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
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Gender pay gap in U.S. has narrowed slightly over 2 decades
In 2024, women earned an average of 85% of what men earned, according to an analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers.
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U.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the Workplace
American workers have mixed feelings about how AI technologies, like ChatGPT, will affect jobs in the future.
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Americans Continue to View Several Economic Issues as Top National Problems
At the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, Americans see a host of economic issues, including inflation, as top problems facing the country.
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Confidence in federal civil servants remains far lower among Republicans than Democrats
Overall, a slim majority of Americans (55%) express a great deal or fair amount of confidence in federal career employees, while 44% have little or no confidence.
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A look at Black-owned businesses in the U.S.
While Black-owned businesses have grown significantly in the U.S. in recent years, they still make up a small share of overall firms and revenue.
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5 Years Later: America Looks Back at the Impact of COVID-19
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (72%) say the COVID-19 pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together.
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Republicans think economy will improve over the next year, Democrats expect it to get worse
About three-quarters of Republicans (73%) expect the economy to be better a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, while 64% of Democrats say it’ll be worse.
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Many remote workers say they’d be likely to leave their job if they could no longer work from home
Among employed adults who have a job that can be done from home, 75% are working remotely at least some of the time.
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Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World
Across 36 countries, a median of 54% say the gap between the rich and poor is a very big problem in their nation.
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What the data says about federal workers
As President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, here are answers to some common questions about the federal workforce.
