Index Archive

Number of staffers in the Correspondence Office responsible for selecting those letters from the 11,000 received each day

: 7

Number of letters from Americans President Barack Obama reads each evening

: 10

Chance an American thinks it is at least “partly true” that secret government airplanes release chemicals into the air

: 1 in 7

Percentage of Hispanic Americans who do

: 28

Percentage of all Americans who consider themselves part of the top 1 percent of U.S. earners

: 13

Portion of New Yorkers making more than $100,000 a year who support Occupy Wall Street

: 3/5

Chance that a member of a U.S. corporation’s compensation committee is someone the CEO considers a “friend”

: 1 in 3

Percentage increase in total congressional net worth since 2008

: 24

Percentage of Republicans who say the current economic order “favors a very small portion of the rich”

: 62

Amount former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf paid a lobbying firm for access to top U.S. lawmakers

: $175,000

Minimum amount Obama’s 2012 campaign has so far accepted from bundlers connected to lobbyists

: $2,800,000

Date on which Obama said that donations from lobbyists “don’t contribute to the public interest”

: 8/4/2007

To the Obama campaign

: $119,900

Amount employees of private-equity firm Bain Capital have donated to the campaign of its co-founder Mitt Romney

: $69,500

Number of U.S. states that have delayed filling judicial vacancies for budgetary reasons

: 34

Number of U.S. senators he met on a single day within a month of signing the contract

: 6

Rank of that number among the highest in the agency’s history

: 1

Percentage of Americans who believe it is “extremely important” to halt the flow of illegal immigrants at the border

: 53

Who believe that illegal immigrants already in the country should be allowed to stay and become U.S. citizens

: 64

Minimum number of weapons confiscated from visitors to the Statue of Liberty last year

: 11,448

Estimated tons of debris from the Japanese earthquake headed for the West Coast of the United States

: 5,000,000

Date by which the debris is expected to begin reaching shore

: 10/1/2013

Percentage of Chinese and Americans, respectively, who struggled to pay for food in 2008

: 16, 9

In 2011

: 6, 19

Estimated number of stray dogs killed in Ukraine in preparation for the Euro 2012 soccer tournament

: 27,000

Sale price for five frozen straws of semen from Gladiator’s Hammer, a breeder deer, at a Texas auction last August

: $21,000

Chances that a top brand of imported extra-virgin olive oil is not extra-virgin

: 3 in 4

Maximum years in jail a new bill introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy proposes for the selling of fake Vermont maple syrup

: 5

Number of people deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the 2011 fiscal year

: 396,906

Projected number in 2050

: 3.9

Number today

: 8.6

Number of working-age people for every person over sixty-five worldwide in 1950

: 11.7

Chance that a U.S. worker is of normal weight and without a chronic health problem

: 1 in 7

Percentage of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher who receive it today

: 66

Percentage of workers with only a high school diploma who received employer-based health insurance in 1979

: 70

Factor by which a person experiencing long-term unemployment is more likely to report a first instance of mental illness

: 3

Portion of the Veterans Health Administration’s budget devoted to veterans with mental-health or addiction problems

: 1/3

Minimum number of U.S. colleges that offer courses in unmanned-drone operation

: 5

Amount the Defense Department has requested for new Gray Eagle and Reaper drones and parts in 2012

: $1,908,600,000

Number of tickets Virgin Galactic has sold for spaceflights it hopes to begin launching by the end of the year

: 460

Harper’s Index

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