Pew Research Center Staff

Most Americans (59%) say they would place a higher priority on spending more money to make health care more accessible and affordable than on reducing the budget deficit.

Six-in-ten Americans think it is a good idea for the government to regulate more strictly the way major financial companies do business.

A quarter of current smokers say that they are very happy, compared with more than a third of quitters and almost four-in-ten non-smokers.

As many Republicans say their party’s leaders have failed to clearly articulate their position (42%) as say they have explained themselves clearly (41%).

Slightly more than a quarter of registered voters call themselves Republicans, a low in 16 years of polling by the Pew Research Center; most GOPers now think their party should move further to the right.

About eight-in-ten American adults say they consider not reporting all income on one’s taxes to be morally wrong.

The period from 1999 to 2007 is the longest in modern U.S. economic history in which inflation-adjusted median household income failed to surpass an earlier peak.

Church attendance has remained unchanged during the economic downturn.

Four-in-ten suburban residents give their community high marks, a higher level of satisfaction than that found among residents of cities, rural areas and small towns.

Only a quarter of Americans say they read a print version of a newspaper.