3/84Portion of the U.S. land mass owned by the federal government: 1/3
4/85Portion of U.S. retail sales accounted for by franchise businesses: 1/3
10/90Portion of the 403 U.S. biotechnology companies that use human tissue for commercial research: 1/3
7/91Chances that an American believes that “vigilantism is justified under certain circumstances”: 1 in 3
4/97Chance that an American adult under the age of 54 suffers from mental-health and/or substance-abuse problems: 1 in 3
7/97Chance that an American believes freedom of the press should be “protected under all circumstances”: 1 in 3
7/97Portion of the world’s population that he believes might then be prescribed psychiatric drugs: 1/3
4/99Chance that the annual median flow of an unfettered U.S. stream is greater than it was 50 years ago: 1 in 3
4/86Portion of the top 250 industrial companies that had “golden parachute” plans for their executives in 1982: 1/5
Portion that have them today: 1/3
7/86Chances that an American Indian will die before the age of 45: 1 in 3
7/87Portion of the pesticides exported by U.S. companies that are banned domestically: 1/3
7/88Chances that an American earning hourly wages is paid less than $5 an hour: 1 in 3
2/89Portion of the $25,000,000,000 awarded each year in liability lawsuits that goes to attorneys: 1/3
8/89Portion of all U.S. coastal waters that are too polluted for commercial shellfishing: 1/3
10/89Chances that a post-office employee in New York City has failed a drug test during the last year: 1 in 3
3/90Portion of all deaths worldwide that are of children under the age of 5 in developing countries: 1/3
6/90Estimated portion of Czechoslovakia’s hard-currency export earnings that come from arms sales: 1/3
11/90Ratio of Coast Guard employees disciplined for drug violations to drug smugglers caught by the Coast Guard in 1988: 1:3
5/91Average ratio of U.S. funds spent fighting a war to U.S. funds spent on that war’s veterans’ benefits: 1:3
5/91Number of U.S AIDS deaths last year, expressed as a portion of all U.S. AIDS deaths since 1981: 1/3
6/91Portion of all office space in the United States that was built during the 1980s: 1/3
7/91Chances that an unemployed American is receiving unemployment-insurance benefits: 1 in 3
7/91Chances that an American child born this year will spend at least one year on welfare before reaching adulthood: 1 in 3
7/91Chances that an American woman who is not a virgin has had only one sexual partner in her life: 1 in 3
9/91Chances that a chicken sold in a supermarket is infected with salmonella: 1 in 3
9/91Chances that a single American man between the ages of 25 and 34 lives with one or both parents: 1 in 3
10/91Portion of the fan mail received by actors on The Young and the Restless that is addressed to their character: 1/3
12/91Chances that an eastern German acknowledges “some sympathy for radical rightist tendencies”: 1 in 5
3/91Portion of all explosives dropped on Kuwait by allied forces during the Persian Gulf War that remain unexploded: 1/3
3/91Chances that a Californian has earthquake insurance: 1 in 3
6/92Chances that a dollar of discretionary federal domestic spending will go to S&L and bank bailouts this year: 1 in 3
7/92Ratio of the membership of the Robert Redford Fan Club to that of the Mr. Ed Fan Club: 1:3
8/92Chances that a cigar costing more than $1.25 will be smoked by a millionaire: 1 in 3
8/92Chances that a Republican woman running for Congress this fall is pro-choice: 1 in 3
2/93Portion of the $150 million appropriated by Congress in 1991 for defense-worker retraining that has been spent: 1/3
3/93Chances that a person moving to California last year was an immigrant: 1 in 3
Chances that a person who has not seen an Amy Fisher TV movie can cite a reason for the war in Bosnia: 1 in 3
9/93Chances that an American believes that the President’s health-care plan will not improve health care: 1 in 3
12/93Chances that a pedestrian killed by an automobile in the United States last year was drunk: 1 in 3
2/94Chances that an American teenager believes he or she will be shot to death before reaching old age: 1 in 3
3/94Chances that an American girl whose mother receives welfare will also receive welfare as a young adult: 1 in 3
3/94Portion of all nuclear reactors currently under construction worldwide that are of Soviet design: 1/3
6/94Chances that an American knows the position of his or her senators on health-care reform: 1 in 3
6/94Chances that an American can define the term “managed care”: 1 in 3
6/94Ratio of network evening-news time devoted to health-care reform this year to the time devoted to Whitewater: 1:3
12/94Chances that a black suspect pictured on a network TV evening news program will be shown in police custody: 1 in 3
12/94Chances that a domestic U.S. military base ordered closed in 1988 remains open: 1 in 3
