Americans and affirmative action: How the public sees the consideration of race in college admissions, hiring
Here’s a closer look at what recent surveys have found about Americans’ views of affirmative action.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Race and Ethnicity
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Asian Americans Hold Mixed Views Around Affirmative Action
About half of Asian adults who have heard of affirmative action (53%) say it is a good thing, 19% say it is a bad thing, and 27% say they don’t know whether it is good or bad. However, about three-quarters of all Asian adults (76%) say race or ethnicity should not factor into college admissions decisions.
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Asian voters in the U.S. tend to be Democratic, but Vietnamese American voters are an exception
About six-in-ten Asian American registered voters are Democrats or lean Democratic, but 51% of Vietnamese American voters tilt Republican.
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5 facts about Arabic speakers in the U.S.
The number of people ages 5 and older who speak Arabic at home in the U.S. has risen from 215,000 in 1980 to 1.4 million in 2021.
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Diverse Cultures and Shared Experiences Shape Asian American Identities
Among Asian Adults living in the U.S., 52% say they most often describe themselves using ethnic labels that reflect their heritage and family roots, either alone or together with “American.” About six-in-ten (59%) say that what happens to Asians in the U.S. affects their own lives.
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Q&A: A behind-the-scenes look at Pew Research Center’s extensive new survey of Asian Americans
This project is the largest nationally representative survey of its kind to date focused on Asian Americans.
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How a coding error provided a rare glimpse into Latino identity among Brazilians in the U.S.
An error in how the Census Bureau processed data from a national survey provided a rare window into how Brazilians living in the U.S. view their identity.
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Among U.S. Latinos, Catholicism Continues to Decline but Is Still the Largest Faith
Catholics remain the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, even as their share among Latino adults has steadily declined over the past decade. The share of Latinos who are religiously unaffiliated is now on par with U.S. adults overall.
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Gun deaths among U.S. children and teens rose 50% in two years
In 2021, there were 2,590 gun deaths among U.S. children and teens under the age of 18, up from 1,732 in 2019.
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Black Americans view capitalism more negatively than positively but express hope in Black businesses
In an August 2022 survey, 54% of Black adults said they had a very or somewhat negative impression of capitalism, up from 40% in May 2019.
