6/84Coffin manufacturers in the United States today: 400
1/85Percentage of Russian soldiers God will kill at the end of the world, according to Jerry Falwell: 83
12/86Estimated number of people in the Netherlands who die at their own request every day: 20
12/86Percentage of drug-related deaths caused by prescription drugs: 70
11/87Amount paid at auction for the hunting permit to kill one bighorn sheep in Montana in 1987: $109,000
12/87Price of Pet Rest—a casket, body bag, sympathy card, and memorial-service text—for a guinea pig: $14.99
2/87Price of a bouquet of wilted, dead, or beheaded flowers at Drop Dead Flowers in New York City: $37.50
12/88Number of years by which an American president is likely to fall short of his life expectancy: 3
4/88Percentage of the Soviet Union’s population that was killed in World War II: 10
6/88Percentage of British citizens who say that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom: 27
Percentage of political deaths in Northern Ireland, since 1969, that have been caused by the IRA: 40
6/88Number of the 26 journalists murdered last year who were killed in the Philippines: 11
10/89Weight of the Bridgeport, Connecticut, woman who killed her husband in July by sitting on him, in pounds: 500
5/89Total number of deaths resulting from the uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since December 1987: 432
Total number of homicides in Washington, D.C., since December 1987: 512
6/89Number of African cichlid fish killed to make a suit worn by John Cleese in a photograph in Playboy last year: 412
7/89Number of the 698 people who have died in U.S. national parks since 1984 who were killed by animals: 2
8/89Estimated amount Americans spent last year to kill household roaches: $124,000,000
1/90Number of days after a truck bomb killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut that the United States invaded Grenada: 2
3/90Portion of all deaths worldwide that are of children under the age of 5 in developing countries: 1/3
3/90Ratio of U.S. soldiers killed to those wounded in the U.S. invasion of Panama: 1:14
Ratio of Panamanian soldiers killed to those wounded in the invasion: 2:1
Percentage of the Panamanians killed in the invasion who were civilians: 39
5/90Percentage increase, since 1979, in the number of deaths caused by asthma in the United States each year: 200
6/90Number of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territories in the first 3 months of this year: 30
Number killed as “collaborators” by other Palestinians: 35
8/90Percentage of veterinarians who say they have felt depressed after putting an animal to sleep: 67
9/90Gallons of poison the New York State Conservation Department will use this fall to kill fish that displace trout: 271
1/91Percentage of black New Yorkers who believe it is possible that AIDS is a plot to kill blacks: 30
1/91Number of people who attended the funeral in 1989 of Reveille IV, the collie that was the mascot of Texas A&M: 10,000
12/91Percentage change, since March, in the Pentagon’s estimate of U.S. deaths in the Gulf War due to friendly fire: +218
4/91Number of U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam before a Washington antiwar rally drew more than 75,000 people: 14,000
Number of U.S. combat deaths in the Persian Gulf before the January 26 rally that drew more than 75,000 people: 0
5/91Number of U.S AIDS deaths last year, expressed as a portion of all U.S. AIDS deaths since 1981: 1/3
9/91Estimated number of birds that are killed in collisions with TV broadcast towers each year: 1,250,000
1/92Number of journalists killed in Yugoslavia since last June: 16
11/92Number of sea lions illegally killed by gunfire off the coast of northern California this year: 58
6/92Number of animals that Africanized killer bees have killed since crossing the U.S. border in 1990: 12
11/93Amount Americans have spent this year on bullets fired from the gun used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald: $95,000
6/93Chances that there were no deaths from political violence in an African country last year: 1 in 8
2/94Change in the number of monthly political deaths in the Occupied Territories since the peace accord was signed last fall: -1
3/94Chances that a fatal accident involving a passenger car and a large truck will kill the truck driver: 1 in 50
3/94Average number of “pet bereavement” clients seen each week last year by Diane Kelly, a California therapist: 20
7/94Rank of Missouri among states with the greatest number of deaths each year caused by hot weather: 1
8/94Speed, in miles per hour, of pitches hurled at the heads of human cadavers last year in tests of a new, safer baseball: 70
4/95Ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed in political violence since the signing of the self-rule accord in 1993: 2:1
4/95Estimated number of Iraqi and Kuwaiti civilians killed by unexploded allied cluster bombs since the end of the Gulf War: 1,600
8/95Estimated number of killings in True Lies, a film Bob Dole cited in March as among those “most friendly to the family”: 94
Amount of the $21,000 in contributions Bob Dole has received from Time Warner since 1987 that he plans to return: 0
Minutes of airtime C-SPAN devoted in June to a National Press Club discussion of Dole by Siskel and Ebert: 64
8/95Estimated number of bug zappers required to kill all the insects in the world: 1,104,120,000,000
10/96Number of Hollywood movies released since last October in which a fictional U.S. president is one of the characters: 4
Number of these in which the first lady is already dead or is killed in the movie: 3
5/96Percentage of European rabbits in southern Australia killed last fall by the inadvertent release of a virus: 95
