GOP Congress takes over amid public pessimism about an end to divisions
The new GOP-controlled Congress takes office at a time when the American public sees partisan rifts in the country getting worse.
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In late spurt of activity, Congress avoids ‘least productive’ title
An unusually active lame duck session enabled the 113th Congress to avoid its predecessor’s record for legislative unproductivity.
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Fewer than half of U.S. kids today live in a ‘traditional’ family
Just 46% of U.S. kids under 18 are living in a home with two married heterosexual parents in their first marriage, a marked change from 1960.
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Census Bureau proposes dropping some marriage and divorce questions
The U.S. Census Bureau has proposed dropping a series of questions about marriage and divorce from its largest household survey of Americans, touching off a debate about the usefulness of such data.
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America’s wealth gap between middle-income and upper-income families is widest on record
The gap between America’s upper-income and middle-income families has reached its highest level on record. In 2013, the median wealth of the nation’s upper-income families ($639,400) was nearly seven times the median wealth of middle-income families ($96,500).
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Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession
The median wealth of white households was 13 times the wealth of black households and 10 times that of Hispanic households in 2013, compared with eight and nine times, respectively, in 2010.
