{"id":326427,"date":"2026-07-16T09:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=326427"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T20:12:49","slug":"younger-and-older-americans-engage-in-public-life-in-different-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2026\/07\/16\/younger-and-older-americans-engage-in-public-life-in-different-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Younger and older Americans engage in public life in different ways"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
About this research<\/summary>\n

This report from the Pew-Knight Initiative<\/a> examines how Americans engage in public life across a range of activities, including politics, civic and community involvement, news consumption and religious participation. It analyzes how patterns of engagement, when clustered together, can form distinct groups within the U.S. public. It also explores how these engagement groups<\/em> differ in their demographics, attitudes and levels of civic knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report draws from nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults (refer to \u201cHow we did this\u201d below). Many questions in these surveys asked about behaviors in the past 12 months, which for most respondents included the 2024 presidential election. Responses reflect the activities Americans took part in during this specific period. Patterns around political activity in particular may look somewhat different at other points in the political cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why we did this<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

People participate in public life in different ways \u2013 from voting and volunteering to following the news and taking part in religious or community activities. But these behaviors are often studied separately, making it difficult to see how they come together in people\u2019s day-to-day lives. We conducted this study to provide a more integrated picture of how the public engages across these different domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also used a specially designed survey with the awareness that some surveys can struggle to reach Americans who are less likely to participate in public life \u2013 because these same people also may be less likely to participate in surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This analysis draws on two Pew Research Center surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main data source is the Cross\u2011Sectional Engagement Survey, fielded July 9 to Dec. 5, 2025, among 5,393 adults. People could respond online, on paper or by telephone, and we reached out multiple times to people who didn\u2019t initially respond. Refer to the methodology<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also used data from Wave 179 of the American Trends Panel (ATP), a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults, conducted Sept. 8-14, 2025, among 5,195 respondents via web and phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To classify Americans into engagement groups, we did a cluster analysis of the Cross-Sectional Engagement Survey based on 19 measures of participation across the range of activities mentioned above. Respondents in the ATP survey were assigned to these groups based on how similar their patterns of behavior were to those identified in the cross\u2011sectional survey. We used the ATP survey to examine engagement groups\u2019 levels of civic knowledge and views of politics and news. Refer to \u201cHow we measured Americans\u2019 engagement in public life<\/a>\u201d for details on questionnaire design and data analysis approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the survey questions used for this analysis<\/a>, the detailed responses<\/a> and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Age is closely linked with how Americans take part in public life, with older and younger Americans often taking different paths to participation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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U.S. adults under 30 are more likely to be Spectators<\/em>, while older people are more often Connectors<\/em><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
% of U.S. adults who are categorized into each engagement group<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\"Chart\"<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Note: Engagement groups are based on a cluster analysis that sorted Americans into four groups based on their responses to 19 questions about political activity, civic involvement, religious attendance and attention to news. Respondents who were not categorized into an engagement group are not shown. <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted July 9-Dec. 5, 2025.\n\u201cHow Americans Are Engaged With News, Politics, Religion and Civic Life\u201d<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Share this chart<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t