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Estimated payload, in pounds of military-grade explosives, of fireworks purchased annually in the United States :  5,900,000

Of the MOAB, the U.S. military’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb :  18,000

Amount of Vietnam War–era loan repayments that the United States is demanding from Cambodia :  $506,400,000

Estimated number of Cambodian civilians killed by U.S. bombs during the war :  100,000

Amount a U.N.-backed tribunal has spent prosecuting ex–Khmer Rouge members for crimes against humanity :  $293,100,000

Number of people who have been convicted :  3

Estimated amount the U.S. government has spent since 2011 in the search for Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony :  $800,000,000

Date on which the Ugandan government announced it was giving up the search :  4/19/2017

Minimum number of wildlife rangers killed in the line of duty worldwide since 2009 :  595

Portion of UNESCO natural World Heritage Sites in which wildlife criminals operate :  1/2

Maximum amount the Chinese government offers to individuals who uncover foreign spies :  $72,000

Number of hours for which a Britney Spears concert forced Israel’s Labor Party to delay its primary elections :  24

Price per night of the presidential suite in the artist Banksy’s hotel overlooking the West Bank separation barrier :  $965

Portion of U.S. Border Patrol applicants who fail their polygraph tests :  3/4

Percentage change this year in the number of Hispanics reporting being raped in Houston :  –43

Percentage change in absences at elementary schools in Las Cruces, New Mexico, after immigration raids in February :  +148

Portion of the Venezuelan population who live in poverty :  4/5

Percentage of Venezuelans who lost weight last year :  73

Average number of pounds they lost :  19

Value of food stamps used at U.S. military commissaries last year :  $66,978,704

Chances a child in school on a U.S. military base is eligible for free or reduced-cost meals :  2 in 5

Percentage of Mississippi families applying for welfare in 2016 who were accepted :  1.4

Percentage change since 1986 in the number of working-age adults receiving Social Security for disability :  +94

Percentage of worldwide vaccine-preventable mumps cases last year that occurred in the United States :  95

In Canada :  0.3

Percentage of trash at the 2016 Coachella music festival in California that was recycled :  20

At the NorthSide Festival in Denmark :  76

Tons of trash that have been removed from Mount Everest since 2008 :  17

Amount a Sherpa earns for every two pounds he or she removes from the mountain :  $1

Factor by which the temperature increase in Alaska since 1957 exceeds that in the rest of the United States :  2

Amount of time, in minutes, that national nightly news broadcasts spent covering climate change last year :  39

Number of consecutive years for which Fox News has been the most popular U.S. cable news network :  15

Estimated number of Donald Trump’s twenty most engaged Twitter followers that are bots :  14

Portion of N.F.L. owners who donated to Trump’s inauguration committee :  1/4

Estimated amount of U.S. public funds that have been invested in N.F.L. stadiums since 1996 :  $6,700,000,000

Percentage by which the portion of N.C.A.A. women’s head coaches who are female has decreased since Title IX passed :  50

Portion of Germans who belong to the national soccer association :  1/10

Average number of hours by which an hour of running increases one’s life span :  7

Minimum number of U.S. colleges with varsity e-sports teams :  26

Figures cited are the latest available as of May 2017. “Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.


July Index Sources

1 American Pyrotechnics Association (Chestertown, Md.)
2 McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (Okla.)
3 U.S. Department of State
4 Ben Kiernan, Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
5,6 Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (Phnom Penh)
7 Ledio Cakaj (Washington)
8 Uganda People’s Defence Force (Kampala)
9 International Ranger Federation (Cheyenne, Wyo.)
10 World Wildlife Fund (Nairobi, Kenya)
11 People’s Daily (Beijing)
12 Israeli Labor Party (Tel Aviv)
13 Walled Off Hotel (Bethlehem, Palestine)
14 U.S. Customs and Border Protection
15 Houston Police Department
16 Las Cruces Public Schools (N.M.)
17–19 Marianella Herrera Cuenca, Universidad Central de Venezuela (Caracas)
20 Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Alexandria, Va.)
21 U.S. Government Accountability Office
22 Mississippi Department of Human Services (Jackson)
23 Social Security Administration (Baltimore)
24, 25 Council on Foreign Relations (N.Y.C.)
26 City of Indio Development Services Department (Calif.)
27 NorthSide (Århus, Denmark)
28, 29 Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (Kathmandu, Nepal)
30 Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (Soldotna, Alaska)
31 Media Matters for America (Washington)
32 Nielsen (N.Y.C.)
33 SocialRank (N.Y.C.)/Harper’s research
34 Harper’s research
35 ESPN (Minneapolis)
36 Linda Carpenter (West Brookfield, Mass.)/N.C.A.A. (Indianapolis)
37 German Football Association (Frankfurt)
38 Duck-Chul Lee, Iowa State University (Ames)
39 Riot Games (Los Angeles)


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