Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
Introduction and Summary As religion plays a more prominent role in public life, sharp divisions of opinion about the mixing of church and state are apparent. Most notably, while the public expresses strong support for the idea of faith-based groups receiving government funding to provide social services, in practice, it has many reservations. Most Americans […]
Environmental Balancing Act Most Americans (54%) express at least some confidence in Bush’s ability to balance environmental and economic demands, with 21% expressing “a lot” of confidence in the president in this area. This is comparable to how the public viewed Clinton’s environmental leadership. In 1997, 61% had some confidence in Clinton’s ability to balance […]
For decades, Americans have been split over the question of whether organized religion should take an active role in politics. About half of the public (48%) is willing to see churches “express their views on day-to-day social and political questions.” But a comparable number (46%) feel that churches should keep out of political matters.[1. Given […]
The public acknowledges that religious organizations play a constructive role in American life. Three-quarters of Americans say churches, synagogues and other houses of worship contribute to solving important social problems. Roughly one-quarter say churches contribute a great deal to solving important problems, and those who hold this view are among the most likely to strongly […]
Religion plays an important role in the personal lives of most Americans. The number of people saying religion is very important to them has gradually increased over the past two decades, after declining sharply between the mid-1960s and late 1970s. Currently, nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) call religion very important. Fully nine-in-ten pray at least […]
Blacks Remain Wary On balance, every major demographic group approves of the way Bush is handling his job as president, with one exception — non-whites. Overall, non-whites are fairly evenly divided over Bush’s job performance: 30% approve, 33% disapprove, 37% have no opinion. Blacks are the most critical: 22% approve, 40% disapprove and 38% have […]
Washington, D.C. Data presented by: Andrew Kohut, Director, Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Discussants: Sulayman Nyang, Professor of African Studies, Howard University and Director, Muslims in American Public Square project Melissa Rogers, Executive Director, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Marshall Wittman, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Alan Wolfe, Professor […]
Introduction and Summary By the weekend, George W. Bush was further ahead of Al Gore in the battle for public opinion than he was in the vote recount in Florida. A strong majority of voters, including many Gore supporters, think he will have legitimately won the presidency if he prevails in the Florida recount. And […]
GOP Narrows Issues Gap Republicans have made considerable headway over the past two years in cutting into the Democrats’ issues advantage. The public now rates the two parties about even for their ideas on taxes, education and the global economy. The Democrats narrowly led the GOP on global economic issues in January 1999 (38%-33%) and […]