When it comes to American views on government and social values, the average partisan gap has nearly doubled over the last 25 years — from 10 percentage points in 1987 to 18 percentage points.

President Obama holds only a four-point edge (48% to 44%) across 12 of this year’s key battleground states.

During the five-year period from 2005 to 2010, a total of 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States, down by more than half from the 3 million who had done so in the five-year period of 1995 to 2000.

More than eight-in ten (84%) of veterans of the post-9/11 wars say the American public has little or no understanding of the problems faced by those in the military, an assessment with which pre-9/11 veterans and the public shares.

More than four-in-ten (44%) veterans of the post-9/11 wars say that re-entering civilian life was very or somewhat difficult, a higher number than among those who served in earlier conflicts.

Two-thirds of Americans say that shootings like the one that took place in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater in July are just the isolated acts of troubled individuals.