Number of New York City police officers wearing body cameras as part of a pilot program started this fall : 36
Percentage of the city’s public-housing units deemed “deficient” by the New York City Housing Authority : 79
Percentage of “needed repairs” the agency plans to make this year : 22
Amount of improper Hurricane Sandy–relief payments FEMA has attempted to recover through collection letters : $4,900,000
Amount recipients of these letters have returned : $453,000
Average amount U.S. customs officials paid to build each of twenty-one houses for employees in rural Arizona : $680,000
Average market price of houses in the area : $86,500
Cost of a ticket for a flight from California “to the edge of space” scheduled to begin service in 2016 : $100,000
Percentage of U.S. flights accounted for by private planes : 51
Of fatal U.S. air crashes : 96
Number of U.S. universities that have received military equipment from the Defense Department since 1998 : 117
That have received mine-resistant vehicles : 6
Grenade launchers : 2
Number of rounds of ammunition found in the car of a man who jumped the White House fence this September : 800
Number of hatchets : 2
Portion of Americans who want their state to secede : 1/4
Portion who cannot name all three branches of the federal government : 2/3
Estimated minimum number of U.S. government contractors eligible to access classified information : 930,000
Minimum number of abducted Japanese citizens who have lived in North Korea for at least 30 years : 12
Years of hard labor to which North Korea sentenced a 24-year-old California man in September for ripping up his visa : 6
Number of counts of accessory to murder a 93-year-old former Auschwitz guard was charged with in September : 300,000
Number of infants who died in Syria after receiving improperly mixed measles shots from aid workers : 15
Percentage increase since 2008 in the number of annual incidents of violence against health-care workers in China : 33
Percentage of Chinese doctors who report having considered leaving the profession because of the threat of violence : 40
Number of dogs in Baoshan, China, killed in September to prevent the spread of rabies : 5,000
Number of socks found in the stomach of a Great Dane in Oregon in February : 43.5
Percentage increase since 2000 in the number of Americans with potbellies, according to the CDC : 17
Estimated amount Olive Garden loses annually from breadsticks that are served but not eaten : $5,000,000
Amount the U.S. Mint lost last year making pennies : $55,000,000
Percentage of women worldwide who believe that energy conservation
is a “vital issue” : 68
Of men : 47
Number of Americans employed in the beer industry : 2,000,000
Number of the top ten beers sold in the United States that are owned by U.S. firms : 0
Rank of the Super Bowl among television programs viewed by U.S. women : 1
Number of times NFL players have been arrested for domestic violence since 2000 : 90
Chance that a witness called to testify before a congressional committee
is female : 1 in 4
Portion of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 in 1960 who had never been married : 1/10
Portion today : 1/2
Minimum number of people Queen Elizabeth employs to send 100th-birthday cards to British centenarians : 7
Figures cited are the latest available as of October 2014.
December Index Sources
1 New York City Police Department
2 New York City Housing Authority
3 Office of the New York City Comptroller
4,5 Federal Emergency Management Agency
6,7 Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
8 XCOR Aerospace (Mojave, Calif.)
9 Federal Aviation Administration
10 National Transportation Safety Board
11–13 Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington)
14,15 U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia
16 Thomson Reuters (N.Y.C.)
17 Annenberg Public Policy Center (Philadelphia)
18 U.S. Government Accountability Office
19 Markus Bell, Australian National University (Canberra)
20 U.S. Department of State
21 Simon Wiesenthal Center (Jerusalem)
22 UNICEF (N.Y.C.)
23,24 Council on Foreign Relations (N.Y.C.)
25 ACTAsia for Animals (High Wycombe, England)
26 DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital (Portland, Ore.)
27 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)
28 Starboard Value LP (N.Y.C.)
29 U.S. Mint
30,31 Penn Schoen Berland (N.Y.C.)
32 Beer Institute (Washington)
33 Beer Marketer’s Insights (Suffern, N.Y.)/Harper’s research
34 Nielsen (N.Y.C.)
35 USA Today (McLean, Va.)
36 Sunlight Foundation (Washington)
37,38 Pew Research Center (Washington)
39 Buckingham Palace (London).
