Millennial and Gen Z Republicans stand out from their elders on climate and energy issues

By Cary Funk and Alec Tyson

Republicans in the United States are divided by generation on key questions related to climate, environmental protection and energy production, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Millennial and Gen Z Republicans – those currently ages 18 to 39 – are more likely than their GOP elders to think humans have a large role in climate change, that the federal government is doing too little on climate and that the U.S. should focus on developing alternative energy sources. For example, while relatively few Republicans overall say human activity contributes a great deal to climate change, Millennial and Gen Z Republicans are significantly more likely than Baby Boomer or older Republicans to say this (29% vs. 16%), according to the survey of U.S. adults conducted April 29-May 5.

Millennial and Gen Z Republicans also are more likely than older Republicans to say climate change is having at least some impact on their local community (43% vs. 33%) and that the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change (49% vs. 25%).

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Baby Boomers Political Party Affiliation Millennials Generation Z Science and Innovation Political Polarization Energy and Environment U.S. Political Parties Generations and Age Political Issue Priorities

Recent protest attendees are more racially and ethnically diverse, younger than Americans overall

By Amanda Barroso and Rachel Minkin

Thousands walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on June 19, 2020, at a protest after the death of George Floyd. (Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images)

Large-scale protests and rallies for racial equality have captured public attention and amplified calls for policy reforms in recent weeks. Some 6% of U.S. adults say they have attended a protest or rally that focused on issues related to race or racial equality in the last month, and those who have are more likely to be nonwhite and younger than Americans overall, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. They are also more likely to live in an urban area and to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party.
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Protests and Uprisings Race and Ethnicity

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As states move to expand the practice, relatively few Americans have voted by mail

By Hannah Hartig, Bradley Jones and Vianney Gomez

An election worker sorts vote-by-mail ballots for the presidential primary in Renton, Washington, on March 10, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

Share of voters casting ballots by mail has steadily risen since 1996

Some states are expanding access to voting by mail amid ongoing fears over the coronavirus outbreak. But while the share of Americans casting votes by mail has risen in recent presidential election cycles, it remains relatively low overall, and there’s wide variation across the country when it comes to the percentage of voters who have used this method.

Overall, the share of voters who cast ballots via mail-in methods increased nearly threefold between 1996 and 2016 – from 7.8% to nearly 21%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the Census Bureau’s voter supplement data.

But even as seven-in-ten adults favor allowing any voter to vote by mail if they would like to, there is significant variation from one state to another. States like Oregon and Washington conduct their elections almost entirely by mail (97% of voters in these states mailed in their ballots in 2016), but other states have seen relatively few mail ballots. In West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, for example, just 2% of voters mailed in their ballots in the 2016 presidential election. Read More →

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Election 2020 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)Voter Participation Voting Issues

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Most Americans say they regularly wore a mask in stores in the past month; fewer see others doing it

By Ruth Igielnik

People wearing masks and gloves shop for groceries at a New York City supermarket on May 1. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

As states across the country take steps toward reopening, public health authorities have emphasized the importance of wearing masks inside stores or other enclosed spaces as a precaution against COVID-19. A majority of Americans report they have followed this guidance all or most of the time in the past month; fewer say all or most of the people in their communities are wearing masks in similar settings, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 4-10, 2020.

Overall, 65% of U.S. adults say that they have personally worn a mask in stores or other businesses all or most of the time in the past month, while 15% say they did this some of the time. Relatively small shares of adults say they hardly ever (9%) or never (7%) wore a mask in the past month, and 4% say they have not gone to these types of places.

Americans in counties with more reported deaths from the coronavirus when adjusted for population are much more likely to say they wore a mask all or most of the time in stores or other businesses in the past month than those in counties where the death rate can be classified as more moderate or low (80% in high-impact counties, compared with 67% in medium- and 55% in low-impact counties).

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Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)Health Political Polarization

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Sharp decline in remittances expected in 2020 amid COVID-19 lockdowns in top sending nations

By Dennis Quinn

With many nations under stay-at-home orders and work restrictions due to the COVID-19 crisis, remittances – money sent by migrants to their home countries – are projected to fall by a record 20% this year. This decline, from a high of $714 billion in 2019 to an estimated $572 billion in 2020, comes as the world’s largest remittance-sending nations have experienced especially stringent lockdowns, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the World Bank, Oxford University and Google.

The 10 countries that sent 61% of the world’s remittances in 2018 (the most recent year for which bilateral remittance data is available) have spent an average of 10 more days under coronavirus-related lockdowns – and experienced greater declines in physical mobility near workplaces – than other countries, the analysis shows. This may have an outsize effect on the countries that depend heavily on these nations for remittances. Read More →

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Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)Migration Data Labs Immigration Remittances

Three-in-ten or more Democrats and Republicans don’t agree with their party on abortion

By Jeff Diamant

When it comes to abortion, members of Congress are starkly divided by party. Almost all Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives stand with their party in support of abortion rights, while almost all Republicans reflect their party’s position against abortion rights.

