Stock and commodity prices on the wall of the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney as Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks on Sept. 2, 2020. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Global attitudes about the state of the economy amid the coronavirus outbreak are more negative in some countries than they were during the Great Recession, according to Pew Research Center surveys conducted in 10 countries during both crises. But people are also more upbeat about the prospect of a rebound than they were after the financial meltdown more than a decade ago.
In April, the International Monetary Fund predicted the economic downturn resulting from the coronavirus outbreak would be far graver than the Great Recession. With global gross domestic product now expected to contract by 4.9% in 2020, the magnitude of this recession exceeds that of 11 years ago, when year-on-year global GDP growth contracted by 0.1%.
A nurse demonstrates a COVID-19 swab test at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)
One-in-seven U.S. adults (14%) say they have tested positive for COVID-19 or are “pretty sure” they have had it despite not receiving an official diagnosis, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 3 to 16. The survey also finds a sharp increase since the spring in the share of Americans who say they know someone else who has been hospitalized or died due to COVID-19.
Overall, 3% of U.S. adults say they have personally tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the survey. That includes 2% who say they tested positive for an active viral infection – a share that comports with available public health data – and 1% who did not receive a positive test for the virus, but later tested positive for its antibodies, a sign of past infection. Another 11% of adults say they are pretty sure they have had the virus even though they were not officially diagnosed. (It’s important to keep in mind that these findings are based on self-reported information.)
Some groups of Americans are more likely than others to say they have personally tested positive for COVID-19. For example, larger shares of Hispanic (7%) and Black Americans (5%) report testing positive for COVID-19 or its antibodies than their White (2%) or Asian (1%) counterparts.
Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand more about the personal health effects of the coronavirus outbreak. The data was collected as a part of a larger survey conducted Aug. 3 to 16, 2020, among 13,200 U.S. adults. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
A woman wearing a protective mask and gloves leaves after voting in Florida’s Democratic primary election at Miami-Dade Public Library Little Havana in Miami on March 17, 2020. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images)
As the coronavirus continues its spread across the United States, strong majorities of Hispanic registered voters say the economy, health care and the COVID-19 outbreak are very important to their vote in the 2020 presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted July 27 to Aug. 2.
About eight-in-ten Latino registered voters and U.S. voters overall rate the economy as very important to their vote, the highest shares among the 12 issues included in this survey. But these groups differ on other issues. Higher shares of Latino voters than U.S. voters cite health care (76% vs. 68%), the coronavirus outbreak (72% vs. 62%) and racial and ethnic inequality (66% vs. 52%) as very important. These views come as Latinos have faced disproportionate economic and health effects from the coronavirus outbreak. The largest gap is on climate change, with 60% of Latinos and 42% of U.S. adults citing it as very important to their vote for president.
Notable differences exist by gender, and this is especially true for Hispanics on the issue of immigration. Among registered voters, more Hispanic women than Hispanic men rate immigration as very important to their vote for president (69% vs. 50%). By comparison, among U.S. voters overall, half or more of women (55%) and men (50%) say immigration is very important. Substantially more Hispanic women than Hispanic men rate economic inequality (59% vs. 45%) and abortion (48% vs. 36%) as very important to their vote for president, though these views largely mirror those of all U.S. voters.
In the wake of the 2016 presidential campaign, Facebook users were more likely to press the “anger” button than the “love” button in response to lawmakers’ posts on the platform. But a new Pew Research Center analysis finds that this trend has shifted in recent years, and that lawmakers received more love than anger reactions to their posts in 2019 and 2020.
Facebook users can respond to posts on the site with a set of “reaction” emojis such as “love,” “angry” or “sad” as an alternative to the typical “like” button.
In both 2017 and 2018, Facebook posts by members of Congress received around 5 million more “angry” reactions than “love” reactions. But love reactions overtook anger in 2019, and lawmakers have received roughly 2 million more love than anger reactions in the first seven months of 2020.
The total number of reactions (of any type) to congressional Facebook posts has dramatically increased recently. In just the first seven months of 2020, lawmakers have received more love and angry reactions combined than in any of the four previous full calendar years. But the growing popularity of love reactions is also apparent when examining the share of emotional reactions and “likes” that individual posts received.
National Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins each year on Sept. 15, celebrates U.S. Latinos, their culture and their history. Started in 1968 by Congress as Hispanic Heritage Week, it was expanded to a month in 1988. The celebration begins in the middle rather than the start of September because it coincides with national independence days in several Latin American countries: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica celebrate theirs on Sept. 15, followed by Mexico on Sept. 16, Chile on Sept. 18 and Belize on Sept 21.
