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Average annual percentage change, since 1978, in the productivity of American blue-collar workers: plus 3.4.
In the productivity of American white-collar workers: minus 0.3.
Percentage of goods imported by Japan that are finished products: 31.
Percentage of goods imported by the United States that are: 68.
Percentage of U.S. foreign aid in 1980 that consisted of military assistance: 25.
In 1986: 40.
Attacks made on the United States in speeches at the 1980 conference of non-aligned nations, in Havana: 14.
Number made at the 1986 conference, in Harare, Zimbabwe: 66.
Number of college courses on the Vietnam War offered in 1980: 58.
Today: 157.
Number of students who dropped out of public high schools in Boston in 1985: 3,498.
Number of students who graduated: 2,978.
Percentage of Chicago public schoolteachers who send their children to private or parochial schools: 38.
Percentage of Americans who don’t know how long a meter is: 66.
Percentage who don’t know who William Rehnquist is: 71.
Percentage of the $2.1 billion federal anti-drug budget that goes to law enforcement: 69.
That goes to educational programs: 1
Gallons of urine analyzed in the United States last year for evidence of illegal drug use: 1,190.
Percentage of Iowans whose drinking water contains traces of one or more pesticides: 27.
Percentage of nursing mothers in the United States whose milk contains traces of PCBs: 78.
Amount “The Triumph of Beauty,†a portrait of Imelda Marcos, brought at auction in August: $27,500.
Percentage increase, since 1975, in the number of prime-time TV characters who are women over 50: 500.
Chances that a working American has worked at a McDonald’s: 1 in 15.
Number of free-range turkeys sold last November by Lobel’s butcher shop in Manhattan: 700.
Rank of tofu, liver and yogurt among the foods Americans say they hate most: 1,2,3.
Portion of ice cream sold in 1976 that was vanilla: one-half.
Today: one-third.
Number of Americans who have not been to a dentist in more than a year: 122 million.
Percentage of doctors who smoke: 17.
Number of health professionals in Chile who specialize in treating victims of torture: 50.
Average number of South Africans detained every hour since the government declared a state of emergency: 8.
Number of Roman Catholic churches under construction in Poland: 1,000.
Rank of Mass, bingo and religious education among the most popular activities at U.S. Catholic churches: 1,2,3.
Average amount wagered, per capita, in state lotteries in 1985: $92.61.
Rank of Mississippi, among all states, in the number of professional football players produced per capita: 1.
Height of basketball player Manute Bol: 7 feet, 6 3/4 inches.
Diameter of the television’s Wheel of Fortune: 8 feet, 6 inches.
Percentage of Americans who say the wheel is the greatest invention of all time: 11
Percentage who say the automobile is: 10
Figures cited are the latest available as of September, 1986.
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