2/95Portion of the world’s population that lives in industrialized countries: 1/5
9/95Chances that a U.S. public school is structurally “less than adequate,” according to the General Accounting Office: 1 in 3
11/95Chances that an American member of the Libertarian Party joined within the last five years: 1 in 3
12/95Estimated portion of all U.S. layoffs announced last summer that were the result of a merger: 1/3
12/95Chances that an unemployed American worker receives unemployment benefits: 1 in 3
3/96Chances that a Russian’s sense of “weariness” and “indifference” has increased in the last year: 1 in 3
3/96Chances that an American adult cannot name any country the U.S. fought against during World War II: 1 in 3
4/96Chances that an American does not know which political party favors greater Medicare and Medicaid cuts: 1 in 3
4/96Chances that an American can name the majority leader of the U.S. Senate: 1 in 3
6/96Chances an American corporate executive admits to spying on employees’ e-mail: 1 in 3
7/96Chances that an American with a 1994 B.A. in journalism works in public relations, advertising, or is unemployed: 1 in 3
8/96Ratio of projected rainfall this year in the U.S. wheat belt to average annual rainfall there during the Dust Bowl: 1:3
9/96Ratio of annual U.S. trade with the countries of the former Soviet Union to U.S. trade with Africa: 1:3
11/96Chance that a public school’s buildings are in need of “extensive repairs or replacement”: 1 in 3
11/96Chance that an American believes “100 computers could solve our country’s problems better than 100 politicians”: 1 in 3
12/96Portion of global trade that consists of transactions between two divisions of the same corporation: 1/3
2/97Chances that a patient on the national waiting list for an organ will receive one this year: 1 in 3
5/97Chance that a U.S. psychotherapist has a second job: 1 in 3
5/97Ratio of the number of New Yorkers bitten by rats in 1995 to the number bitten by other New Yorkers: 1:3
6/97Chance that a Palestinian approves of suicide bombings: 1 in 3
7/97Chance that an American cannot name a single right protected by the First Amendment: 1 in 3
3/98Chance that an American who believes abortion is murder also believes that it is “sometimes the best course”: 1 in 3
5/98Chance that a U.S. high school student owns a promotional item from a cigarette company: 1 in 3
5/98Portion of Malaysia’s Petronas Towers, the world’s tallest buildings, that is vacant: 1/3
6/98Ratio of the size of New Jersey to the number of square miles of Brazilian rain forest cleared since 1994: 1:3
7/98Chance that an impotence drug up for approval by the FDA lists yawning as a side effect: 1 in 3
7/98Chance that a New Yorker cut from state welfare rolls in 1997’s first quarter was employed within 3 months: 1 in 3
7/98Chance that a mile of Connecticut beach is open to the public: 1 in 3
9/98Portion of the Defense Department’s “critical” computer systems that are not vulnerable to the year 2000 bug: 1/3
9/98Chance that a caller to the government’s cancer-information line gets a busy signal or is put on hold until they hang up: 1 in 3
9/98Chance that a cancer patient in a nursing home over the age of 85 does not receive adequate pain medication: 1 in 3
10/98Chance that a California nursing home has been cited for violations “causing death or life-threatening harm” to patients: 1 in 3
11/98Annual amount that Americans spend on vodka, expressed as a portion of the value of Russia’s publicly traded companies: 1/3
11/98Chance that a fee-for-service health-insurance plan’s prescription coverage includes oral contraceptives: 1 in 3
1/99Ratio of the number of state ballot initiatives to limit abortion voted on last year to those advocating animal rights: 1:3
5/99Chance that a member of the American Association of Retired Persons holds a paying job: 1 in 3
6/99Chance that a U.N. peacekeeper killed on the job since 1948 died as a result of combat or other hostilities: 1 in 3
7/99Chance that the leader of a NATO member country was once an antiwar or antinuclear activist: 1 in 3
8/99Chance that a New York Times article about Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign this year mentions her husband: 1 in 3
2/01Ratio of the number of people who died of famine in North Korea since 1993 to the current population of its capital: 1:3
7/01Chance that a commercial multivitamin does not contain the vitamin levels promised on its packaging: 1 in 3
7/02Ratio of the size of an Amazonian “paradoxical frog” to that of its tadpole: 1:3
8/02Chance an American knows that more Palestinians than Israelis have died in political violence since 2000: 1 in 3
11/02Ratio of Japanese killed in 1945’s U.S. atomic-bomb attacks to Iraqi children killed due to U.N. sanctions: 1:3
