12/84Number of bird species that have been sighted in Central Park since its opening in 1858: 259
In Minneapolis: 73%
3/84Copies of Playboy or Penthouse purchased per thousand people in Des Moines: 86
In New York City: 28
4/84Forgeries discovered this year in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: 45
7/84Grains of sand on the surface of New York’s Jones Beach: 2,230,000,000,000
In Los Angeles: 123
Number of Nehru jackets owned by Sammy Davis Jr.: 6
1/85Number of pedestrians issued summonses for jaywalking in New York City in 1983: 517
10/85Percentage of AIDS patients in New York City who aren’t homosexual: 41
12/85Portion of the New York City Ballet’s annual ticket income derived from The Nutcracker: 1/4
4/85Pairs of toe shoes the New York City Ballet orders for principal dancer Suzanne Farrell each season: 350
5/85Percentage of New York City police officers who fired their guns in the line of duty in 1984: 1.2
6/85Cost of a car wash at Steve’s Detailing in New York City: $145
6/85Percentage of New York City children who live below the poverty line: 40
8/85Percentage of families in New York City with annual incomes over $50,000 that are black: 7
8/85Cab fare from New York City to Los Angeles: $5,550
10/86Purchase price of a parking space in New York City’s first condominium garage: $29,000
10/86Number of new products test-marketed in New York City in the last year: 198
5/86Lifespan of a sidewalk tree in New York City (in years): 7
6/86Number of New York City police officers who are members of the Screen Actors Guild: 350
7/86Percentage increase in cases of tuberculosis in New York City in 1985: 14
7/86Abortions per 1,000 live births in New York City: 852
9/86Cost of annual membership in the Breakfast Club at New York’s 21 Club: $5,000
9/86Reported cases of people bitten by rats in New York City in 1985: 311
Of people bitten by other people: 1,519
1/87Rank of AIDS among the causes of death for women aged 25 to 29 in New York City: 1
1/87Price of a 90-minute children’s birthday party for 30 guests at Jeremy’s Place in New York City: $500
12/87Price of a pound of reindeer meat at Lobel’s Prime Meats in New York City: $14.98
2/87Price of a unit of whole blood in New York City in 1976: $29
Today: $70.75
2/87Price of a bouquet of wilted, dead, or beheaded flowers at Drop Dead Flowers in New York City: $37.50
3/87Market value of an airline landing slot at LaGuardia Airport in New York City: $25,000
4/87Bottles of Windex required to clean 355 miles of bookshelves in the New York Public Library: 20,000
4/87Number of information operators on duty weeknights at 2 A.M. in Mississippi: 2
Number of guards in New York City jails who committed suicide in 1986: 7
6/87Public revenues generated by marriage license fees in New York City in 1985: $806,090
By divorce fees: $3,637,095
6/87Income earned in 1985 by residents of the 10021 ZIP code on New York’s Upper East Side: $4,910,300,000
8/87Condoms that New York City will distribute at singles bars, porn theaters, and massage parlors this year: 500,000
10/88Number of New York City public-school teachers who were assaulted on the job during the last school year: 400
2/88Cars abandoned on New York City streets last year: 116,765
4/88Estimated waiting time for a vacancy in a New York City public-housing project (in years): 18
5/88Average number of homeless people in New York City shelters and welfare hotels each day in 1987: 28,000
Estimated number of vacant New York City apartments that landlords kept off the market during 1987: 45,000
8/88Number of the 23 daily newspapers in New York City that are published in English: 10
8/88Chances that a New York City traffic officer was assaulted on the job in 1987: 1 in 5
1/89Pounds of fish consumed each day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California: 125
Pounds of fish consumed each day at Le Bernardin restaurant in New York City: 400
10/89Chances that a post-office employee in New York City has failed a drug test during the last year: 1 in 3
10/89Rank of AIDS, among the leading causes of death of children between the ages of 1 and 4 in New York City: 1
10/89Percentage of New Yorkers who say they have no opinion of Mayor Ed Koch: 1
11/89Number of people who have died in police custody in New York City this year: 30
12/89Number of pets blessed at the Feast of St. Francis at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine this fall: 1,000
2/89Total volume of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, in cubic feet: 54,000,000
