Harper's Index

Some of you might read a content-free magazine called Harper's Index. Each issue has a section with some very interesting statistics I thought NS might enjoy.


Number of executives at Wall Street banks so far who have been tried on criminal charges related to the financial crisis: 2
Number acquitted: 2

Percentage tax rate that Goldman Sachs paid on its profits for year 2008: 0.6

Average profit that films with budgets over $100 million have generated since 2007: $348,000,000

Estimated percentage change since 2007 in the average tabloid payout for a celebrity photograph: -30

Number of architects nominated to design the 2010 "New American Home" for an annual home-builders' convention: 3
Portion of the home completed by November, when the builder ran out of money: 3/4

Chance that a child in the United States will be on food stamps at some point during his or her upbringing: 1 in 2

Price last fall for which a North Carolina middle school allowed students to buy extra credit points on any test: $20

Factor by which the average time a 15-to-19-year-old U.S. girl spends doing homework each day exceeds that of a boy: 2

Percentage of Americans who think that women are more "intelligent" and "honest" than men, respectively: 38, 50
Percentage who think they make better political leaders: 6

Portion of men whose attractiveness is judged by U.S. women to be "worse than average": 4/5
Portion of women about whom U.S. men say this: 2/5

Number of five-star, and one-star reviews, respectively given o Sarah Palin's memoir on Amazon.com: 355, 213
Number of two-, three-, and four-star reviews combined: 65

Percentage of Republican voters who say they would seriously consider voting for Palin for president: 65
Percentage who think she is qualified for the job: 58

Percentage of Republicans who believe President Obama was "legitimately" elected: 27
Percentage of Fox News viewers who say the network is "mostly liberal": 17

Number of the thirteen states most heavily backing John McCain in 2008 that have Democratic governors: 7
Number of the Ten states most heavily backing Obama that have G.O.P governors: 5

Percentage of the California state budget in 1979 that went to higher education and prisons, respectively: 15, 3
Percentage today: 12, 10

Change that a would-be enlistee to the U.S military aged 17 to 24 is rejected because of a criminal record: 1 in 20
Chance that he or she is rejected because of physical unfitness: 1 in 3

Estimated number of U.S. veterans under 65 died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance: 2,266
Factor by which that exceeds the number of U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan last year: 5

Estimated percentage change in U.S. GSP by 2011 that would be caused by ending the Afgan war today: -0.4

Chance that an Afghan reports having been tortured during his or her lifetime: 1 in 5

Number of Cubans convicted in Guantanamo province last February of being in an unemployed "state of dangerousness": 35

Length, in minutes, to which Hugo Chaves called upon Venezuelans last fall to limit their morning showers: 3

Portion of all U.S. freshwater used each year that goes toward making food Americans waste: 1/4
Percentage of all food in the U.S. supply chain that is wasted: 40

Ratio of the minimum number of medical-marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles to the number of Starbucks: 4:1

Percentage of Americans under 35 who say they text, tweet, or check their Facebook pages right after sex: 36

Percentage of women using the "withdrawl" method of contraception who will get pregnant within a year: 4
Percentage of women who will if their partners use condoms: 2

Chance that a female U.S. street prostitute during any given week will be arrested by a police officer: 1 in 67
Chance that she will have sex with a police officer: 1 in 33


These are all the statistics in the February 2010 issue of Harper's Index, and are the latest available figures as of December 2009. The sources for these figures are on page 60 of the issue from which they are from if you would like to check any of them.