{"id":18960,"date":"2014-09-16T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/10-big-questions-the-pew-research-center-has-tackled-in-the-past-decade\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:17","slug":"10-big-questions-the-pew-research-center-has-tackled-in-the-past-decade","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/16\/10-big-questions-the-pew-research-center-has-tackled-in-the-past-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"10 big questions the Pew Research Center has tackled in the past decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago, the Pew Research Center\u00a0was established by<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The Pew Charitable Trusts to bring together several of Pew\u2019s information initiatives. The new organization had a unique mission to offer nonpartisan, non-advocacy information to decision-makers and the public. The Center has amassed a large body of work\u00a0over the past decade. For our tenth anniversary, here’s a\u00a0look back at some of our\u00a0most important findings.<\/p>\n\n

What does the American political landscape look like?<\/strong>\u00a0Our\u00a0long-standing work on political attitudes has tracked a\u00a0growing ideological division between Republicans and Democrats. This year, our largest political survey ever revealed the two parties\u00a0are more divided along ideological lines<\/a> \u2013 and partisan animosity\u00a0is greater\u00a0\u2013 than at any point in the last two decades. This division and rancor\u00a0is\u00a0strongest\u00a0among those who are the most engaged in the political process. And these differences\u00a0influence our daily lives<\/a>, including\u00a0where we want to live, the kinds of neighbors we want to have\u00a0and\u00a0whom we would welcome into our\u00a0families.<\/p>\n\n

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Our 2014 political typology survey<\/a> divided the American public up into cohesive ideological groups based on their attitudes and political values.\u00a0Curious about where\u00a0you belong? Take our quiz<\/a> to\u00a0find out.<\/p>\n\n

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Who are the Millennials?<\/strong>\u00a0One of our\u00a0best-known studies was our 2010 report\u00a0on\u00a0the Millennials<\/a>\u00a0that described\u00a0a generation of young adults who were confident, digitally connected and open to social change. We revisited\u00a0Millennials\u00a0this year<\/a>, and found they are\u00a0relatively unattached to organized politics and some core social institutions, like\u00a0marriage and religion. Despite low levels of social trust and heavy debt burdens, they are\u00a0optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n\n

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What does the world think about _____?<\/strong>\u00a0We have conducted nearly\u00a0400,000 interviews in 63 countries as part of our Global Attitudes survey, examining the biggest topics of the day, ranging from the\u00a0economy<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0values gap between U.S. and Europe<\/a>,\u00a0to\u00a0Islamic extremism<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0what is morally acceptable<\/a>\u00a0in different countries around the world.<\/p>\n\n

We’ve found\u00a0a shift in global perceptions of the balance of power<\/a> between the U.S. and China: Majorities or pluralities in most countries surveyed this year say China either has surpassed or will surpass the U.S. as the world\u2019s leading superpower, though\u00a0more still say that the U.S. is the world\u2019s leading economy.\u00a0America’s image abroad is also changing. There is widespread global opposition to U.S. eavesdropping and drone use<\/a>\u00a0and a decline in the view that the U.S. respects the personal freedoms of its people.<\/p>\n\n

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How is religion changing in America and around the\u00a0world?<\/strong>\u00a0Since 2007 we\u2019ve been closely tracking the percentage of U.S. adults who don\u2019t identify with any religion<\/a>. One-in-five Americans \u2013 and a third of adults under 30 \u2013 now fit this category. Americans, as a whole, are ambivalent about the trend<\/a>: About half say that having \u201cmore people who are not religious\u201d is bad for society, while the other half say it\u2019s either \u201ca good thing\u201d or doesn\u2019t matter. The rise of the \u201cnones\u201d is evident even among minority groups such as U.S. Hispanic<\/a>\u00a0adults, nearly a quarter of whom (24%) are former Catholics who now identify mostly as Protestants or as unaffiliated.<\/p>\n\n

