Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Politics

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    Are Americans out of Sync with Economic Reality?

    If economists and real estate experts are correct in saying that the U.S. housing market is not only in a slump but likely to remain there for some time to come, that will come as a surprise to a (62%) majority of Americans who expect home prices to continue the upward trend of recent years. […]

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    How Serious Is Polling’s Cell-Only Problem?

    According to government statistics released last month, nearly 13% of U.S. households cannot now be reached by the typical telephone survey because they have only a cell phone and no landline telephone, and the share of Americans who are cell-only is increasing rapidly. To monitor this problem, the Pew Research Center conducted four studies in […]

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    Why Change the Channel?

    Summary of Findings In spite of their general criticisms of the media, Americans have good things to say about the major broadcast and cable news networks. The public draws few distinctions among the news divisions of the big three broadcast networks. There is much less consensus about the major cable news networks. Nearly half of […]

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    Paris Hilton Becomes a National News Story

    Summary of Findings Paris Hilton’s legal problems became a national news story last week. Coverage of Hilton being released from and then returned to jail filled 4% of the newshole, making it the fifth most heavily covered story of the week. Roughly a third of Americans (34%) said they followed news about Hilton very or […]