Americans who find meaning in these four areas have higher life satisfaction
Four topics are universally associated with higher levels of life satisfaction: a person’s good health, romantic partner, friends and career.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Publications
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The Meaning of Life: 100 quotes from Americans on what keeps them going
We asked thousands of Americans where they find meaning in life. Their responses were rich, thoughtful and varied.
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Methodology
All text responses were drawn from answers to an open-ended survey question fielded as part of Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP). The survey was conducted Sept. 14 to 28, 2017, and the question asked: We’re interested in exploring what it means to live a satisfying life. Please take a moment to reflect on […]
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Where Americans Find Meaning in Life
Family is the most common source of meaning in America, but economic, religious and political divides shape where people find meaning in other aspects of life.
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Despite recent violence, Chicago is far from the U.S. ‘murder capital’
St. Louis led the nation with 66.1 murders per 100,000 people in 2017. It was followed by Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
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How religious groups voted in the midterm elections
White evangelical or born-again Christians backed GOP candidates for the House at about the same rate in 2014. Religious “nones” and Jewish voters again largely backed Democratic candidates.
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In 2016, emergency laws restricted religious freedoms of Muslims more than other groups
In 2016, seven nations – Turkey, Brunei, Ethiopia, France, Hungary, Niger and Tunisia – directly used emergency laws to restrict religion, according to Pew Research Center’s latest annual religious restrictions study. While a number of different religious groups were targeted, these laws imposed restrictions on Muslims more than any other group.
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Weekday elections set the U.S. apart from many other advanced democracies
Many of the millions of Americans voting in Tuesday’s midterm elections will have to do so while working around the demands of their jobs – hitting their polling places before work, taking an extra-long lunch break or going afterward and hoping to make it before the polls close. As they stand in line, many of them may wonder why it is that the United States votes on a Tuesday, of all days.
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Republicans account for a small but steady share of U.S. Muslims
Many more U.S. Muslims identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party than the GOP (66% vs. 13%), but the share who are Republican has held steady over the last 10 years, including after the election of President Donald Trump.
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Greek attitudes toward religion, minorities align more with Central and Eastern Europe than West
When it comes to public attitudes on religion, national identity and the place of religious minorities, Greeks, like their neighbors to the East, hold more nationalist and less accepting views than do Western Europeans.
