Related Facts/Stats: Page 2

New U.S. houses grow larger every decade, averaging about 800 square feet in the 1950s, and 2,200 square feet in 2000, despite shrinking household sizes.

With 1,667 feet of structure, Taipei 101 is the world’s tallest building, surpassing the former tallest buildings, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by less than 200 feet. The elevators in Taipei 101 can reach 38 miles an hour and have a pressure system to alleviate ear popping.

According to World Architecture, in 2003 the largest architectural firm in the world (measured by number of fee-earning architects on staff) was Nikken Sekkei, with 1,054 architects. The firm has major offices in three Japanese cities, as well as subsidiaries in Singapore, Seoul, and Kuala Lumpur.

Every year 600-700 larger sea vessels are taken out of service and brought to Asia for scrap, otherwise known as shipbreaking. India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, and China scrap about 90% of the ships from industrialized countries. India scraps about 60%; Bangladesh and Pakistan get the largest vessels. According to Greenpeace, “health and safety standards in these countries are virtually ignored.”

Maximum fine for begging without a permit in Orlando, Florida: $500.

Hourly rates billed by architects working on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site:
Richard Meier - $400
Robert A. M. Stern - $325
George Hargreaves - $300
Daniel Libeskind - $300
Charles Gwathmey - $275
Peter Walker - $260
Steven Davis and J. Max Bond - $238
John Beyer, Richard Blinder, and John Belle - $225
Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi - $200
Jesse Reiser and Nanoko Umemoto - $200
Rafael Vinoly - $175
Shigeru Ban - $175
Frederick Schwartz - $175
Michael Arad - $170
Ken Smith - $150

Richard Norton, a Naval War College scholar, has developed a taxonomy of “feral cities.” Among the defining qualities: the disintegration of public services causes some residents to hire private security or pay criminals for protection. In São Paulo, for example, the police seek to contain the gangs ruling the favelas, while the wealthy take to the air, literally, fueling the busiest civilian helicopter traffic in world (there are 240 helipads in São Paulo; there are 10 in New York City).

On February 21, 2005 a landslide of garbage killed 160 persons living at a dump southeast of Jakarta, Indonesia. As the search for survivors went into its third day, rescue official Budi Hadiwiguno said that those trapped in their homes under tons of refuse stood no chance of survival: “The layer of waste is hot on the inside, and most of the victims found yesterday had their skin peeled. It is as if they had been in an oven.”

$100 – the cost of a $200 brake job, parts included, if done by any of the street mechanics on Third Avenue in the Bronx (New York). “Sometimes ingenious, sometimes deceptive,” the street mechanics “form a blue-collar rung in the city’s freelance ladder. They are mobile, carrying their tools around in wheeled suitcases, on call around the clock by cellphone or pager. They draw clients from as far as Connecticut and Rhode Island. Some even wear uniforms, and the best ones travel on distant missions, reviving broken-down cars on roadsides from Boston to Atlantic City. . . ‘For me, it’s better if I see somebody working on the street than making problems, stealing in stores,’ said [Edward] Sanchez, 29, who flashed his badge to prove he works as an auxiliary police officer. ‘Maybe it’s not legal, but I give them credit. They’re trying to survive.’”

Estimated percentage of all U.S. television cartoon programs that are drawn in Asia: 99.

The black rhino population has decreased 98% in our lifetime, largely because of illegal hunting by poachers. There are now only about 2,000 black rhinos left in the world. Their small population, the persistence of poachers, and their slow rate of reproduction, mean that without international intervention, the black rhino’s chances of survival are very bleak.

Minimum number of laws passed in Peru since 1992 that violate at least one article of the country’s constitution: 91.

More than 90% of the printing and writing paper made in the U.S. is from virgin tree fiber.

Perfluoroocotanoic acid (more commonly known as PFOA or C-8)--an important chemical used by DuPont over the last half-century to manufacture Teflon--has turned up in the blood of more than 90 percent of U.S. residents.

In 2005, easyGroup--a British chain specializing in discount air, sea, and road travel--began to provide a ninety-square-foot room in central London for $10 a night. For $13.45 plus tax for the first twenty minutes, New Yorkers can rent a MetroNap “pod” on the 24th floor of the Empire State Building.

“ By the most significant measures, New York is the greenest community in the United States, and one of the greenest cities in the world. . . The average Manhattanite consumes gasoline at a rate that the country as a whole hasn’t matched since the mid-nineteen-twenties, when the most widely owned car in the United States was the Ford Model T. Eighty-two per cent of Manhattan residents travel to work by public transit, by bicycle, or on foot. That’s ten times the rate for Americans in general, and eight times the rate for residents of Los Angeles County. New York is more populous than all but eleven states; if it were granted statehood, it would rank fifty-first in per-capita energy use.”

