Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Reading trends have fluctuated during the decades that polling organizations have been asking questions about Americans’ reading habits, especially when it comes to books. Our survey introduced several new dimensions of this exploration by asking about people’s purposes for reading, by looking at new technology formats, and by paying particular attention to the role of […]
Overview The growing controversy over the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida was the public’s top story last week, though African Americans express far greater interest in news about the killing than do whites. Overall, a quarter of Americans (25%) say they followed news about the African American teenager killed by a community […]
This is the third time the Pew Forum has measured restrictions on religion around the globe.8 This report, which includes data through the year ending in mid-2010, follows the same methodology as the Pew Forum’s December 2009 report, “Global Restrictions on Religion,” and its August 2011 report, “Rising Restrictions on Religion,” with one major difference: […]
The United States continues to be a highly religious nation. Most Americans say they belong to a particular faith and large percentages agree with statements about key religious beliefs and behaviors. About three-quarters of the public (76%) say prayer is an important part of their daily life, while an identical percentage agrees that “we will […]
Overview The Trayvon Martin shooting is the public’s top story for the second consecutive week. But interest in the teenager’s death is deeply divided along partisan, as well as racial, lines. These differences also are apparent in reactions to news coverage of the incident: Far more Republicans (56%) than Democrats (25%) say there has been […]
With rising job approval and favorability ratings, Barack Obama also holds a growing advantage in voter preferences as they look toward November. Among registered voters, he currently leads Mitt Romney by 12 points and Rick Santorum by 18 points. The difference between Romney and Santorum at the head of the GOP ticket mainly affects independents. […]
Seven-in-ten Japanese say their country should reduce its reliance on nuclear energy. Skepticism about nuclear power is coupled with widespread dissatisfaction with the government’s performance: eight-in-ten say the government has done a poor job dealing with the Fukushima crisis and six-in-ten disapprove of how Tokyo has handled the overall recovery from the earthquake and tsunami.
Overview Americans followed news about the nation’s economy more closely than any other news last week amid new signs the pace of the recovery has slowed. A quarter of the public (25%) says their top story was reports about the condition of the U.S. economy, while 18% say they followed news about the 2012 presidential […]