How religion declines around the world
Religion in a country tends to decline in three transitional stages that unfold across generations, a new paper using Center data proposes.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Short Reads
Short-form data and analysis from Pew Research Center writers and social scientists. To view all our reports and publications, visit our main Publications page.
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Why America’s ‘nones’ don’t identify with a religion
Six-in-ten religious “nones” in the U.S. say the questioning of religious teachings is a very important reason for their lack of affiliation. The second-most-common reason is opposition to the positions taken by churches on social and political issues.
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For most U.S. workers, real wages have barely budged in decades
Despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage in the U.S. has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And most of what wage gains there have been have flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.
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Most European students are learning a foreign language in school while Americans lag
A median of 92% of European students are learning a language in school. Far fewer K-12 students in the U.S. participate in foreign language education.
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What are nonprobability surveys?
Many online surveys are conducted using “nonprobability” or “opt-in” samples, which are generally easier and cheaper to conduct. In our latest Methods 101 video, we explore some of the features of nonprobability surveys and how they differ from traditional probability-based polls.
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When writing about survey data, 51% might not mean a ‘majority’
For many people, “majority” is a word so common that they rarely have to think twice about what it means. But it’s a different matter for polling organizations like Pew Research Center. At the Center, writers cannot label a survey finding a “majority” unless it meets specific criteria.
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Younger adults, independents more critical of their district’s past congressional candidate fields
Younger Americans are less likely than their elders and partisans are more likely than independents to have positive views of past congressional candidate pools in their districts.
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Americans are far more religious than adults in other wealthy nations
Americans pray more often, are more likely to attend weekly religious services and ascribe higher importance to faith in their lives than adults in other wealthy, Western democracies, such as Canada, Australia and most European states, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.
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Most Americans say higher ed is heading in wrong direction, but partisans disagree on why
About six-in-ten Americans say higher education in the United States is going in the wrong direction. Republicans and Democrats are worlds apart on why.
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More Americans anticipate downsides than upsides from gene editing for babies
About half of Americans believe that within the next 50 years science will find a way to eliminate virtually all birth defects through gene editing. Yet majorities of Americans harbor at least some reservations about the impact on society of more widespread use of gene editing.
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Moderates in Congress go local on Facebook more than the most ideological members
For the average moderate legislator, about 54% of a member’s Facebook posts discussed local issues between 2015 and 2017. But for the average very liberal or very conservative legislator, just 38% of posts dealt with local issues.