The Goodwill Inn of Traverse City, Michigan welcomes anyone who is homeless. It is a 52-bed facility; however, the actual number of guests that can be accommodated varies with family size.  The shelter is usually full or above capacity.  The average stay is 40 nights.  In fiscal year 2003-2004, the Inn provided 17,911 bed nights of shelter to the homeless. During that period, housing and services were provided to 447 people --- 382 adults and 65 children.

Latin America and the Caribbean were 50% urbanized in 1960, but are now approximately 75% urbanized.

“ Fertility is highest in the poorest countries of the world, and it is estimated that the 49 least-developed countries will nearly triple in size by 2050. In fact, approximately 97 percent of the world’s population growth takes place in the developing countries.”

The speed with which bamboo grows is phenomenal: during a single day, in observations conducted in Kyoto, Japan in 1956, a shoot of timber bamboo grew 47.6 inches.

Contrary to public perception, women make up a substantial share—41 percent—of the adult undocumented population. Compared to native women, fewer immigrant women work outside the home. Undocumented men have a labor force participation rate over 90 percent—higher than that for U.S. citizen men—but undocumented women have a rate around two thirds, substantially lower than for other women. Weaker job market opportunities and limited access to child care may be partial explanations for lower work effort among immigrant women.

Though Africa is predominantly rural, with only 37% living in urban areas in 1999, with a growth rate of 4.87%, it is the continent with the fastest rate of urbanization. In 1999, 36.2% of the Asian population was urbanized and the urban growth rate is approximately 3.77%. By 2030, Asia and Africa will both have higher numbers of urban dwellers than any other major area of the world.

Richard Dorsey, a 36-year old homeless man, was evicted in mid-December 2004 from a shelter he built on the underside of a drawbridge spanning the Chicago River near Lake Shore Drive. Slipping through a 10”x36" opening, Dorsey wiggled down below the road level, hiding the shelter from below with blankets. Dorsey had a television, video game console, and other appliances hooked up to bridge electricity. When the bridge would open to allow boats to pass, Dorsey would brace himself as he was slowly pushed forward into an upright position, something he described as like riding a ferris wheel after he got used to it.

Life expectancies: Zambia 32.7; Afghanistan 43.1; Haiti 49.4; Sudan 55.5; India 63.7; Russia 66.7; Brazil 68.0; China 70.9; U.S. 77.0; UK 78.1; Australia 79.1; Canada 79.3; Japan 81.5.

China’s share of global steel consumption is expected to reach 30.3% in 2005, up from 13.5% a decade earlier.

Fuel mileage of the QEII, in feet per gallon: 29.

Ratio of the number of poor U.S. residents living in cities to the number who live in suburbs: 21:21.

According to the United Nations’ Hunger Task Force, half of the world’s undernourished in 2005 will be farmers, while 20% will be urban dwellers.

Chances that a U.S. film featuring male Arab or Muslim characters depicts them as greedy, violent, or dishonest: 19 in 20.

Number of countries in Africa where life expectancy has declined since 1970: 18.

Percentage of poor U.S. residents who lived in the suburbs in 1959 and 2003, respectively: 17, 39.

In Japan, traditional carpenters apprentice for 15 years. Certain skilled people are named National Treasures, among them carpenters.

Pregnant women in Ethiopia face a one in 14 chance their pregnancy will kill them.

Number of civil and border wars that were being waged in Africa at the end of the twentieth century: 13.

According to Jim Hackett, the director of baseball and softball for Wilson Sporting Goods Co., which hasn’t made a baseball in the US for more than a quarter century, “It is very, very labor intensive. It takes an experienced worker 10 to 15 minutes just to sew the two pieces of the cover together.” Rawlings has its balls made in Costa Rica, but most other brands come from China.

Factor by which the average air-pollution levels inside a moving car on a Los Angeles highway exceed those of the air outside the car: 10.

Hours during which Rio de Janeiro drivers may legally run red lights in order to avoid being carjacked: 10 PM – 5 AM.

One in eight South Africans is H.I.V.-positive. In Durban (South Africa's third-largest city with 3.5 million people) 35 percent of the women surveyed at pregnancy clinics were infected with H.I.V.

One in five people in a soup kitchen line in the U.S. is a child.

In China, residential space per capita has more than doubled since the 1960s and is expected to quintuple during the next decade (it was 4 sq meters/person, now averages 8 sqm/person, and government mandates now call for 20 sqm/person).

Estimated chance that a veteran admitted to a Veterans Administration hospital in the U.S. is homeless: 1 in 4.

