Marriage across racial and ethnic lines continues to be on the rise in the United States. The share of new marriages between spouses of a different race or ethnicity increased to 15.1 % in 2010, and the share of all current marriages that are either interracial or interethnic has reached an all-time high of 8.4%.
Tom Rosentiel
Publications
Optimism about the national economy has rebounded in the first two months of this year after sagging in 2011. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press also finds an uptick in Barack Obama's job rating.
Nearly six-in-ten Americans say it is important to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if it means taking military action. Just 30% say it is more important to avoid a military conflict with Iran.
Rick Santorum’s has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination in polling conducted Feb. 8-12. Barack Obama holds sizable leads over Santorum, Romney and Newt Gingrich in general election matchups.
Richard Wike, Associate Director of the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, answers questions about public opinion at home and abroad regarding China and the United States.
An overwhelming majority (85%) of the adults who use social media report that people are usually kind on the sites. At the same time, 49% have witnessed mean and offensive behavior and they usually respond by ignoring it.
A plurality of the American public believes that young adults are having the toughest time of any age group in today’s economy -- and a lopsided majority says it’s more difficult for today’s young adults than it was for their parents’ generation to pay for college, find a job, buy a home or save for the future. But long-term economic optimism among young adults remains unscarred.
Cable news is now the top regular source for campaign news. The long-term decline in the number of Americans getting campaign news from local and network TV news, and local newspapers, steepened this year. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are used for campaign news by a relatively limited audience.
Most Facebook users receive more from their Facebook friends than they give, whether the measurement is the number of friend requests received, the use of the "like" button, the number of messages sent or tagging people in photos. The phenomenon is driven by a segment of "power users."
Mitt Romney’s emphatic statement that he is focused solely on the problems of middle class Americans, not the poor, may not sit well with most of the lower income voters within his own party.
