by Michael Keany
on Thursday
[May 2026]
Harper’s Index, a collection of statistics that has run in Harper’s Magazine since 1984. There’s something both spare and illuminating about each one.
There is much to be considered from these most recent facts.
The collected facts amount to a kind of poetry, as these three stanzas from the May 2026 issue suggest:
Percentage of Americans who say that, as children, they knew a compassionate, nonjudgmental adult:
35
Percentage of these Americans who say that their mother was such a person:
50
That their father was:
5
----------------
Portion of 16-year-old American boys who have gambled in the past year
: 1/2
Of 11-year-old American boys who have
Percentage of American males aged 16 to 24 who are neither employed, in school, nor in job training
Average number of hours per day that such a male spends sleeping
Of waking hours per day that he spends alone
Portion of American mothers who say that children should start using AI “as early as possible.”
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Unsettling Statistics about America's Youth
by Michael Keany
on Thursday
[May 2026]
Harper’s Index
Harper’s Index, a collection of statistics that has run in Harper’s Magazine since 1984. There’s something both spare and illuminating about each one.
There is much to be considered from these most recent facts.
The collected facts amount to a kind of poetry, as these three stanzas from the May 2026 issue suggest:
Percentage of Americans who say that, as children, they knew a compassionate, nonjudgmental adult:
35
Percentage of these Americans who say that their mother was such a person:
50
That their father was:
5
----------------
Portion of 16-year-old American boys who have gambled in the past year
: 1/2
Of 11-year-old American boys who have
: 1/3Percentage of American males aged 16 to 24 who are neither employed, in school, nor in job training
: 12Average number of hours per day that such a male spends sleeping
: 10Of waking hours per day that he spends alone
: 8Portion of American mothers who say that children should start using AI “as early as possible.”
: 3/10