5/89Number of artists-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation: 1
6/89Estimated number of New York City residents temporarily living with others because they have no apartment: 360,000
6/89Price of a bullet-resistant mink coat from Juliana Originals in New York City: $15,000
6/89Price of a two-hour walking tour of famous murder sites in Manhattan, given by Sidewalks of New York: $10
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
7/89Estimated number of maternity uniforms the New York City Police Department has issued its officers since 1982: 1,000
8/89Percentage increase, since 1986, in the number of boys under 13 arrested for rape in New York City: 333
1/90Number of soup kitchens in New York City in 1980: 30
11/90Price of a child’s bulletproof denim jacket from the Guardian Group in New York City: $500
12/90Percentage of blacks in the New York City area who would have to move for the races there to be evenly distributed: 80
2/90Estimated total amount convicted drug traffickers in the United States owe in criminal fines: $108,000,000
Total amount New York City drivers owe in parking fines: $461,000,000
2/90Number of one-year-olds on the waiting list for the French for Tots program in New York City: 152
4/90Estimated average distance that a hospital nurse in New York City walks at work each year, in miles: 1,272
5/90Total amount two New York lawyers were fined for having a fistfight during a deposition last year: $11,000
6/90Number of people killed by stray bullets in New York City last year: 39
7/90Amount of trash left in New York City’s Central Park by people attending Earth Day festivities, in tons: 100
7/90Price of a full back-waxing for men at La Carezza in New York City: $30
9/90Estimated portion of the street price of crack in New York City that goes to growers, processors, and importers: 1/7
9/90Number of people in New York City who jump subway turnstiles, per minute: 105
9/90Amount the New York City Transit Authority has spent this year on psychological counseling for its executives: $11,500
1/91Total contributions by individuals in 1989 to New York City’s Bide-a-Wee Home Association for pets: $1,700,000
Total contributions by individuals in 1989 to New York City’s Coalition for the Homeless: $622,000
7/91Chances that an electronic scanner in a New York City supermarket will overcharge on a sale item: 1 in 2
9/91Number of New York City garment workers who earn less than the minimum wage: 10,000
1/92Chances that an organ transplanted in New York City last year came from a murder victim: 1 in 4
10/92Average annual salary Zabar’s delicatessen in New York City pays lox slicers with at least ten years’ experience: $60,000
6/92Chances that a child in New York City lives in a household headed by neither parent: 1 in 7
5/93Rank of May among months in which the greatest number of flowers at New York’s Botanical Garden are in full bloom: 1
7/93Percentage change, since 1983, in the number of listings under “housekeeping” in the New York City yellow pages: +50
7/93Estimated number of body parts suitable for piercing, according to Gauntlet, a New York City jewelry store: 30
7/93Price of a “Hillary Wig,” with detachable hairband, from New York City’s Jacquelyn Wigs: $175
1/94Ratio of the number of New York City cabbies killed last year to the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Somalia: 6:5
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
12/94Number of blocks from Tiffany’s that thieves tried to sell goods stolen from the New York store this fall: 10
2/94Ratio of the murder rate last year in New York City to the murder rate in Little Rock, Arkansas: 1:1
2/94Price of a one-page “Florid to Torrid” love letter, from New York City’s Do the Write Thing: $25
6/94Number of times Hector Montalvo, a New York City bank teller, has seen Cats: 374
7/94Number of Coney Island rides that have been designated New York City historical landmarks: 3
1/95Percentage change between 1992 and 1993 in the infant-mortality rate in New York City’s Harlem: +60
10/95Number of years ago the executive news producer of NBC’s New York City station was producing Howard Stern’s TV show: 3
11/95Number of “Snapple enthusiasts” who attended the first Snapple Convention, held last summer in a New York suburb: 3,800
3/95Price of a blood-proof Emergency Medical Services jacket from Anna Sui, a New York City boutique: $210
4/95Number of earthquakes measuring between 3 and 5 on the Richter scale that have hit the New York City area since 1980: 16
