Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

2008

  • short reads

    Quick Study

    Voters give Obama’s campaign higher marks than McCain’s.

  • short reads

    Three’s a Crowd?

    A majority of voters want a third political party.

  • report

    The Power of the Protest Vote

    Don’t be surprised if third or fourth party presidential candidates garner enough votes in November to make a difference

  • report

    America’s Four Middle Classes

    There isn’t one American middle class; there are four. Each is different from the others in its attitudes, outlook and financial circumstance—sometimes in ways that defy traditional stereotypes of the middle class.

  • report

    Amid Charges of Bias, the Media Swarm on Obama Overseas

    Barack Obama’s week-long tour of world hotspots and capitals generated more coverage than any campaign event in months. But in the end, the media wondered what he had accomplished and whether they were paying too much attention.

  • report

    OneWebDay is less than two months away

    This year, OneWebDay asks us to think about the internet and participatory democracy. Here are some datapoints on how people use the internet to get unfiltered access to campaign information

  • report

    Democrats Highly Critical of New Yorker Cover, Republicans Say It Was Okay

    Summary of Findings As Barack Obama prepared for a major international trip last week, a controversial magazine cover here at home drew more public attention. Fully four-in-ten Americans heard a lot about a satirical cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker magazine showing Obama and his wife in the Oval Office — the candidate […]

  • report

    Social Issues Crowd State Ballots

    In a special to the Pew Research Center, a Stateline.org report finds more proposals that would appeal to conservative voters than to liberals are showing up in 2008, but no consensus on whether ballot measures tend to drive enough voters to the polls to give an advantage to a presidential candidate.

  • fact sheet

    The Blaine Game: Controversy Over the Blaine Amendments and Public Funding of Religion

    In June 2008, a church-state watchdog organization and several other groups filed a lawsuit in Florida seeking to remove from the state’s November ballot two proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution. The proposed amendments, if passed, would eliminate legal obstacles that currently prevent Florida from funding religious schools. One of the proposed amendments would permit […]