Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Overview About six-in-ten Americans (62%) have heard about the proposed federal rule that would require employers, including most religiously affiliated institutions, to cover birth control as part of their health care benefits. Among those aware of the issue, opinion is closely divided over whether these institutions should be given an exemption to the rule if […]
Barack Obama was the top newsmaker of the year. He was the primary newsmaker (meaning 50% of the story focused on him) in a total of 3,802 stories or 8% of the stories studied-the same percentage as a year earlier. Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan strongman who was deposed and later killed by rebels, was the […]
21% of Americans have read an e-book. The increasing availability of e-content is prompting some to read more than in the past and to prefer buying books to borrowing them.
The effect of Facebook ‘power users’ on everybody else
As the last U.S. combat troops head home from Iraq this month, some will face a difficult re-entry to civilian life. A Pew Research Center survey of 1,853 veterans found that 27% said readjusting to civilian life was “very” or “somewhat difficult.”
Like views of the change to a multiparty democracy, enthusiasm for the move from a state-controlled to a market economy has declined considerably in Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine over the past two decades. Of the three former Soviet republics surveyed, only in Lithuania do more approve than disapprove of the economic changes their country has […]
Overview Americans who have heard about the sexual harassment allegations against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, on balance, think they are true rather than false. At the same time, a plurality thinks that recent coverage of Cain has been fair. Three-quarters of the public say they have heard a lot (51%) or a little (24%) […]
Little is known about the religious makeup of the state prison population. Government agencies routinely report on the gender, racial and ethnic composition of inmates in state and federal prisons (see Appendix C) but not on their religious affiliation. One of the central goals of the Pew Forum survey is to offer a glimpse into […]