This Month's Harper's Index

This month's Harper's Index.

Estimated number of Americans who have top-secret security clearance : 1,400,000

Average annual cost of detaining an inmate at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay : $900,000

At a supermax prison in the United States : $65,000

Number of terrorist attacks made against diplomatic targets worldwide since 1970 : 2,865

Number of those attacks made against American targets : 520

Chance an African-American child has an incarcerated parent : 1 in 9

Number of years in prison to which a Texas man was sentenced in May for stealing a thirty-five-dollar rack of pork ribs : 50

Percentage of all petitions to hear a case the Supreme Court has granted in the past three years : 1

Percentage of petitions it has granted that were supported by an amicus brief from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce : 32

Factor by which the average white U.S. family was wealthier than the average non-white U.S. family before the recession : 4

Factor by which it is now : 6

Percentage of global GDP, adjusted for purchasing power, produced by developing economies in 1980 : 31

Today : 50

Net amount contributed to Medicare by immigrants between 2002 and 2009 : $115,000,000,000

Net amount drawn out by native-born citizens over the same period : $28,000,000,000

Average amount a Water Valley, Mississippi, hospital bills Medicare for treating pneumonia with no complications : $4,552

Average amount a Philadelphia hospital does : $79,007

Portion of North American doctors who say they would prescribe marijuana to cancer patients if permitted : 3/4

Amount paid at a May auction for an Apple-1 computer, designed in 1976 : $671,400

Number of times New Zealand’s Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages has rejected a baby name since 2001 : 311

Number of times it has rejected the name Justice : 62

Portion of people killed by Australian police since 1989 who were mentally ill : 1/2

Percentage of authorized U.S. firearms dealers the ATF hasn’t inspected in the past five years : 58

Chance a U.S. youth considered at risk for suicide lives in a home with a gun : 1 in 5

Portion of young people attempting suicide without a gun who die from the attempt : 1/10

Of those attempting suicide with a gun who do : 9/10

Number of Americans who died in motor-vehicle accidents in 2010 : 33,687

Who died of suicide : 38,364

Estimated number of fingers lost to table saws annually : 4,000

Percentage of men in dual-income marriages who said they struggled with work-family conflict in 1977 : 35

Who say they do today : 60

Portion of live-in domestic workers who make less than minimum wage : 2/3

Who are required to work during their scheduled time off : 3/5

Percentage change in the number of Walmart stores nationwide since 2008 : +13

In the size of Walmart’s retail workforce : 0

Estimated number of homeowners whose foreclosure-abuse settlements were affected in May by a “clerical error” : 96,000

Amount these homeowners were underpaid : $44,600,000

Number of applicants for 350 investment-banking internships Goldman Sachs offered to undergraduates this summer : 17,000

Average cost after financial aid to attend NYU for a freshman from a family making $30,000 a year or less : $25,462

Percentage of American cats that are overweight : 58