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Last Month’s Index
[ February 2011 ]

Harper’s Index

Last Month’s Index
Next Month’s Index
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Of women

: $28,000
February 2011 • Source: Reach Advisors (Slingerlands, N.Y.)

Median income of U.S. men who are single, childless, in their twenties, and live in a city

: $26,000
February 2011 • Source: Reach Advisors (Slingerlands, N.Y.)

Portion of voters in the midterm elections who ranked “spending to create jobs” as their highest priority for Congress

: 2/5
February 2011 • Source: Edison Research (Somerville, N.J.)

Percentage that went to unemployment insurance

: 1
February 2011 • Source: U.S. Employment & Training Administration

Percentage of U.S. GDP last year that went to federal job-training and job-search programs

: 0.05
February 2011 • Source: U.S. Employment & Training Administration

Percentage increase since 2004 in the estimated median household net worth of members of Congress

: 22
February 2011 • Source: Center for Responsive Politics (Washington)

Change between 1929 and 1933

: ???25.9
February 2011 • Source: Zillow Real Estate Research (Seattle)

Percentage change in the average value of an American home since 2006

: ???25
February 2011 • Source: Zillow Real Estate Research (Seattle)

Percentage of married men and women, respectively, who believe they control the television

: 24, 26
February 2011 • Source: Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends Project (Washington)

Chances that he or she wants to get married

: 19 in 20
February 2011 • Source: Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends Project (Washington)

Chance that an unmarried American under thirty says marriage is “becoming obsolete”

: 1 in 2
February 2011 • Source: Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends Project (Washington)

Distance between the two, in miles

: 0.75
February 2011 • Source: Harper's research

Number of times George W. Bush’s memoir refers to his loss of the 2000 popular vote

: 0
February 2011 • Source: Harper's research

Percentage of the pedestrians stopped in 2009 for random searches in Philadelphia who were black

: 71
February 2011 • Source: ACLU of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)

Percentage of the city’s population that is black

: 44
February 2011 • Source: ACLU of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)

Portion of the stops that didn’t lead to an arrest

: 11/12
February 2011 • Source: ACLU of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)

Miles from land and maritime borders that the U.S. Border Patrol can legally perform warrantless searches

: 100
February 2011 • Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Portion of all Americans who live within that area

: 2/3
February 2011 • Source: ACLU of New York (N.Y.C.)

Percentage of all Internet networks rerouted to a Chinese telecommunications company last spring

: 15
February 2011 • Source: McAfee (Santa Clara, Calif.)

Minutes that U.S. government and military traffic passed through Chinese servers

: 18
February 2011 • Source: McAfee (Santa Clara, Calif.)

Fine in California for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and for jaywalking, respectively

: $100, $108
February 2011 • Source: Harper's research

Amount spent last year by the U.S. government to simulate an attack by pot growers on the nation’s second-largest dam

: $500,000
February 2011 • Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Sacramento)

Number of licensed peyote dealers in Texas

: 3
February 2011 • Source: Texas Department of Public Safety (Austin)

Estimated value of the bulletproof-car market in Mexico

: $90,000,000
February 2011 • Source: Asociaci?n Intercontinental de Blindadores (Mexico City)

Average number of times a Canadian apologizes each week

: 4
February 2011 • Source: Karina Schumann, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)

In NY-16, the country’s poorest

: $17,995
February 2011 • Source: American Human Development Project (Brooklyn)

Median income in NY-14, the country’s wealthiest congressional district

: $60,099
February 2011 • Source: American Human Development Project (Brooklyn)

Factor by which Derek Jeter’s 2010 salary did

: 288
February 2011 • Source: U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.)/Society for American Baseball Research (Cleveland)

Factor by which Joe DiMaggio’s 1950 salary exceeded the mean U.S. family income

: 26
February 2011 • Source: U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.)/Society for American Baseball Research (Cleveland)

Odds today of dying there in an automobile accident

: 1 in 26,000
February 2011 • Source: N.Y.C. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene/Harper's research

Odds in New York City in 1900 of dying in a horse accident

: 1 in 19,000
February 2011 • Source: N.Y.C. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene/Harper's research

Chance that a mammal species declared extinct since 1500 was later rediscovered

: 1 in 3
February 2011 • Source: Diana Fisher, University of Queensland (St Lucia, Australia)

Percentage change since 2008 in the number of confirmed gonorrhea cases in Alaska

: +71
February 2011 • Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)

Portion of the U.S. population that will have diabetes by 2050, if current trends continue

: 1/3
February 2011 • Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)

Maximum number of calories permitted under San Francisco law for restaurant meals that come with a free toy

: 600
February 2011 • Source: San Francisco Board of Supervisors

Portion of all calories consumed by U.S. children that are nutritionally empty

: 2/5
February 2011 • Source: National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, Md.)

Percentage of the fuel used to power Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer that comes from rendered beef fat

: 20
February 2011 • Source: Direct Fuels (Euless, Texas)

Estimated number of pigs that could be bought with the money diverted last year to congressional earmarks

: 108,200,000
February 2011 • Source: Harper's research

Of Republicans

: 53
February 2011 • Source: Edison Research (Somerville, N.J.)

Percentage who said they had an unfavorable view of Democrats

: 52
February 2011 • Source: Edison Research (Somerville, N.J.)
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