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

    The Inevitable Candidate: Obama?

    As voters go to the polls in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont, seven-in-ten Democrats (70%) say Obama is most likely to win the party’s nomination, while just 17% see Clinton as the likely victor. Even a majority (52%) of Clinton’s backers say they think Obama is likely to emerge as the winner.

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    Fast Rising Prices

    Nearly eight-in-ten Americans feel that prices in the US have risen “a lot” in recent years.

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    Losing Ground Financially

    Nearly six-in-ten Americans (58%) now say that their incomes are falling behind the rising cost of living, compared with just 44% who expressed this view in September 2007.

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    Where’s Waldo?: Look Online

    Half of adult internet users say they think it would be “pretty easy” for someone to find them based on the information available about them online.

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    Republicans’ Concern About Lobbyists Rises

    Reducing the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups in Washington is now a much higher priority among Republicans than it was a year ago; roughly four-in-ten Republicans (42%) currently rate such efforts a top priority, up from 28% in January 2007.

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    U.S. Muslims Prefer Democrats

    That’s the percentage of Muslim Americans who say they are Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party.

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    50 Cent Takes a Rap

    Only 17% of African Americans view gangsta rapper 50 Cent as a “good influence,” by far the lowest approval rating accorded any on a list of black newsmakers in a recent Pew survey.

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    African Americans View the Future

    Fewer than half of all African Americans (44%) now say they think life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57% who said so in a 1986 survey.

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    Gen Nexters Embrace Evolution

    That’s the number of 18-25 year olds who say that humans and other living things evolved over time; only 33% say all living creatures have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.

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    A Widening Hardship Gap

    The gap between the wealthiest and poorest people in affording basic items is much wider now than it was during the 1992 economic downturn; more than six-in-ten (62%) self-described “working class” people now say their incomes are falling behind the cost of living