Yet the partisan divide among Americans themselves is less stark, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey. As is true on many other political issues, sizable minorities of Republicans and Democrats say they do not agree with the dominant position on abortion of the party they identify with or lean toward. And within each partisan coalition, some groups are less likely than others to agree with their party on abortion.

Democrats with less education more likely to split with party on abortion

Overall, roughly one-third of Americans who identify as Republican or as Republican-leaning independents do not agree with their party on abortion (35%), including 12% who say they agree with the Democratic Party on abortion and 23% who say they do not agree with either party. Among Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, three-in-ten do not agree with their party on abortion, including 7% who say they agree with the GOP and 22% who say they don’t agree with either party. (The same 2019 survey found that roughly a fifth to a third of Americans don’t agree with their party on issues including policies to deal with the economy, health care and illegal immigration.) Read More →

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Political Party Affiliation Abortion Religion and Government Religion and U.S. Politics

Americans broadly support legal status for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children

By Jens Manuel Krogstad

About three-quarters of U.S. adults say they favor granting permanent legal status to immigrants who came illegally to the United States when they were children, with the strongest support coming from Democrats and Hispanics, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 4-10, 2020.

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (or DACA), 74% of Americans favor a law that would provide permanent legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, while 24% are opposed. As with other immigration issues, some of the sharpest differences in these views are between Democrats and Republicans. While 91% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favor granting legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, about half of Republicans and Republican leaners (54%) say the same.

Support also varies by race and ethnicity. About nine-in-ten Hispanics (88%) say they favor granting legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, with similar shares of U.S.-born and immigrant Hispanics saying so. Smaller majorities of black (82%), Asian American (72%) and white (69%) adults say the same.
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Unauthorized Immigration Hispanic/Latino Demographics Hispanic Latino Demographics Immigration

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Experiences with the COVID-19 outbreak can vary for Americans of different ages

By Katherine Schaeffer and Lee Rainie

Shannon Flemming delivers groceries to Joyce Herzog in Kurtztown, Pennsylvania, on April 8 as part of a community effort to allow seniors to stay at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. (Lauren A. Little/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images) — Shannon Flemming delivers groceries to Joyce Herzog in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, on April 8 as part of a community effort to allow seniors to stay at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. (Lauren A. Little/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)

The COVID-19 outbreak has altered daily life for Americans – from how they work and attend school, to the ways they connect with others, to how they worship. These experiences can vary with age. Here are eight findings from Pew Research Center surveys about how Americans across the age spectrum have experienced the pandemic.

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Older Adults Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)Generations and Age

Before protests, black Americans said religious sermons should address race relations

By Besheer Mohamed and Kiana Cox

(Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

For black Americans, faith and racial justice have long intersected. Throughout history, houses of worship served as central gathering places where black communities discussed political issues and civic action. This often took the form of protest strategy meetings and rallies. But political activism also infused the sermons, hymns and other religious content of many black congregations.

Given that tradition, black Americans and white Americans have differing views on the role that political topics such as race relations and criminal justice reform should play in religious sermons, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier this year, before the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests.

Across denominations, black Americans say topics such as race relations should be a priority for sermons; most white Americans disagree

Six-in-ten black adults (62%) say it is important for houses of worship to address “political topics such as immigration and race relations” – including 23% who say covering these topics is “essential.” By contrast, 36% of white Americans say it is important for sermons to deal with these topics, and only 8% say it is essential. Four-in-ten white Americans (42%) say these themes should not be discussed in sermons. Hispanics are more divided on this issue than black or white Americans are; about half (53%) say it is important for sermons to cover political issues.

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Criminal Justice Religious Affiliation Religious Beliefs and Practices Race and Ethnicity

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Americans’ views on World Health Organization split along partisan lines as Trump calls for U.S. to withdraw

By J.J. Moncus and Aidan Connaughton

The World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

The World Health Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, has historically served several public health functions, including fighting communicable and non-communicable diseases. It has played a high-profile role in addressing the global spread of the coronavirus, which it characterized as a pandemic in early March. But in mid-April, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered his administration to halt U.S. funding of the organization, accusing it of making a series of consequential mistakes in its handling of COVID-19. On May 29, Trump announced that he would seek to terminate the country’s relationship with the WHO completely and redirect funds toward other world public health needs.

Amid scrutiny of the WHO, here are key facts about the organization and how Americans see it. Read More →

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Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)International Organizations Donald Trump

NEWS IN THE NUMBERS