Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
Summary of Findings Americans continue to hold their local and state governments in fairly high esteem, but positive views of the federal government are at their lowest point in at least a decade. Only 37% of people say they hold a favorable view of the federal government, while 58% express an unfavorable opinion. By comparison, […]
Summary of Findings The latest round of news about Barack Obama and his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright dominated campaign news coverage last week. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s (PEJ) Campaign Coverage Index, 42% of all campaign coverage last week dealt with the Rev. Wright controversy. Wright’s comments are by far the […]
Of the three major European leaders for whom confidence levels were investigated in 2008, Pew data show that German Chancellor Angela Merkel receives the highest praise for having good judgment in foreign affairs. The opposite is the case for Vladimir Putin: During this time of political transition from Russian president to prime minister, Putin’s ratings […]
On the eve of the final Democratic primaries, Barack Obama has opened a 13-point lead over Hillary Clinton among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters nationwide. This represents a substantial shift from a month ago, when Clinton had pulled within two points of Obama in the wake of her victory in the Pennsylvania primary. Obama now leads […]
Introduction With more than half of Americans now with broadband and the number of dial-up users dwindling, it is worth asking those still going without broadband at home. The reasons why many Americans don’t have broadband fall into several non-mutually exclusive categories: They don’t want broadband. They can’t afford broadband. They can’t get broadband where […]
Summary of Findings Barack Obama may be building an insurmountable lead in the Democratic primary race, but the public is sending a strong message to journalists and pundits: It is too early to declare, as some already have, that the race is over. Fully 72% of the public – including comparable percentages of Democrats, Republicans […]
Introduction The 2008 presidential election race has produced its share of internet firsts. Three of the Democratic candidates—John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama—essentially declared their candidacies online. Obama has broken fundraising records, mostly through online contributions. Citizen questions for key party debates were solicited and delivered via videos posted on YouTube—including one from a […]
Over the past few years, there have been several controversies over religion’s role in the military. Most recently, students and staff at the U.S. Naval Academy and West Point have complained of pressure from their supervisors to engage in religious activities. Three years earlier, there were similar allegations at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Other […]