SPOTLIGHT

Some straws in the wind as the nation takes stock of the state of the union. Figures are the latest available, most of them from the government.

Economy

* Drop in the number of rapes in 1995: 18%.

* Drop in robberies: 14%.

* Drop in murders: 8%.

* Average monthly mortgage payment in 1995: $1,062, or 33% of household income.

* Daily number of transactions at automated teller machines: 27 million

* Unemployment in December: 5.3% Lowest yearly figure since 1950 was 2.9% in 1953; highest since 1950: 9.7% in 1982.

Education

* Per pupil expenditures by public schools in 1995: $5,481. In 1980**: $3,974.

* Scoring SAT verbal score of 600 or more in 1995: 8.3% of those tested. In 1980: 7.2%.

* Adults over 24 who in 1995 had completed four years of high school: 82%. Four years of college: 23%.

* 1994 high school graduates who went to college: 62%. Of 1960 graduates: 45%.

Others

* Percentage of total births in 1993 to unwed women: 31%. To teenagers: 13%

* Life expectancy of American females born in 1900: 48.3 years. Males: 46.3 years.

* Life expectancy of American females who will be born in 2010: 76 years. Males: 66.5 years.

* Land owned by the federal government: 651 million acres, 29% of the country’s total.

* Murders blamed on romantic triangles in 1994: 1.7%. In 1980: 2.3%

* Homes with air conditioning: 68%. In 1991: 64%

* Homes with personal computer: 23%

* Number of divorces and annulments in 1994 for every 1,000 people: 4.6. In 1980: 5.2.

* Participants in a 1992 poll who favored allowing a library to have a book written by a homosexual: 71%. Those who felt that way two decades earlier: 55%.

* Women on active duty in the military in 1997: 13.2%. In 1990: 11%.

* Participants in a poll who say they are optimistic about the nation’s future: 41%. Pessimistic: 33%.

* Participants who say they are optimistic about their own futures: 55%. Pessimistic: 13%.

* Participants who say the country is gaining ground in combating discrimination: 30%, Losing ground: 29%.

* Participants who say the country is losing ground in efforts to fight political corruption: 49%. Gaining ground: 12%.

** expressed in 1995 dollars