(Caveat: I heard this on NPR; I was driving, so nothing has been fact-checked; it's my memory vs. Alzheimer's.)
In a study made by some professional-sounding organization (Sue me, I don't remember) in a given year in Manhattan, about 1,300 cats either jumped, fell, or were otherwise defenestrated from their respective perches. (Defenestrated? It's a real word - look it up!)
Not surprisingly (we all know about cat-like reflexes) falls from 1-to-5 stories are almost all survived, and an amazing number of cats were unscathed in falls from even greater heights. The record? One cat walked away after plummeting 41 stories!
Here's the interesting part. The highest percentage of fatalities was achieved on floors 6 to 9! After that, all the way up to 41, survivability actually increased. Pick any high floor -- little kitty has roughly a 50-50 chance.
Why is that? I was pulling into the garage and lost the satellite signal. The last thing I remember was something about reaching an equilibrium between terminal velocity and wind resistance; I'm counting on you science guys to fill in the blanks!
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