How we designed a scale to measure Americans’ knowledge of international affairs
Pew Research Center recently sought to measure what U.S. adults know about geography, foreign leaders, institutions and other issues.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
Search results for: “china”
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Asian Americans Hold Mixed Views Around Affirmative Action
About half of Asian adults who have heard of affirmative action (53%) say it is a good thing, 19% say it is a bad thing, and 27% say they don’t know whether it is good or bad. However, about three-quarters of all Asian adults (76%) say race or ethnicity should not factor into college admissions decisions.
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Amid pandemic, international student enrollment at U.S. universities fell 15% in the 2020-21 school year
Fewer than 1 million foreign students enrolled for either online or in-person classes at U.S. universities in the 2020-21 school year.
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2. American views of Israel
More than half of Americans (55%) have favorable views of Israel, while 41% say they have unfavorable views of the country. Notably, this is slightly more than the share who reported favorable views of the Israeli government (48%) and lower than the share who said they had favorable views of the Israeli people (67%) on […]
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9. Closing thoughts
The following respondents wrote contributions that consider the range of issues societies confront. Andy Opel, professor of communications at Florida State University, commented, “As someone who has been teaching Immersive Media Production for the past five years and 3D Stereo Media Production for five years before that, I have spent a lot of time exploring […]
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About this canvassing of experts
This report covers results from the 14th “Future of the Internet” canvassing by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Participants were asked to respond to several questions about the tone and impact of the online environment and the trajectory of activities in the digital public sphere that have recently been raising […]
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4. Restrictions on religion in the world’s 25 most populous countries in 2019
CORRECTION (Dec. 19, 2025): One chart and some of the text in this chapter have been revised to correct the SHI scores for some countries. China is now described as experiencing a “modest” decrease rather than a “small” decrease in its SHI score between 2018 and 2019. Refer to the errata page for details. One way to […]
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Americans are less concerned – but more divided – on climate change than people elsewhere
There is minimal praise from other societies for how the United States and China are handling climate change.
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Most people in advanced economies think their own government respects personal freedoms
Most people view their own government’s record on personal freedoms more favorably than they do when it comes to the U.S. and especially China.
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1. Views of Joe Biden
As major pieces of President Joe Biden’s agenda remain bogged down in Congress and the coronavirus pandemic enters its third year, his approval rating continues to decline among many demographic and political groups. Today, 41% of U.S. adults say they approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, which is down modestly from […]