Here are some key facts about the nation’s Latino population by age, geography and origin groups.
High school senior Jocelyn Hernandez follows a remote class while sitting in a community garden near her home on Aug. 14, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)
Many of these schools faced similar problems in the spring. A new analysis of Pew Research Center data collected in early April finds that 59% of parents with lower incomes who had children in schools that were remote at the time said their children would likely face at least one of three digital obstacles asked about.
Overall, 38% of parents with children whose K-12 schools closed in the spring said that their child was very or somewhat likely to face one or more of these issues. In addition, parents with middle incomes were about twice as likely as parents with higher incomes to report anticipating issues.
Concerns related to the “homework gap” have affected families and driven policymakers for years. After the coronavirus outbreak shut down most of the country, including most K-12 schools, some parents reported worries about how their child would be able to complete their schoolwork from home, according to the Center’s April 7-12 survey of U.S. adults. At the time, 29% of parents with homebound schoolchildren said it was very or somewhat likely their children would have to do their schoolwork on a cellphone. About one-in-five parents also said it was at least somewhat likely their children would not be able to complete their schoolwork because they did not have access to a computer at home (21%) or would have to use public Wi-Fi to finish their schoolwork because there was not a reliable internet connection at home (22%).
(Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Parents have a lot of influence over their teenagers – including when it comes to religion. But while teens in the United States take after their parents religiously in many ways, they stand out in some others, according to a new Pew Research Center report.
The report looks at U.S. teens’ religious lives and the ways these reflect – or don’t reflect – the religious lives of their parents. It is based on a survey of 1,811 pairs of teens ages 13 to 17 and their parents, with one teen and one parent from each household. Each person answered questions not only about their own religious affiliation, beliefs and practices, but also about the role they think religion plays in the life of the other person taking the survey.
Demonstrators live-stream a protest in Chicago on June 1, 2020. (Javage Logan/Xinhua via Getty)
Social media platforms are important for political and social activists. But while most Americans believe these platforms are an effective tool for raising awareness and creating sustained movements, majorities also believe they are a distraction and lull people into believing they are making a difference when they’re not, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
Overall, eight-in-ten Americans say social media platforms are very (31%) or somewhat (49%) effective for raising public awareness about political or social issues, according to the survey of U.S. adults conducted July 13-19. A similar share (77%) believes these platforms are at least somewhat effective for creating sustained social movements.
Smaller shares – though still majorities – say social media are at least somewhat effective in getting elected officials to pay attention to issues (65%), influencing policy decisions (63%) or changing people’s minds about political or social issues (58%).
Americans have little confidence in technology companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to prevent the misuse of their platforms to influence the 2020 presidential election. Above, workers in Facebook’s “war room” in Menlo Park, California, in 2018. (Noah Berger/AFP via Getty Images)
Three-quarters of U.S. adults say technology companies have a responsibility to prevent the misuse of their platforms to influence the 2020 presidential election, but only around a quarter say they are very or somewhat confident in these firms to do so, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted July 27-Aug. 2. The survey comes as Facebook and other major tech companies make efforts to limit political misinformation ahead of the November election.
Since 2018, majorities of Americans have said that tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google have a responsibility to prevent misuse of their platforms to influence elections. However, the share of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say tech companies have this responsibility has declined since January, from 75% to 64%. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, an overwhelming majority continues to say tech companies are responsible for preventing misuse of their platforms (85% today, up from 81% in January).
There is a much wider partisan gap on whether social media companies should label posts by elected officials and ordinary users as inaccurate or misleading, according to a separate survey conducted by the Center in June. Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say social media companies should do this kind of labeling.
A voter drops off a mail-in ballot in a collection box in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Aug. 25, 2020. (Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Many Americans are concerned about voting in November amid the coronavirus pandemic and worries over the U.S. Postal Service’s capacity to deliver ballots on time. Democrats, however, are more concerned than Republicans about the ease of voting and the broader integrity of the election. Public attitudes about several voting-related policy proposals – from automatically registering all eligible citizens to vote to expanding the availability of “no excuse” early and absentee voting – also differ sharply by partisan affiliation.
With less than two months before Election Day, here’s a look at Americans’ views about voting in 2020 and how these views differ by party, based on Pew Research Center surveys and analyses conducted this year.