About 3% of the world’s population lives outside their country of birth.

Chances that a human being alive today has never made a telephone call: 2 in 3.

According to the Children’s Defense Fund, as of August 2004, 1 in 3 U.S. children is born to unmarried parents, 1 in 3 will be poor at some point in their childhood, 1 in 3 is behind a year or more in school, 1 in 5 is born to a mother who did not graduate from high school, 1 in 5 was born poor, 1 in 6 is poor now, 1 in 7 never graduates from high school, 1 in 8 has no health insurance, 1 in 9 is born to a teen-age mother, 1 in 12 has a disability, 1 in 35 lives with grandparents (or other relatives) but neither parent, 1 in 83 will be in state or federal prison before age 20, 1 in 146 will die before his or her first birthday, and 1 in 1,339 will be killed by guns before age 20.

Rank of the U.S. among the seventeen leading industrial nations with the largest percentage of their populations in poverty: 1.

Chance that an evil character in a Disney animated movie speaks with a foreign accent: 1 in 2.

Ratio of the number of calories a Cuban consumes each day to the number a U.S. resident does: 1:2. Ratio of the number of doctors per capita in Cuba to the number in the U.S.: 2:1. Ratio of Cuba’s infant mortality rate to that of the U.S.: 1:1.

Around the world, the ozone layer averages about 3 millimeters (1/8 inch) thick, approximately the same as two pennies stacked one on top of the other.

Number of U.S. presidents besides Bill Clinton who have made an official visit to an Indian reservation since 1937: 0.

Trees cover approximately one-third of the earth’s landmass. As a result, wood is widely used for almost every facet of construction, including the structure, walls, roof, ceiling, doors, windows, shingles, and furniture.

NOTES
“ New U.S. houses”: Dolores Hayden. A Field Guide to Sprawl. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.

“ With 1,667”: David Carr. “The Week Ahead.” New York Times, December 19. 2004.

“ According to”: “The Top 300,” World Architecture, January 2003.

“ Every year”: “Shipbreaking,” Greenpeace, HYPERLINK "http://www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/" http://www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/ (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Maximum fine”: City Attorney’s Office, Orlando, Florida in The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Hourly rates”: “World Trade Windfall: Hourly Rates Billed to the LMDC,” The Architect’s Newspaper, November 16, 2004.

“ Richard Norton”: Ken Stier. “Feral Cities” in “The 4th Annual Year in Ideas,” New York Times Magazine, December 12, 2004.

“ On February 21”: “Garbage landslide toll is put at a probable 160,” International Herald Tribune, February 24, 2005.

“ $100”: Andrea Elliott. “A Bronx Curbside Whisper: ‘Hey, Need a Tuneup?’” New York Times, December 19, 2004.

“ Estimated percentage”: Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, Local 839, North Hollywood, California. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ The black rhino”: Bradley Trevor Greive. Priceless: The vanishing beauty of a fragile planet. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McNeel Publishing, 2003.

“ Minimum number”: Washington Office on Latin America, Washington DC. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ More than”: “Paper Campaign Facts: Mass Paper Production threatens out Forests.” ForestEthics, HYPERLINK "http://www.forestethics.org/article.php?id=20" http://www.forestethics.org/article.php?id=20 (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Perfluoroocotanoic”: Amy Cortese. “DuPont, Now in the Frying Pan.” New York Times, August 8, 2004.

“ In 2005”: Bruce Grierson. “Self-Storage” in “The 4th Annual Year in Ideas,” New York Times Magazine, December 12, 2004.

“ By the most”: David Owen. “Green Manhattan,” in The New Yorker, October 18, 2004.

“ The Goodwill Inn”: “Welcome to the Goodwill Inn Homeless Shelter,” Goodwill Inn Homeless Shelter, as owned and operated by GW Homeless Services, Inc., HYPERLINK "http://www.goodwillinn.org/" http://www.goodwillinn.org/ (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Latin America”: “Urbanization: Facts and Figures,” United Nations Human Settlement Programme, HYPERLINK "http://www.unhabitat.org/mediacentre/documents/backgrounder5.doc" http://www.unhabitat.org/mediacentre/documents/backgrounder5.doc (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Fertility”: “Fact Sheet: Population . . . . Women . . . . Environment . . . . Family: Connecting the Dots,” Population Connection, HYPERLINK "http://www.populationconnection.org/Communications/FactSheets/Connect%20Dots%202002.pdf" http://www.populationconnection.org/Communications/FactSheets/Connect%20Dots%202002.pdf (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ The speed”: Lloyd Kahn, editor. “Bamboo” in Shelter. Bolinas, CA: Shelter Publications, 1973.