6/96Average number of Americans killed each year by private citizens using guns in self-defense: 350
6/96Number of pounds John Candy’s Canadian Bacon body double has lost in the two years since Candy’s death: 243
8/96Ratio of civilians killed this year by the Israeli Army in Lebanon to those killed by terrorists in Israel: 3:1
10/98Ratio of civilian U.N. workers killed in the line of duty this year to soldiers killed in U.N. peacekeeping operations: 5:2
10/98Price of a set of How to Build Your Own Casket instructions, from Homemade Caskets of California: $19.50
10/98Chance that a California nursing home has been cited for violations “causing death or life-threatening harm” to patients: 1 in 3
3/98Ratio of chickens killed last January in Hong Kong’s flu scare to total chickens sold in the U.S. each day at KFCs: 3:2
Days of prayer that Buddhist monks and nuns devoted to the souls of slaughtered chickens last winter in Hong Kong: 7
4/98Estimated ratio of veterans reporting Gulf War syndrome symptoms to total U.S. Vietnam War combat deaths: 4:1
5/98Ratio of whales killed by Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby Dick to people indicted by Kenneth Starr since 1994: 1:1
Ratio of the estimated cost of Starr’s investigation to projected ad sales for the last episode of Seinfeld: 1:1
Percentage of Americans who cannot name the allegation that Starr was initially appointed to investigate: 40
5/98Factor by which U.S. deaths from prescription and medication errors increased between 1983 and 1993: 2.6
6/98Percentage change in the number of Texans favoring the death penalty since the execution of Karla Faye Tucker: -21
9/98Chance that a police officer killed in the line of duty in the last ten years was shot with his own gun: 1 in 6
10/99Ratio of daily queries on burial at sea received by the Coast Guard last August to those received a year earlier: 3:1
10/99Number of confirmed deaths caused by doctored Halloween candy given to children by strangers: 0
Number of confirmed deaths caused by doctored Halloween candy given to children by their relatives: 1
12/99Number of coffins unearthed by floods in North Carolina last September: 110
3/99Number of American children crushed to death by television sets since 1990: 28
3/99Ratio of Cuba’s infant mortality rate to that of the U.S.: 1:1
4/99Estimated percentage of coral reefs in the Indian Ocean killed by rising sea temperatures last year: 85
6/99Chance that a U.N. peacekeeper killed on the job since 1948 died as a result of combat or other hostilities: 1 in 3
6/99Percentage change since 1990 in the number of U.S. traffic disputes in which one driver kills or injures another: +59
7/99Ratio of people killed this year in the Kosovo war to those killed in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war: 1:10
8/99Average number of Zimbabweans killed each week by AIDS: 2,500
8/99Average number of Americans killed each week by prescription drugs: 1,900
8/99Age at death last March of the sturgeon Nikita, Khrushchev’s gift to Norway, after an accidental immersion in salt water: 38
9/99Number of death sentences upheld by Texas courts since 1990 for men whose lawyers slept during their trials: 3
1/00Chance that a 14th-century European was killed by bubonic plague: 1 in 4
1/00Projected rank of heart disease and severe depression among the leading causes of death and disability in 2020: 1,2
10/00Percentage by which 11 million unexplained lobster deaths reduced Long Island Sound’s lobster harvest last fall: 90
10/00Percentage change since last year in the number of deaths in Britain due to the human form of mad cow disease: +175
10/00Average number of corpses per acre at the University of Tennessee’s “body farm,” for the study of decomposition: 10
11/00Percentage of Americans killed by faulty auto parts in the 1990s who were killed by Firestone tires: 0.1
12/00Percentage of Americans who say they would prefer being executed to serving a life sentence without parole: 48
12/00Average number of Palestinians killed per day by Israeli security forces in the six years preceding the 1993 Oslo accord: 0.4
Average number killed per day in the two weeks following Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount last fall: 5.1
2/00Ratio of the number of Americans killed in traffic accidents in 1998 to the number killed by medical errors: 1:1
3/00Estimated percentage change since 1979 in the number of birds killed annually by U.S. communications towers: +186
3/00Number of people in North Carolina killed by automobiles since 1998 after lying in the middle of the road: 66
5/00Percentage of all aquatic life in a Danube tributary killed last winter when a mine’s tailings dam overflowed: 95
5/00Rank of traffic accidents among the leading causes of death for on-duty U.S. police officers last year: 1
7/00Average annual number of civilians killed by New York City police under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: 23
9/00Percentage by which the cancer death rate in the area around Sydney’s Olympic Village exceeds the rest of the city’s: 8.5
Factor by which dioxin levels detected around the Village site during construction exceeded EPA guidelines: 1,540
9/00Percentage change since 1990 in the number of deaths from accidental poisoning among elderly Americans: -10
Percentage change since then in the number of such deaths among Americans between the ages of 45 and 64: +188
1/01Chance that the murder rate in a death-penalty state was lower in 1998 than the national average: 1 in 2
Chances that the rate in a state without the death penalty was lower than the national average: 5 in 6
