Number of signatures a petition posted on whitehouse.gov must obtain within thirty days to “require a response” : 25,000
Number a petition calling for Texas to secede from the Union obtained within a week of being posted last November : 100,000
Amount set aside for states to aid homeowners in a 2012 government settlement with mortgage lenders : $2,500,000,000
Portion of that amount the states plan to use for other purposes : 2/5
Increase since 2009 in the number of people over the age of 55 who are working : 3,710,000
Ratio of U.S. farmers age 65 and older to those under the age of 35 : 7:1
Rank of “attire” among the leading reasons “millennials” are unsuccessful in job interviews : 1
Rank of their posting inappropriate pictures on social media : 2
Percentage of the population of Valencia, Spain, that is currently unemployed : 28
Price of a weeklong prostitution training course offered there since May : $127
Percentage of public U.S. colleges and universities whose tuition has increased by more than half in the past five years : 15
Portion of its campuses the University of Phoenix plans to “phase out” beginning this year : 1/2
Average salary earned by a full-time-employed male college graduate one year after graduation : $42,918
By a full-time-employed female graduate : $35,296
Percentage of U.S. girls who are Girl Scouts : 8
Of female senators who are : 70
Percentage of characters shown on televison in the United States who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual : 4.4
Cost of a pair of “all-American” blue jeans designed by Glenn Beck : $129.99
Rank of Philadelphia among U.S. cities with the most per capita purchases of sweatpants and sweatshirts : 1
Percentage of Canadians who believe in global warming : 98
Of Americans who do : 70
Of Republicans : 48
Percentage of Republicans who believe in demonic possession : 68
Minimum number of grave sites photographed to build a grave-finding app for visitors to Arlington National Cemetery : 260,000
Average number of days a U.S. veteran waits for a response to a claim filed with the Department of Veterans Affairs : 260
Percentage increase in Chicago homicides last year : 18
Amount in health-care spending on shooting victims that local officials hope to recoup through a new firearms tax : $600,000
Estimated value of marijuana plants found growing on a single lot on Chicago’s South Side last October : $5,443,000
Percentage by which the drug- and alcohol-test failure rates for Amtrak workers are higher than the industry average : 51
Square footage of a proposed $35 million animal-holding center to be built at John F. Kennedy International Airport : 172,165
Minimum number of Red Bull–sponsored athletes who have died in parachuting, paragliding, and skydiving stunts : 5
Minutes the average U.S. worker must work to pay for 12 ounces of beer : 3.3
The average Indian worker : 36
Number of Steak ’N Shake restaurants set to open in the United Arab Emirates over the next five years : 40
Estimated tons of meat eaten annually in China : 88,000,000
Minimum number of Chinese government agencies whose mission includes containing social unrest : 40
Value of bribes reported through Bribr, a Russian anticorruption app released last September : $1,577,127
Estimated minimum cost to make and market Peter Jackson’s film-trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit : $1,000,000,000
Amount New Zealand’s tourism board has spent to promote the nation as “100 percent Middle-earth” : $8,200,000
January Index Sources
1,2 The White House
3,4 Enterprise Community Partners (Washington)
5 Bureau of Labor Statistics
6 U.S. Department of Agriculture
7,8 Adecco Staffing (N.Y.C.)
9 Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Madrid)
10 Conselleria de Justicia y Bienestar Social (Valencia, Spain)
11 Jennifer Ma, College Board (N.Y.C.)
12 The University of Phoenix
13,14 American Association of University Women (Washington)
15,16 Michelle Tompkins, Girl Scouts of the United States of America (N.Y.C.)
17 GLAAD (Los Angeles)
18 Music Today (Charlottesville, Va.)
19 John Fetto, Experian Marketing Services (N.Y.C.)
20 IPAC-CO2 Research (Regina, Sask.)
21 Yale Project on Climate Change Communication (New Haven, Conn.)
22 Pew Research Center (Washington)
23 Public Policy Polling (Raleigh, N.C.)
24 Arlington National Cemetery (Arlington, Va.)
25 Center for Investigative Reporting (Berkeley)
26 Chicago Police Department
27 Cook County President’s Office (Chicago)
28 Chicago Police Department
29 Amtrak Office of Inspector General (Washington)
30 Racebrook Capital (N.Y.C.)
31 Harper’s research
32,33 UBS Equity Research (N.Y.C.)
34 Steak ’N Shake (Indianapolis)
35 U.S. Department of Agriculture
36 Congressional Research Service
37 Harper’s research
38 Kim Masters, The Hollywood Reporter (Los Angeles)
39 Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (Wellington, New Zealand).
