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What’s on this week

Family-friendly library hours, markets, and evenings. We show one sample Local Bulletin (Naperville) so anyone can see how a board looks — no ZIP needed. Type your own five-digit home ZIP code to see your place instead — that one is free, for good: no card, no catch. We will name the county, will not keep the ZIP, and show a board when we have one.

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Naperville · DuPage County, Illinois

Your home ZIP code is free: this week’s basics for your home place — the county named, family happenings when we have them, and the county’s headline numbers. No card, because the Gazette is a free online paper for any city and your own front porch should be too. (We would sooner charge you for the weather.) The sample board stays open for anyone who just wants a look.

Any ZIP code, any city, free. Look up as many places as you like. The Gazette is paid for by labeled sponsors and underwriters, never by readers.

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Free country board

Five countries side by side. Best in that fact is first. ● marks the United States.

Best wage that buys the same basket of goods

Higher is better. United States first.

  1. ●United States$86,977
  2. ○Germany$76,285
  3. ○Canada$67,901
  4. ○Japan$50,183
  5. ○Mexico$24,463

OECD average annual wages, 2025, constant prices, purchasing-power dollars.

Best change in the share of people working

A rise beats a fall. Japan first; United States fourth.

  1. ○Japan+0.5, to 61.7%
  2. ○Mexicoabout flat
  3. ○Germany−0.3
  4. ●United States−0.4, to 59.5%
  5. ○Canada−1.2

World Bank employment-to-population ratio, change from 2023 to 2024, in percentage points.

House prices rose least against income

Lower is easier (prices vs income since 2015 — not rent share of a paycheck). Germany first; United States third.

  1. ○Germany107.8
  2. ○Japan113.9
  3. ●United States128.5
  4. ○Canada136.3

OECD house-price-to-income index, 2024. 2015 equals 100. Mexico is not in this table.

Fewest hours to buy the same food

Fixed ten-item basket at local prices. Fewer hours is better. United States first. Japan missing (no corn price in that survey).

  1. ●United States1 hour
  2. ○Germany1.5 hours
  3. ○Canada2 hours
  4. ○Mexico5.5 hours

World Vision food-price survey. Hours of work to buy that ten-item basket, using income adjusted for local prices.