11/01Ratio of New York bird deaths last summer attributed to West Nile virus to those attributed to pollution: 2:3
11/01Percentage of Manhattan’s population killed during the cholera epidemic of 1832: 50
Estimated number of minutes after the cat was released on its first test run that it was killed by a taxi: 10
12/01Ratio of businesses to military sites attacked by international terrorists between 1995 and 2000: 38:1
6/01Minimum number of accidental releases of chemicals or oil leading to deaths or injuries at U.S. work sites last year: 230
7/01Minimum number of people who have been trampled to death at soccer matches in Africa since April: 177
7/01Rank of cancer and suicide, respectively, among the top causes of death of Japanese bureaucrats last year: 1,2
1/02Ratio of the number of U.S. soldiers killed by hostile fire since 1990 to the number who have committed suicide: 1:5
11/02Ratio of Japanese killed in 1945’s U.S. atomic-bomb attacks to Iraqi children killed due to U.N. sanctions: 1:3
6/02Ratio of the number of Israelis and Palestinians killed in political violence last year to the number of Sri Lankans killed: 2:3
8/02Years before the death of Britain’s Queen Mother in March that the Times of London first wrote her obituary: 64
9/02Estimated percentage of work-related deaths worldwide last year that were caused by communicable disease: 16
10/03Percentage change in the number of Colombians killed or disappeared since the U.S. implemented Plan Colombia: +33
12/03Average number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion began: 9.2
2/03Minimum number of soldiers killed or severely injured each year in the Russian army’s initiation hazing: 2,000
2/03Number of deaths in 2001 that the Japanese government classified as having resulted from overwork: 143
5/03Number of words that the New York Times has devoted to February’s shuttle accident per resulting death: 28,500
5/03Number of words that the Times devoted to 1998’s U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa per resulting death: 163
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
7/03Minimum number of people reported killed by militants in Congo since the beginning of the Iraq war: 1,280
8/03Ratio of the estimated number of people killed worldwide by war last year to the number killed by traffic: 1:4
9/03Rank of measles among diseases that kill the most children worldwide each year and can be prevented by vaccine: 1
Cost of vaccinating the 745,000 children who died from the disease in 2001: $558,750
10/04Total “ death gratuities ” the U.S. government has paid since then to survivors of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq: $11,436,000
10/04Total amount Ohio’s crime-victims compensation fund has paid the survivors of one U.S. soldier killed in Iraq: $5,656.77
10/04Minimum number of U.S. children killed since 1998 as a result of heat stroke after being left locked in cars: 219
10/04Number of its international workers that Doctors Without Borders has lost to political violence in its 34-year history: 8
Number of them killed in Afghanistan in June: 3
11/04Number of dead bodies pictured in the New York Times during the first week of September: 16.5
7/04Last year in which deaths due to terrorism in Israel and the Occupied Territories exceeded those in Kashmir: 2001
7/04Percentage of deaths due to terrorism last year that took place in South Asia: 49
7/04Ratio of deaths of U.S. contractors worldwide in the last three months to those between April and September last year: 2:1
8/04Number of years a judge ordered a man convicted of cocaine possession last spring to keep a coffin in his home: 6.5
8/04Price a Chilean cemetery charges for an alarm built into coffins to ensure against mistaken live burial: $462
9/04Number of deaths due to international terrorism last year according to an April State Department report: 307
1/05Factor by which an Iraqi is more likely to die today than in the last year of the Hussein regime: 2.5
11/05Number of journalists killed in Vietnam War during twenty years of war there: 63
11/05Number of volunteers who are making personalized quilts for the next of kin of all U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq: 150
Current backlog of quilts they face: 588
12/05Average hourly wage made by drug-dealing foot soldiers in Chicago, according to a Columbia University study: $3.41
12/05Number of the 1,035 confirmed Hurricane Katrina‒related deaths that were caused by gunfire: 8
6/05Ratio of women to men killed in last December’s tsunami, in a survey of eight Indonesian villages: 3:1
8/05Number of killed or captured suspects reported so far by U.S. media to be Al Qaeda ’s “number 3” man: 4
8/05Number of corpses shipped on Delta Air Lines last year: 42,175
11/06Number of people whom tobacco will kill this century, if current trends hold: 1,000,000,000
7/07Percentage of Baghdad residents who have a family member or friend who has been wounded or killed since 2003: 77
9/07Chances that a U.S. firefighter is overweight: 9 in 10
1/08Minimum number of U.S. deaths from food allergies each year, according to the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network: 150
10/08Estimated number of U.S. lives saved per month by $4 gasoline, through reduced driving nationwide: 1,000
5/08Portion of all Chinese cancer deaths that are pollution-related, according to the government: 7/10
7/08Ratio last year of the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces to the number killed in infighting: 1:1
Ratio so far this year: 115:1
9/08Number of deaths in Florida last year caused by illegal drugs: 946
Number caused by prescription drugs: 2,002
1/09Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4