“ Contrary to”: “Immigration Studies,” Urban Institute, HYPERLINK "http://www.urban.org/content/IssuesInFocus/immigrationstudies/immigration.htm#findings" http://www.urban.org/content/IssuesInFocus/immigrationstudies/immigration.htm#findings (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Though Africa”: “Urbanization: Facts and Figures,” United Nations Human Settlement Programme, HYPERLINK "http://www.unhabitat.org/mediacentre/documents/backgrounder5.doc" http://www.unhabitat.org/mediacentre/documents/backgrounder5.doc (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Richard Dorsey”: John Hill. “A Daily Dose of Architecture: File Under Amazing.” HYPERLINK "http://archidose.blogspot.com/2004/12/file-under-amazing.html" http://archidose.blogspot.com/2004/12/file-under-amazing.html (accessed September 11. 2005). Also see Chicagoist, December 13, 2004, http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2004/12/13/holy_crazy_homeless_guy.php.

“ Life expectancies”: “Life Expectancies.” Adbusters 13, no. 1 (January/February 2005).

“ China’s share”: “The world in figures: Industries.” The Economist: The World in 2005. London: The Economist, 2005.

“ Fuel mileage”: Cunard Lines, New York City. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Ratio of”: Harper’s Research as cited in Harper’s Index, Harper’s, December 2004.

“ According to”: “The world in figures: Industries.” The Economist: The World in 2005. London: The Economist, 2005.

“ Chances that”: Jack G. Shaheen, Hilton Head, South Carolina. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Number of countries”: Carol Bellamy, “The Facts” in UNICEF Report: The State of the World’s Children 2005: Childhood Under Threat. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund, 2004.

“ Percentage of poor”: Harper’s Research as cited in Harper’s Index, Harper’s, December 2004.

“ In Japan”: Edward S. Morse. “Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings” in Shelter. Bolinas, CA: Shelter Publications, 1973.

“ Pregnant women”: Marc Lacey. “For Africa’s Poor, Pregnancy is Often Life Threatening,” New York Times, December 12, 2004.

“ Number of civil”: Fernand Braudel. A History of Civilizations. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ According to Jim”: Jonathan Eig. “Christmas Embargo: A Mom Bans China From Under the Tree,” The Wall Street Journal, 25 December 2004.

“ Factor by which”: California Air Resources Board, Los Angeles. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Hours during which”: Embassy of Brazil, Washington DC. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ One in eight”: Michael Wines. “As AIDS Continues to Ravage, South Africa ‘Recycles’ Graves,” New York Times, 29 July 2004.

“ One in five”: “Welcome to the Goodwill Inn Homeless Shelter,” Goodwill Inn Homeless Shelter, as owned and operated by GW Homeless Services, Inc., HYPERLINK "http://www.goodwillinn.org/" http://www.goodwillinn.org/ (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ In China”: Michele Addington. “Energy, Body, Building.” Harvard Design Magazine, Spring/Summer 2003.

“ Estimated chance”: Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Washington DC. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3. Edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ About 3%”: Dan Smith. The Penguin State of the World Atlas. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2003.

“ Chances that”: Federal Communication Commission, Washington DC. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ According to”: “Key Facts About American Children,” Children’s Defense Fund, HYPERLINK "http://www.childrensdefense.org/data/keyfacts.aspx" http://www.childrensdefense.org/data/keyfacts.aspx (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Rank of the U.S.”: United Nations Human Development Project 1998. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Chance that an evil”: Rosina Lippi-Green. Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Ratio of the number”: World Health Organization/US Department of Agriculture, Washington DC. Pan-American Health Organization, Washington DC. The National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, Maryland. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Around the world”: “NASA Facts,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, HYPERLINK "http://www.nasa.gov/facts/Earth/earth_facts_archives.html" http://www.nasa.gov/facts/Earth/earth_facts_archives.html (accessed September 11, 2005).

“ Number of U.S. presidents”: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington DC, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. In The Harper’s Index Book, Volume 3, edited by Charis Conn and Lewis H. Lapham. New York: Franklin Square Press, 2000.

“ Trees cover”: Bill Steen, Athena Steen and Eiko Komatsu. Built by Hand: Vernacular Buildings around the World. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2003.

Compiled and edited by Wes Janz.
Contributors include: Vickie Abrahamson, Robert Beckley, Zachary Benedict, Amal Cavender, Jon Coddington, Steve Cook, Nisha Fernando, Tülay Günes, Paul Howey, Adam Janusz, Devin McConkey, Adriane McGillis, Bhavana Mokha, Jeremy Nye, Poonam Prakash, Kurt West, Parker Williams, Suzan Wines.