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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    The New Online Political Elite

    That’s the portion of campaign internet users — adults who used the internet during the 2006 midterm election campaigns to get political news and information and discuss the races through email — who also used the internet to create and share political content. These creators are particularly active in every type of online political activity.

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    Support Darfur Intervention

    That’s the percentage of the U.S. public that now believes the United States has a responsibility to do something about the ethnic genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

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    Favor National Identity Cards

    That’s the number of Americans who favor requiring all U.S. citizens to carry a national identity card at all times — the same proportion favors allowing airport personnel to do extra checks on passengers who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.

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    ‘Surge’ Count

    That’s the number of times the word “surge” appeared in media stories about President Bush’s plan for increasing U.S. troop levels in Iraq, according to a database search for the week of Jan 10-Jan 17 conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. That frequency was close to double the number that used the word “escalate” or “escalation” (10,112).

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    Seeking a Home Online

    That’s the percentage of internet users who have looked online for information about a place to live – double the overall number of Americans who had done so in 2000.

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    Evangelical Support for Stem Cell Research

    That’s the percentage of white evangelicals who express support for continuing stem cell research. Although less than half still oppose such research, the latest number represents a 12-point increase over the past year and is easily the highest level of support recorded among evangelicals in the past five years.

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    Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

    That’s the number of Americans who now have a close relative married to someone of a different race.

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    See Microwave Oven as Essential

    That’s the number of Americans who now describe microwave ovens as a necessity in their lives — more than double the number who said so 10 years ago and a higher percentage than those who now deem a TV essential (64%).

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    The Promised Land and the Second Coming

    That’s the number of American adults who say the state of Israel is a fulfillment of the biblical prophesy about the second coming of Jesus. A still larger number, 44%, believe God gave the land that is now Israel to the Jewish people.

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    Think U.S. Should Mind Its Own Business

    That’s the number of Americans who now say that the U.S. should “mind its own business internationally,” up from 34% in 2004, and just 30% in 2002.