6/95Number of Ho Chi Minh scholarships awarded to students last year by a community college in New York City: 25
7/95Estimated property damage caused in a New York suburb last spring by a man firing a slingshot from his Lincoln: $7,000
7/95Maximum price of a three-year license to sell hot dogs outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: $900,600
9/95Rank of New York City, among habitats with the largest number of peregrine falcons per square mile, worldwide: 1
2/96Price a New York City company charges for removal, cleaning, storage, and reinstallation of an air conditioner: $239
2/96Chances that a New York City public school is heated with coal: 1 in 4
7/96Seating capacity of the Ménage à Trois Chair, from Kinky Joe’s Erotic Furniture of New York City: 5
8/96Price a New York City doctors’ group charges for an hour of “psychoanalytically guided self-inquiry” via e-mail: $125
1/97Percentage of people who go to the bathroom in New York’s Penn Station who do not wash their hands: 40
10/97Price of a pair of fangs from New York City’s Sabretooth boutique: $65
2/97Hours of training required to become a licensed hair braider in New York City: 900
Hours of training required to become a New York City emergency medical technician: 117
5/97Ratio of the number of New Yorkers bitten by rats in 1995 to the number bitten by other New Yorkers: 1:3
Average number to be launched per second this year: 8
1/98Minimum price of 2000 Secure, a millennium-bug insurance policy offered by a New York City brokerage firm: $2,000,000
10/98Price of a trench coat with a cell-phone-emission-proof pocket, from Barneys New York: $595
12/98Price that New York City’s Lower East Side Tenement Museum charges for an evening in a turn-of-the-century kitchen: $750
2/98Ratio of NBC’s budget for the next season of ER to the annual budget of New York’s Bellevue Hospital: 1:1
3/98Price of a velvet-and-silk Chairman Mao jacket from Shanghai Tang, a new boutique on New York’s Madison Avenue: $350
3/98Percentage change in murder, rape, and robbery cases in New York City since the election of Rudolph Giuliani: -44
4/98Number of Astoria Federal Savings ATMs in New York City at which transactions may be conducted in Yiddish: 31
4/98Percentage change since 1965 in the number of kosher delis in New York City: -88
5/98Number of New York City pedestrians splattered with blood last winter after a suicide’s 17-story jump: 3
7/98Chance that a New Yorker cut from state welfare rolls in 1997’s first quarter was employed within 3 months: 1 in 3
7/98Number of city and state agencies suing New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over his withholding of public records: 4
9/98Amount that Bear, Stearns’ chairman donated to a New York hospital last June to sponsor Viagra for the poor: $1,000,000
12/99Average number of death threats received each week this year by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: 2
12/99Estimated revenue that the U.N. generates each year for New York City: $3,300,000,000
12/99Year in which New York’s Marriott Marquis hotel began taking reservations for New Year’s Eve 1999: 1983
Year in which the hotel opened: 1985
Number of times it has won: 15
3/99Percentage of the 2,397 surveillance cameras monitoring public spaces in New York City that are privately owned: 89
4/99Miles per hour at which a New York TV station clocked a police van driving Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to lunch last year: 75
4/99 Portion of Yankee Stadium tickets for last year’s World Series games that were available to the public: 1/6
5/99Percentage of children born in New York City last year who are living in poverty: 52
9/99Estimated rounds of ammunition bought by the City University of New York since 1995 to train its security force: 110,000
9/99Number of years since an elected New York City mayor went on to win higher office: 131
1/00Number of New York City children issued Civil Defense dog tags by 1952 to identify them after a nuclear attack: 2,500,000
3/00Percentage change since 1993 in the number of criminal cases dismissed each year in New York City: +132
4/00Number of former welfare recipients New York City trained since last April to work as phone psychics: 15
6/00Estimated number of “river pirates ” operating on New York City’s waterfront in 1850: 500
7/00Average annual number of civilians killed by New York City police under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: 23
1/01Ratio of New York City residents who died of West Nile virus in 1999 to those who died of pneumonia or influenza: 1:619
