Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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  • short reads

    Electing a Woman President

    That’s the percentage of Americans who say that electing a woman president would be a good thing, a 55% majority say they do not think the gender for the president matters and 9% think a woman president would be a bad thing.

  • short reads

    Parental Rules for Teenage Internet Users

    That’s the percentage of parents who say they have rules about the kinds of internet sites their teenaged children can or cannot visit, as well as rule about what kinds of information their children can share with people they talk to online.

  • report

    Talk Hosts Play the Blame Game with California Fires

    The disaster in Southern California dominated the conversation in the talk show universe last week. Not every host played the story the same way. But for some the search was on for bad guys—with FEMA and environmentalists getting caught in the crosshairs.

  • report

    California Wildfires Draw Large Audience

    Summary of Findings The California wildfires overshadowed all other news stories last week both in terms of public interest and news coverage. Four-in-ten Americans followed news about the fires very closely, making it the fourth most closely followed news story of the year. The only stories that have attracted a larger audience this year were […]

  • transcript

    Faith and the Public Dialogue: A Conversation with Sen. John Kerry

    Washington, D.C. The Pew Forum invited Mass. Sen. John Kerry to discuss the propriety of public inquiry into politicians’ religious beliefs and how those beliefs influence candidates’ views on the issues of the day. Kerry, a 2004 presidential candidate, also addressed the role of faith in presidential campaigns, his perspective on religion in the 2008 […]

  • report

    A Year Ahead, Republicans Face Tough Political Terrain

    Introduction and Summary A year before the 2008 presidential election, most major national opinion trends decidedly favor the Democrats. Discontent with the state of the nation is markedly greater than it was four years ago. President Bush’s approval rating has fallen from 50% to 30% over this period. And the Democrats’ advantage over the Republicans […]

  • short reads

    Think Elected Officials Care What We Think

    That’s the relatively small proportion of Americans who agree with the statement, “most elected officials care what people like me think,” nearly matching the 20-year low of 33% recorded in 1994 and a 10-point drop since 2002.