Demographic Analysis

Detailed analysis of Pew Research Center, government and non-government demographic data

Tests show that if Americans were not required by law to respond to census surveys response rates would drop significantly and the cost of obtaining reliable data would rise considerably.

At the nation's four-year colleges and universities, Hispanics have reached a new milestone and are now the largest minority group, reaching a record 16.5% of the total college student enrollment. One-in-four public elementary school students are Hispanic.

Asian Americans are the best-educated, highest-income, fastest-growing race group in the country. Pew Research Center's new report paints a comprehensive portrait of Asian Americans, examining their demographic characteristics, social and family values, education, economic circumstances and more. The report also explores six subgroups by country of origin.

The nation’s racial and ethnic minority groups -- especially Hispanics -- are growing more rapidly than the non-Hispanic white population, fueled by both immigration and births.

Christians make up about the same proportion of the world's population today as they did a century ago, but there has been a momentous shift in where they live.

The financial hardships caused by the Great Recession have helped fuel the largest increase in modern history in the number of Americans living in multi-generational households. From 2007 to 2009, this group spiked from 46.5 million people to 51.4 million.

More Latino children are living in poverty—6.1 million in 2010—than children of any other racial or ethnic group.

Recent Pew Research Center reports provide extra context for Tuesday's announcement by the Census Bureau the nation's poverty rate grew to 15.1% in 2010.

Two decades after the Census Bureau began offering people the option to describe themselves as a same-sex “unmarried partner,” producing accurate numbers on same-sex couples remains a challenge.

Hispanics of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban origin or descent remain the nation's three largest Hispanic country-of-origin groups, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Despite their No. 1 status, Mexicans are not the dominant Hispanic origin group in many of the nation's metropolitan areas.