That’s the number of young Americans (ages 18-25) who say that getting rich is the most important goal in life for their generation in a new Pew survey; another 17% say this is the second most important goal.

That’s the portion of Americans who say they would prefer to vote for a moderate candidate from either political party; by comparison only 32% say they would prefer to vote for either a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican.

That’s the percentage of Americans who say they support President Bush’s plan to send roughly 21,000 additional troops to Iraq. The plan appears to have increased partisan polarization on the Iraq debate; while most Republicans support Bush’s initiative, Democrats overwhelmingly oppose it.

That’s the number of times the word “surge” appeared in media stories about President Bush’s plan for increasing U.S. troop levels in Iraq, according to a database search for the week of Jan 10-Jan 17 conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. That frequency was close to double the number that used the word “escalate” or “escalation” (10,112).

That’s the percentage of internet users who have looked online for information about a place to live – double the overall number of Americans who had done so in 2000.

That’s the number of Americans who now have a close relative married to someone of a different race.

That’s the number of American adults who say the state of Israel is a fulfillment of the biblical prophesy about the second coming of Jesus. A still larger number, 44%, believe God gave the land that is now Israel to the Jewish people.

That’s the number of Americans who now describe microwave ovens as a necessity in their lives — more than double the number who said so 10 years ago and a higher percentage than those who now deem a TV essential (64%).

That’s the number of Americans who now say that the U.S. should “mind its own business internationally,” up from 34% in 2004, and just 30% in 2002.