2/03Chance that a Briton polled online believes that the United States is a bigger threat to world peace than is Iraq: 1 in 3
3/03Chance that a U.S. soldier killed in the Persian Gulf War was a victim of enemy aggression: 1 in 3
5/04Chance that an American adult believes that “politics and government are too complicated to understand”: 1 in 3
Chance that an American who was home-schooled feels this way: 1 in 25
Chance that a corporate officer of a Fortune 500 company today is: 1 in 6
10/05Chance that a medical study may be inaccurate or misleading, according to the AMA’s journal: 1 in 3
1/07Chance that an American in 1998 described the quality of the U.S. health-care system as “poor”: 1 in 7
Chance today: 1 in 3
1/07Chance that a student at a private U.S. college in 1992 came from the nation’s top income quartile: 1 in 4
Chance today: 1 in 3
3/07Estimated portion of the earth where forests reduce global warming, through consumption of CO2: 1/3
Estimated portion where forests increase warming, by trapping more heat than their CO2 consumption reduces: 1/3
10/07Chance that a child of immigrants to Germany is granted a spot at a college-preparatory high school: 1 in 7
10/07Chance that a CEO who left one of the top 2,500 global companies in 1995 was forced out: 1 in 8
Chance in 2006: 1 in 3
12/07Chance that an American under the age of 65 went without health insurance at some point during the past two years: 1 in 3
Estimated portion eight years from now, if Hillary Clinton were to win two terms: 1/3
1/08Chance that a red lipstick tested by a Washington advocacy group last fall contained dangerous levels of lead: 1 in 3
1/08Portion of U.S. men who failed to wash their hands after using the bathroom, in a 2005 study: 1/4
Portion who failed to do so when the same study was repeated in 2007: 1/3
4/08Chance that a Silicon Valley technology company started since 1995 was founded by Indian or Chinese immigrants: 1 in 3
5/08Portion of all sex-change surgery costs for the poor that the government of Iran now covers: 1/3
3/09Chance that a U.S. high-school student says he or she has stolen something from a store in the past year: 1 in 3
6/96Portion of her staff Michigan representative Barbara Collins fired last December for refusing to take a lie-detector test: 3/8
12/96Ratio of Playboy Playmates who “most admire” Albert Einstein to those who most admire Sammy Davis Jr.: 5:13
7/85Chances that a Seattleite has had CPR training: 1 in 2.5
2/86Portion of fourth-quarter GNP growth in 1985 accounted for by sales of IBM’s Sierra mainframe computer: 2/5
7/88Portion of all arms sales worldwide, since 1982, that went to the Middle East: 2/5
1/89Chances that a rural Salvadoran had access to safe drinking water in 1980: 2 in 5
Chances today: 1 in 5
3/90Chances that an American woman is married, has children, and says she has a “successful career”: 2 in 5
6/91Average cost of an American wedding, expressed as a portion of the median annual income of a family of four: 2/5
8/91Average radiation dose absorbed last year by a person living 100 miles from the Chernobyl reactor, in rads: 0.4
4/92Chances that a Japanese carsold in the United States was manufactured in the United States: 2 in 5
9/92Chances that an American under the age of 19 participated in a political demonstration last year: 2 in 5
Chances that an American under the age of 19 in 1968 participated in a political demonstration that year: 1 in 6
12/92Chances that an attempt to ban or restrict access to school materials or books last’ year was successful: 2 in 5
10/93Chances that an American has never heard of the North American Free Trade Agreement: 2 in 5
10/93Chances that an Azerbaijani has at least one gold tooth: 2 in 5
11/93Chances that an American who moves to a new address will also change his or her brand of toothpaste: 2 in 5
11/94Chances that a juvenile-court judge favors lowering to 14 the age at which a child may be tried as an adult for murder: 2 in 5
1/95Chances that a new legislator entering Congress this month has never held an elective office: 2 in 5
4/95Ratio of the number of G-rated feature films released by U.S. studios in 1988 to the number released last year: 2:5
7/95Portion of the U.S. population whose ancestors came through Ellis Island: 2/5
8/95Chances that a Catholic saint canonized since 1978 is Vietnamese: 2 in 5
9/96Chance that an adolescent American boy has been intentionally hit or kicked in the genitals: 1 in 10
1/97Chances that a person directly affected by the welfare-reform law signed last year could vote: 2 in 5
1/97Chances that a nurse would not want a member of her own family to be treated in the hospital where she works: 2 in 5
4/97Chances that a U.S. TV was tuned to network coverage of the State of the Union and the Simpson verdict in February: 2 in 7