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    U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey

    Executive Summary Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions. On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the […]

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    What do you mean by “continental U.S.”?

    Senior research staff answer questions from readers relating to all the areas covered by our seven projects, ranging from polling techniques and findings, to media, technology, religious, demographic and global attitudes trends.

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    One Recession, Two Americas

    For a narrow majority of Americans (55%), the Great Recession brought a mix of hardships, usually in combination: a spell of unemployment, missed mortgage or rent payments, shrinking paychecks and shattered household budgets, but for the other 45% of the country, the recession was largely free of such difficulties.

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    Little Compromise on Compromising

    The latest Congressional Connection poll finds most in the public are in no mood for political compromising. Also, Americans split evenly on which political party could best handle the economy while four-in-ten say eliminating tax cuts for the wealthy would hurt the economy.

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    Taxed Enough Already?

    Despite all the animosity aimed at Washington, one usual political punching bag is actually not seen as villainous as it once was: taxes. More say they pay about the right amount in taxes than say they pay more than their fair share.

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    Walking Away

    Nearly six-in-ten Americans say it is “unacceptable” for homeowners to stop making their mortgage payments, but more than a third say the practice of “walking away” from a home mortgage is acceptable under certain circumstances. Homeowners whose home values declined during the recession and those who have spent time unemployed are more likely to say that “walking away” from a mortgage is acceptable.

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    Rise of the ’Apps Culture’

    While cell phone apps are popular among a segment of the adult cell phone using population, a notable number of cell owners are not yet a part of the emerging apps culture. But those who do download and use apps do so fairly frequently. Popular apps include entertainment (games, music, etc.) as well as those that provide information (maps, weather).

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    Mixed Views of GOP Proposals on Entitlements

    While a majority of Americans favors allowing changes to Social Security, there is very little support for replacing Medicare with a voucher system. Also, the public continues to see no clear leader atop the GOP.

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    Older Adults Tweeting

    One-in-ten online adults ages 50-64 use Twitter or another status-updating service.

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    Views of Islam and Violence

    A plurality of Americans say Islam does not encourage violence more than other religions.

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