Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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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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  • short reads

    Nevada the ‘Magnet’ State

    Nevada is the nation’s most “magnetic” state in that fully 86% of its adult residents were born in a different state.

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    Switching Religions

    About 44% of U.S. adults have switched religious affiliation including dropping any connection to a specific religious tradition.

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    A Bare Majority of Protestants

    The number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at 51%.

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    The Second Coming of Jesus

    Fully 79% of Christians in the U.S. say they believe that Christ will return to Earth someday.

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    Do U Txt?

    Ambivalent Networkers — the 7% of Americans most dedicated to their cell phones — are always connected but don’t always love to hear their phone ring, vibrate or play a downloaded song.

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    Losing Journalists

    The Project for Excellence in Journalism estimates that one out of every five journalists working for newspapers in 2001 no longer does so.

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    Econ 101

    More Americans know the unemployment rate than the level of the Dow.

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    Alaska, the Least ‘Sticky’ State

    Just 28% of adults born in Alaska still live there, placing it last among the 50 states on this measure of population “stickiness.”

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    Minority Enrollment in Suburban Schools

    Virtually all of the 3.4 million increase in suburban public school enrollments over the past decade and a half has been due to a rapid increase in Latino — and to a lesser degree — black and Asian students.

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    Think Obama is A Muslim…Still

    Since his appearance on the national scene, a consistent one-in-ten Americans say Barack Obama is a Muslim; another 35% say they do not know Obama’s religion.