Once a decade, the federal government asks everyone living in the United States to be counted in a census. The 2020 count began in Alaska in January, and the first numbers will be published by the end of the year. As the national enumeration moves forward, here are the basics about this year’s census. (For a more in-depth look, sign up to take our five-part email course.)
Read More →
As COVID-19 continues its spread throughout the United States – with at least 1,267 cases and 38 deaths reported across the country as of March 12 – one of the key pieces of advice offered by health experts is simple: If you feel sick, stay home.
For working people, though, that’s a lot easier to do if you have access to paid sick leave – which 24% of U.S. civilian workers, or roughly 33.6 million people, do not, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. (“Civilian workers” refers to private industry workers and state and local government workers combined.)
The bureau’s 2019 National Compensation Survey (NCS) found that, for civilian workers, paid sick leave, while nearly universal at the upper ends of the wage distribution, becomes scarcer the less money one makes. For instance, 92% of workers in the top quarter of earnings (meaning hourly wages greater than $32.21) have access to some form of paid sick leave, versus only 51% of workers earning wages in the lowest quarter ($13.80 or less). Among the lowest-earning tenth – those whose wages are $10.80 an hour or less – just 31% have paid sick leave.
Read More →
Since President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, some religious and political leaders have pondered God’s role in his rise to power. Trump’s former energy secretary Rick Perry has said the president is “here at this chosen time because God ordained it.” Evangelist Franklin Graham has said that “God was behind the last election.”
But how many Americans believe Trump was chosen by God to be president? And among those who think God’s hand was involved in the 2016 election, in what sense do they think God was at work?
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 27% of U.S. adults believe Trump’s election reflects God’s will in the sense that the 2016 outcome must be part of God’s overall plan, but that this doesn’t necessarily mean God approves of Trump’s policies. Far fewer U.S. adults – just 5% – say God chose Trump because God approves of his policies. About half of Americans say God doesn’t get involved in U.S. presidential elections (49%), while the remainder say they don’t believe in God (16%). Read More →
Amid debates about the impact of privilege and inequality in the country, a Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2018 asked U.S. adults how they would compare their advantages in life with those who are about their same age. Overall, 29% said they have had more advantages in life than others their age; 26% felt they have had fewer advantages; and 45% said they have had about as many advantages.
The survey of 5,364 respondents was conducted on the Center’s American Trends Panel. Americans’ assessments varied substantially across different groups. Race stood out as one of these demographic factors, with 42% of black Americans and 35% of Hispanics reporting they felt they have had fewer advantages in life, compared with 20% of white Americans who said the same. Similar relationships between self-reported advantage and race have been seen in previous Center studies.
The Democratic presidential primary field has narrowed substantially following the first several contests, and Donald Trump is ramping up his reelection campaign after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial in February. So how have Americans been navigating the torrent of election news they’ve encountered so far in 2020?
A new Pew Research Center survey, conducted Feb. 18-March 2, examines what Americans have heard and think about a host of election-related topics, from Trump’s acquittal in the Senate to the (rapidly shrinking) field of Democratic presidential contenders to the spread of made-up news. We’re releasing the full survey data today in our interactive data tool.
The tool is part of the Center’s Election News Pathways project, a nearly yearlong initiative focused on what Americans hear, perceive and know about the election and how these attitudes relate to how and where they get news. This survey is the second of at least seven polls of about 10,000 U.S. adults that we’re fielding between November 2019 and October 2020 for this project. We plan to upload the data from each one directly into the tool for you to explore.
Below are five noteworthy findings from the new poll. Keep in mind that these represent just a small sampling of the kinds of findings you can unearth with the tool, so we encourage you to explore the interactive in more detail yourself. Read More →
Living with an extended circle of relatives is the most common type of household arrangement for older people around the world, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. But in the United States, older people are far less likely to live this way – and far more likely to live alone or with only a spouse or partner.
In the U.S., 27% of adults ages 60 and older live alone, compared with 16% of adults in the 130 countries and territories studied. In many countries in the Asia-Pacific, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East-North Africa regions – such as Afghanistan, Mali and Algeria – fewer than 5% of seniors live alone.
Read More →
Greek authorities are attempting to prevent thousands of migrants from entering the country after Recep Tayyip Erdogan – the president of neighboring Turkey – said his government had “opened the doors” for their passage into Greece and, by extension, the European Union.
The Greek government has taken a host of steps in response to Erdogan’s decision, including deploying forces to the border, suspending asylum applications and vowing to deport those who enter the country illegally. Some Greek residents, meanwhile, are taking matters into their own hands by forming civilian patrols aimed at stopping the flow of migrants.
As the standoff escalates, here are some fast facts about how people in Greece see migrants – as well as how many migrants live in Greece – based on previously published surveys and other studies by Pew Research Center. Read More →
In the wake of Super Tuesday, the Democratic presidential primary field has narrowed to front-runners Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Democrats see big ideological differences between the two candidates, according to data from Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathways project.
Most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents describe Sanders’ political views as liberal (70%), including about half (48%) who say he is “very liberal.” By contrast, Democrats are about as likely to describe Biden’s views as moderate (31%) as they are to describe them as liberal (31%); 20% view Biden as conservative.
About 15% of Democrats say they’re not sure what Sanders’ or Biden’s political views are (14% and 16%, respectively). Uncertainty about their views is especially high among Democrats who are not following election news closely (31% for Biden, 25% for Sanders). Read More →
There were a record-breaking six female candidates in the field when the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination began. When Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts suspended her campaign after a disappointing Super Tuesday showing, that left only Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who did not qualify for the most recent Democratic debate and picked up only one delegate in Tuesday’s voting. This turn of events has renewed the discussion of gender in politics. We asked Americans in a 2018 Pew Research Center survey for their views about the state of female leadership in the United States and the obstacles women face. Most of these facts are drawn from that survey. Read More →
Online dating has grown in popularity, but many young women report experiencing some form of harassment on these platforms, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
Six-in-ten women under the age of 35 who have used online dating sites or apps say someone continued to contact them after they said they were not interested, compared with 27% of men in this age range. Younger female users are also about twice as likely as their male counterparts to say someone on a dating site or app has called them an offensive name (44% vs. 23%) or threatened to physically harm them (19% vs. 9%).
Read More →
1615 L St. NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
USA
(+1) 202-419-4300 | Main
(+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax
(+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries
About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.