The United States at 250: How the Country Has Changed in the Past 50 Years
Ahead of the nation’s birthday, Pew Research Center identified some prominent trends across key areas of American life: demographics, work, family and economics.
Economy & Work
A Year Into Trump’s Second Term, Americans’ Views of the Economy Remain Negative
Most Americans continue to hold negative views of the U.S. economy, as has been the case for the last six years.
About 1 in 5 U.S. workers now use AI in their job, up since last year
Workers younger than 50 and workers with a bachelor’s degree or more education are among the most likely to use AI in their job.
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Americans More Upbeat on the Economy; Biden’s Job Rating Remains Very Low
28% of Americans rate economic conditions as excellent or good, a 9 percentage point increase from last April. And the share who say economic conditions will be worse a year from now has fallen during this timespan, from 46% to 33%.
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Parents, Young Adult Children and the Transition to Adulthood
Most U.S. young adults are at least mostly financially independent and happy with their parents’ involvement in their lives. Parent-child relationships are mostly strong.
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2023 saw some of the biggest, hardest-fought labor disputes in recent decades
The nearly four-month actors’ strike against major Hollywood production studios was the second-largest labor dispute in the United States in at least three decades.
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Older Workers Are Growing in Number and Earning Higher Wages
Roughly one-in-five Americans ages 65 and older were employed in 2023 – nearly double the share of those who were working 35 years ago.
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Striking findings from 2023
Here’s a look back at 2023 through some of our most striking research findings.
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Wealth Surged in the Pandemic, but Debt Endures for Poorer Black and Hispanic Families
About one-in-four Black households and one-in-seven Hispanic households had no wealth or were in debt in 2021, compared with about one-in-ten U.S. households overall.
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Key facts about the wealth of immigrant households during the COVID-19 pandemic
The median wealth of immigrant households increased by 42% from December 2019 to December 2021.
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Do You Tip More or Less Often Than the Average American?
Compare your tipping habits with those of the overall public by visiting Tipping Point, the small town with a big-city feel.
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Online shopping has grown rapidly in U.S., but most sales are still in stores
Through the first three quarters of 2023, retail e-commerce totaled $793.7 billion, or 14.9% of all retail sales.
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The varied landscape of minimum wages and tip credits in the U.S.
While service quality is the main driver of Americans’ tipping decisions, about three-in-ten U.S. adults also cite workers’ pay before tips as a major factor they consider.
