pair of used Air Jordans in Japan: $60
3/95Percentage of all sitting federal judges who were appointed by a Republican president: 60
3/95Percentage of American teenagers who cite “not being in love” as the best reason not to have sex: 4
6/95Number of tourists who required emergency medical services last year while waiting to tour the White House: 60
9/95Percentage change in real dollars, since 1984, in the average tuition at a U.S. private college: +47
10/95Minutes of “delightful conversation” Senator Jesse Helms says he had last April with Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto: 60
Number of minutes after the conversation ended that he introduced her to the Senate as the leader of India: 10
9/96Percentage of Scandinavian junior high school bullies who are convicted of a crime by their twenty-fifth birthday: 60
11/96Number of times speakers at the Republican National Convention mentioned Ronald Reagan: 60
11/96Estimated number of assistance checks Dole officially signed for them as Russell County Attorney: 60
2/97Percentage of the heroin and cocaine consumed each year that is consumed by people on bail, probation, or parole: 60
4/97Estimated shift in the angle of the earth’s axis since 1950 due to dam-related water redistribution, in centimeters: 60
1/98Number of nights former congressman Daniel Rostenkowski spent at a Salvation Army halfway house last fall: 60
4/98Number of complimentary doughnuts Bob Dole receives each week as part of his Dunkin’ Donuts contract: 60
Number he distributed to reporters waiting outside Monica Lewinsky’s Watergate apartment last February 2: 48
5/98Number of House votes that Representative Jay Kim’s 1997 campaign-finance-fraud conviction will cause him to miss: 0
5/98Percentage of California counties declared disaster areas last February: 60
9/99Hours of helicopter lessons required for the new “Super Butler” degree at London’s most expensive butler school: 60
9/00Percentage of Americans who favor repealing the estate tax: 60
10/00Number of U.S. sheep and elk that have tested positive for a variant of mad cow disease in the last year: 60
2/01Rank of the Democratic Party and Nike, respectively, among sixty brand names tested for customer loyalty in 1999: 53, 4
Rank of the Republican Party: 60
3/01Number of “bonding sessions” organized by Procter & Gamble each week in Monterrey, Mexico, to encourage tampon use: 60
4/01Estimated percentage of immigrants to Israel from former Soviet states since 1998 who were not Jewish by birth: 60
5/01Percentage of TV investigative reporters and editors who say that an advertiser has tried to kill one of their stories: 60
11/01Percentage change since 1996 in the number of U.S. apprehensions of people trying to cross the Mexican border: +9
Percentage change since then in the number of U.S. border guards assigned there: +60
Percentage change since 1999 in the number of people who died on U.S. soil while crossing the border illegally: +56
2/02Number of attendees at a Washington, D.C., conference that month entitled “What if Congress Were Obliterated?”: 60
2/02Percentage of Americans who believe that U.S. Muslims have an “obligation to help authorities track down terrorists”: 60
2/02Minimum number of physical assaults made on Russian journalists in 2000: 60
12/02Percentage of Americans surveyed who say they refused to participate in a survey during the past year: 44
2/03Percentage by which the average sperm count of an urban U.S. male exceeds that of a rural U.S. male: 60
6/03Percentage of federal “domestic preparedness” funds allocated to the states since 1999 that remain unspent: 60
7/03Percentage of Americans who said at the end of April that their nation commanded less respect abroad than a year ago: 41
Percentage who said that the Iraq war will have been worthwhile even if Saddam Hussein is never captured or killed: 53
Percentage who said it will have been worthwhile even if weapons of mass destruction are never found: 60
2/04Percentage by which Dick Gephardt’s $460,000 overexpenditure exceeded the limits for Iowa’s nomination caucus in 1988: 60
2/04Ratio of 2004 Bush campaign donations from Merrill Lynch employees to those from Bechtel employees: 60:1
8/04Percentage points by which the President’s approval rating has fallen since September 2001: 41
Percentage points by which his father’s rating fell between the end of the Gulf War and August 1992: 60
10/04Percentage of Mississippians who have failed their written driver’s-license test since it became computerized last year: 60
8/05Percentage of Germans who say, about the Nazi era, that “one should not always poke around in old wounds”: 60
9/05Increase in the total value of U.S. residential property since 2000, expressed as a percentage of GDP: 60
1/06Percentage by which circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection, according to a study in South Africa: 60
6/08Average number of $1 million stock gifts made each year by U.S. CEOs and chairmen to foundations they control: 60
Average percentage change in the company’s stock price in the month after the gifts: –3
7/08Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work: 60
1/09Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60
11/84Percentage of Americans who believed in 1973 that communism is the worst form of government: 44