September 29, 2024
Every now and then, I run dry and can’t come up with the high-quality blogging material that my gentle readers have come to know and love. It is then that I turn to Harper’s Index for some satisfying factual niblets to tide us all over.
Herewith, then, some fascinating tidbits from a recent Index:
Percentage change since 2011 in the amount of time U.S. 15–24-year-olds spend doing homework: +35
Percentage change since 2002 in the portion of U.S. high school seniors taking the ACT who received perfect scores: +1,700
Percentage change since 2022 in the portion of U.S. middle school students who use tobacco products: +47
In the portion of U.S. high school students who use nicotine vapes: −29
Percentage of U.S. marijuana users who say they use the drug at least once per day: 35
Portion of U.S. adults who say that regular alcohol use is more harmful than regular marijuana use: 2/3
Number of U.S. weather disasters in the 1980s whose inflation-adjusted damages exceeded $1 billion: 33
Minimum number of such disasters that have occurred since January 2023: 47
Percentage of U.S. adults who say that the country is the best in the world at scientific research: 16
Who say that American democracy sets a good example for other countries: 19
Percentage of Israeli Jews who say that Gazans should have the right to self-governance: 8
Who say that Israel’s use of military force in Gaza has gone too far: 4
Who say that it has not gone far enough: 42
Portion of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who say that Hamas’s decision to attack Israel on October 7 was “correct”: 2/3
Minimum percentage of Gazans who have lost a family member in the Israel–Hamas war: 60
Chance that a U.S. adult is estranged from a family member: 1 in 5
Portion of U.S. adults over 40 who say their best friend is one of their parents: 1/2
Portion of U.S. adults who have gotten married since 2021 who say they “almost called off their wedding” beforehand: 1/5
Percentage of U.S. Catholic priests ordained in the 1970s who say that masturbation is always a sin: 18
Percentage of those ordained since 2010 who say so: 75
Portion of approved U.S. candidates for ordination this year who were once Boy Scouts: 3/10
Estimated portion of U.S. women aged 15–49 who in 2021 had attempted an abortion without medical supervision: 1/20
Estimated portion who have done so now: 1/14
Percentage of unsupervised abortions in the United States that involve consuming alcohol or another substance: 19
That involve a hit to the stomach: 22
Minimum number of popular tampon brands sold in the United States that contain lead or arsenic: 14
Percentage increase since 2018 in the portion of U.S. women who have a prescription for oral birth control: 40
Percentage decrease since 2020 in the population of children under 5 in New York City: 18
Portion of U.S. counties in which the population of children under 5 has decreased in that time: 2/3
Estimated number of U.S. counties without any foreign-born residents: 15
Percentage by which male immigrants to the United States are less likely to be incarcerated than American-born men: 60
By which immigrants to the United States are more likely than American-born citizens to start businesses: 80
Percentage of U.S. adults who said they were worried about keeping money in banks after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008: 45
Who say they are worried about doing so now: 48
Percentage by which U.S. adults are more likely to rank the 2020s as the worst economic era in the past century than the 1930s: 39
Portion of U.S. adults who are very confident in their ability to identify scams before falling for them: 1/5
Percentage of U.S. adults who don’t know what a 401(k) is: 43
Who have an idea they think could one day make them rich: 33
Who “have a feeling in their bones” that they will one day win the lottery: 19