Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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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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  • short reads

    Cell phone ownership hits 91% of adults

    For the first time, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has found that cell phone ownership among adults has exceeded 90%. Cell phones are now being used by 91% of adults, according to the survey conducted between April 17 and May 19 of 2,252 adults. While the adoption figures are stunning by […]

  • short reads

    Is MSNBC the place for opinion?

    MSNBC president Phil Griffin generated plenty of media attention this week when he said, in a New York Times interview, that his channel was “not the place” for breaking news. “Our brand is not that.” Griffin was responding to a significant decline in MSNBC’s ratings, which the Times reported was down 18% in prime time […]

  • short reads

    Polling flashback: Remembering RFK

    It was 45 years ago this week that Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan while celebrating after a victory in the California Democratic primary. It was another milestone event in 1968, following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s murder two months earlier. Although there is no way to tell how the election would have […]

  • short reads

    Americans and Chinese grow more wary of each other

    As U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare for their first summit on Friday, tensions between the publics of these two superpowers are on the rise. American attitudes toward China have turned sharply negative over the last two years. According to new Pew Research Center poll findings not yet released in a […]

  • short reads

    Under Obama, Egyptians’ views of U.S. worse than under George W. Bush presidency

    Today marks four years since a newly elected President Barack Obama spoke to a packed, enthusiastic audience of students at Cairo University, calling for “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” Four years later, much has changed in Egypt, but anti-Americanism persists.

  • short reads

    The Mediterranean: Go for the beaches, not the mood

    The Mediterranean is a sea of misery, according to the Pew Research Center’s recent report on global economic trends. Nations ringing the Mediterranean consistently rank at or near the top of multiple measures of pessimism in the 39-country survey. And, in what should surprise exactly no one, Greece has by far the bleakest outlook, topping […]