10/01Number of staff members fired from New York’s nonprofit WBAI-FM since December and banned from its premises: 12
Number of surveillance cameras installed at WBAI’s studios in May to monitor remaining employees: 8
10/01Number of George W. Bush Halloween masks sold nationwide last year by a New York distributor: 15,811
12/01Ratio of New York City welfare recipients whose benefits ended this year to the number of police officers there: 1:1
2/01Number of years after fleeing Haiti in 1995 that death-squad leader Toto Constant was selling real estate in New York City: 5
2/01Percentage of doctors at a New York City hospital who report often not knowing the cost of the drugs they prescribe: 80
4/01Declared value of the jewelry stolen from rapper Prodigy last December after he left a music-video shoot in Queens: $343,000
4/01Pounds of paper used to produce 400 hard copies of New York City’s report on the Fresh Kills landfill’s closing: 14,800
4/01Blocks separating Kenneth Starr’s New York University Law School office from Monica Lewinsky’s apartment: 7
Blocks separating Lewinsky’s apartment from Bill Clinton ‘s Harlem office: 135
5/01Number of murders in New York City last year, per 100,000 residents: 9
9/01Price of Bob Dylan’s high-school essay on The Grapes of Wrath, from a New York City collectibles dealer: $35,000
1/02Number of mock biological attacks with live bacteria carried out domestically by the U.S. Army between 1949 and 1969: 199
Year in which the Army released bacteria into New York City’s subway system: 1966
1/02Percentage of Navy recruits from the New York City area last year who were green-card holders: 40
12/02Organizers’ estimated attendance at this fall’s largest peace rallies in London and New York, respectively: 400,000, 25,000
Estimated attendance according to police in each city: 150,000, 12,000
Number of estimates cited in each rally’s coverage in the London Times and the New York Times, respectively: 2, 0
12/02Minutes that service on two New York subway lines was halted this fall after a Sikh worker was seen emerging from a hatch: 92
12/02Rank of a burning Yule-log video loop among the top-rated 8-10 a.m. TV shows in New York City last Christmas: 1
2/02Total annualized percentage return on New York City’s stock markets on perfectly sunny days between 1982 and 1997: +25
2/02Minimum percentage of votes in each New York City election since 1988 not counted due to mechanical or human error: 3
Number of May Day demonstrators the city prosecuted last June for “masquerading in public”: 12
5/02Number of attendees at a New York City “drought awareness” workshop for landlords this spring: 4
5/02Number of New York City restaurants whose use of the term “Viagra” on the menu has been protested by Pfizer: 3
12/03Number of New York City eighth-graders deemed “proficient” on last year’s end-of-summer-school reading exam: 0
Percentage of those who took the test who were promoted to the ninth grade: 78
2/03Number of years the New York Police Department’s new Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence worked for the CIA: 35
7/03Ratio of New York City’s minimum fine for smoking tobacco in a bar to its minimum fine for possessing marijuana: 2:1
12/04Price of the bottle of champagne a New York club requires patrons to buy in order to use a diamond-encrusted table: $5,000
Profits he reaped: $9.50
5/04Average percentage of African-American men age 16 to 64 in New York City who were employed each month last year: 52
8/04Maximum voltage New York City’s main post office will deliver to pigeons during the Republican convention: 8,000
9/04Percentage of New York City residents it would take to fill every inch of pavement in midtown Manhattan: 6
1/06Tons of waste produced by New York City each year: 8,500,000
6/06Year that a signboard tallying the U.S. national debt was erected near Times Square: 1989
Year in which it is expected to run out of digits: 2007
12/07Percentage change since 1990 in the number of pawn shops in New York City: +523
8/07Number of U.N. staffers in New York who still have full-time jobs monitoring Iraq for weapons of mass destruction: 34
Date on which the U.S. first proposed a Security Council resolution to disband the monitoring team: 6/8/07
1/08Estimated number of tons of CO2 released on New Year’s Eve from all the champagne bottles uncorked by Americans: 8
Number of minutes it takes all 13,000 New York City cabs to release this much: 7
4/08Estimated number of wild New York City pigeons illegally caught and sold to shooting clubs each year: 144,000