Short Reads

For many people, “majority” is a word so common that they rarely have to think twice about what it means. But it’s a different matter for polling organizations like Pew Research Center. At the Center, writers cannot label a survey finding a “majority” unless it meets specific criteria.

Younger Americans are less likely than their elders and partisans are more likely than independents to have positive views of past congressional candidate pools in their districts.

Americans pray more often, are more likely to attend weekly religious services and ascribe higher importance to faith in their lives than adults in other wealthy, Western democracies, such as Canada, Australia and most European states, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.

About six-in-ten Americans say higher education in the United States is going in the wrong direction. Republicans and Democrats are worlds apart on why.

About half of Americans believe that within the next 50 years science will find a way to eliminate virtually all birth defects through gene editing. Yet majorities of Americans harbor at least some reservations about the impact on society of more widespread use of gene editing.

For the average moderate legislator, about 54% of a member’s Facebook posts discussed local issues between 2015 and 2017. But for the average very liberal or very conservative legislator, just 38% of posts dealt with local issues.

A record 276,500 foreign graduates received work permits under the Optional Practical Training program in the U.S. in 2017, up from 257,100 in 2016.

Across Western Europe, people who say they personally know a Muslim are generally more likely than others to have positive opinions of Muslims and their religion. However, knowing something about Islam – as opposed to personally knowing a Muslim – is less associated with positive feelings of Muslims and Islam.

At the same time, 73% of people in the United Kingdom say they would like to see some powers currently held by the EU returned to national governments. A majority say membership in the EU has been a good thing for their nation's economy.

Generation Xers were hit particularly hard in the recession. Yet Gen Xers are the only generation of households to recover the wealth they lost in the downturn.