Index Archive

Number of generations it takes mammals to evolve from mouse-size to elephant-size

: 24,000,000

Rank of that number among the highest on record

: 1

Amount BMW paid to name a European weather system under a Berlin university’s “adopt-a-vortex” plan

: $396

Minimum number of people who have died from the “Mini Cooper” system

: 32

Estimated number of people the Social Security Administration accidentally lists in its “Death Master File” each year

: 14,000

Percentage of federal benefits that went to the bottom fifth of U.S. households in 1979

: 54

Today

: 36

Percentage increase in total U.S. health-care spending in 2009 and 2010, respectively

: 3.8, 3.9

Respective rank of these annual increases among the lowest of the past fifty years

: 1, 2

Percentage of doctors who will make an obesity diagnosis if a patient’s weight is equal to or greater than their own

: 93

Age in years of the average car on the road in America

: 10.8

Estimated percentage by which the population of Japan will shrink by 2060

: 32

Portion of its population that will be out of the workforce by then

: 1/2

Percentage increase in the rate of alcohol abuse for every percent by which U.S. unemployment increases

: 17

Percentage increase, since 2006, in violent sex crimes perpetrated by members of the U.S. Army

: 97

Date on which the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report revised its definition of rape to include male victims

: 1/6/12

Portion of Afghans who believe their national police will be ready to handle security when NATO forces leave

: 3/4

Who believe the national police are “somewhat or very corrupt”

: 1/2

Date on which the email passwords of the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs were hacked and made public

: 2/5/2012

Portion of ministry officials whose passwords were “12345”

: 1/3

Of Jewish Americans

: 27

Number of times President Obama mentioned “climate change” in his 2012 State of the Union address

: 1

Number of times he mentioned “energy”

: 23

Number of new planets discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission since 2009

: 61

Number of “planetary candidates” awaiting verification

: 2,326

Value of loose change left at TSA checkpoints in 2010

: $409,085.56

Estimated number of houses built or repaired in Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake

: 18,362

Of Haitians still living in displacement camps

: 515,000

Minimum number of luxury hotels slated to open in Rwanda in the next year

: 2

Percentage of black Americans who believe in God

: 80

Percentage decrease in the incidence of the terms “global warming” and “climate change” in major newspapers in 2011

: 33

Percentage of Mormons who believe blacks in the United States face “a lot of discrimination”

: 31

Who believe Mormons do

: 46

Estimated minimum net worth of Mitt Romney

: $190,000,000

Estimated inflation-adjusted net worth of George Washington

: $525,000,000

Cost of a one-day course at the Institute for Civility in Government in Houston

: $50

Factor by which the percentage of college freshmen taking out more than $10,000 in loans has increased since 2001

: 2

Portion of the $62 million raised by major presidential Super PACs in 2011 that came from the top twenty-two givers

: 1/2

Price of a gold ingot engraved with the name of Jean Paul Gaultier

: $1,931

Cost of shipping and handling

: $25

Harper’s Index

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