Overall, our surveys show that religious affiliation in the U.S. is remarkably fluid. More than a quarter of the 35,000 American adults we interviewed in a massive 2007 survey had left the religious tradition<\/a> in which they were raised in favor of another religion or no religion at all. Yet the United States remains a highly religious country with a sizeable Christian majority and, by global standards, a relatively low level of religious diversity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Around the world, about 5.8 billion people, or more than 80% of the Earth\u2019s population, identified with some religion as of 2010, according to our demographic analysis<\/a> of censuses and surveys in more than 230 countries and territories. Overall, Christians accounted for about a third of the world\u2019s population (32%), and Muslims made up nearly a quarter (23%). Our cross-national survey<\/a> of more than 38,000 Muslims in 39 countries found that many would like sharia \u2013 traditional Islamic law \u2013 to be recognized as the official law of their country, but they vary widely in their views on exactly what sharia entails.<\/p>\n\n

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How is the American family changing?<\/strong>\u00a0The roles of moms and dads have converged over the past 50 years<\/a>, as dads took\u00a0on\u00a0more housework and child care while more mothers joined the workforce. There has also been\u00a0a long-term\u00a0rise in the share of households in which\u00a0mothers are the sole or primary breadwinner<\/a>. More than a third\u00a0of these households are headed by married mothers who have a higher income than their husbands, while 63% are headed by single mothers. At the same time, the share of households\u00a0with stay-at-home moms<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has ticked up in recent years after decades of decline, while the number of\u00a0stay-at-home fathers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(while still small) has nearly doubled since 1989. The number\u00a0of\u00a0multi-generational households<\/a>\u00a0has also doubled since 1980; young adults (ages 25 to 34) have been a major component of this growth,\u00a0especially since 2010.<\/p>\n\n

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What is the state of American journalism?<\/strong>\u00a0We have been studying the American news media for over a decade, following the industry through a tumultuous time as the rise of the internet upended a decades-old business model. This year’s State of the News Media<\/a> report (the 11th edition) found new optimism in the industry due\u00a0to\u00a0the arrival of\u00a0new digital players, the growth of new revenue streams\u00a0and more evidence than ever that news is a part of the explosion of social media and mobile devices. But there’s also\u00a0been a severe loss of jobs — particularly in newspaper newsrooms\u00a0— and total revenue supporting American journalism has declined<\/a> by one-third since 2006.<\/p>\n\n

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How is the face of America changing?\u00a0<\/strong>Overall, more than 40 million immigrants<\/span><\/a> live in the U.S., more than in any other country worldwide. T<\/span>he nation\u2019s demographics are changing in other ways too. Nearly half of babies born in the U.S. today are a racial or ethnic minority<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0Hispanics are the largest U.S. minority group,\u00a0comprising 17%<\/a> of the U.S. population.\u00a0Our Hispanic Trends Project is well known for its work\u00a0tracking the huge rise in the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population. Our most recent estimate\u00a0found this growth is tapering off:\u00a011.3 million unauthorized immigrants<\/a> were living in the U.S. in 2013, about the same as in 2012 and 2009.<\/p>\n\n

As the nation becomes more racially diverse, its population\u00a0is also aging<\/a>, though\u00a0not as\u00a0rapidly as the populations of some other countries. Both of these trends mean that, by 2060,\u00a0America will look very different: Our population will be majority non-white and our median age will edge above 40 — both major demographic milestones. A\u00a0new book, “The Next America<\/a>,” by Pew Research Center’s Paul Taylor, and an accompanying\u00a0interactive essay<\/a>,\u00a0explains how these demographic changes have, and will, impact our politics, social values and economy.<\/p>\n\n

How have the U.S. wars of the past decade\u00a0changed America and the world?<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong>The Iraq war damaged America\u2019s global reputation<\/a> during the Bush years, but the U.S. image\u00a0improved markedly<\/a> when Barack Obama took office. Our recent research has found evidence of war fatigue among the American public. Our 2013 survey found that, for the first time in 40 years of polling,\u00a0a majority of Americans believed\u00a0the U.S. plays a less important and powerful role<\/a> as a world leader than it did a decade ago. In that survey, conducted before sentiment began to shift<\/a> following the current crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, an increasing number of Americans\u00a0wanted the U.S. to mind its own business internationally.<\/p>\n\n