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    Lifetime Earnings of College Graduates

    A new Pew Research Center analysis, using Census Bureau data, estimates that the typical adult with a bachelor’s degree (but no further education) will earn $1.42 million over a 40-year career, compared with $770,000 for a typical high school graduate.

  • report

    Is College Worth It In 2011?

    College costs are rising, student debt is mounting, and most Americans say college fails to deliver good value for the money. Meantime, only 19% of college presidents say the U.S. system is the best in the world. However, more than eight-in-ten college graduates say college was a good investment for them personally.

  • report

    Why Are Gas Prices Rising? A Mix of Reasons

    As gas prices soar, many Americans pin the blame on greed or a push for higher profits among oil companies, speculators and oil-producing nations. About three-in-ten (31%) offer a variation on this theme – greed, oil companies or speculation – when asked what they think is the main reason gasoline prices have gone up recently, […]

  • report

    Home Sweet Home. Still.

    The collapse of the U.S. housing market has not shaken the public’s confidence in the investment value of homeownership.

  • short reads

    Baby Boomers Retire

    Roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65 today, and about 10,000 more will cross that threshold every day for the next 19 years.

  • report

    Baby Boomers Approach 65 – Glumly

    As the leading edge of the giant Baby Boomer generation turns 65 on January 1, 2011, a Pew Research roundup of new and recent surveys finds that this age group is more downbeat than others about the trajectory of their lives and the direction of the nation as a whole. This report explores Boomers’ political and social values; their economic hopes and fears and their overall satisfaction with life.

  • report

    For Public, Tough Year Ends on a Down Note

    Six-in-ten say the country is losing ground on the federal budget deficit, the cost of living, Social Security and the availability of good-paying jobs.

  • report

    How a Different America Responded to the Great Depression

    The American public’s sour mood is in interesting contrast with many of the public’s views during the Great Depression of the 1930s, not only on economic, political and social issues, but also on the role of government in addressing them.

  • report

    The Rise of College Student Borrowing

    Graduates who received a bachelor’s degree in 2008 borrowed 50% more than their counterparts who graduated in 1996, while graduates who earned an associate’s degree or undergraduate certificate in 2008 borrowed more than twice what their counterparts in 1996 had borrowed.

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