The Sunni-Shia divide: Where they live, what they believe and how they view each other
Iraq and Iran are two of only a handful of countries that have more Shias than Sunnis.
Why timely, reliable data on mass killings is hard to find
Several government agencies and nonprofit groups gather and publish data on school shootings and other public mass killings. But because of data lags and differing definitions, getting a clear read on overall trends is surprisingly hard.
Which party is more to blame for political polarization? It depends on the measure
Our report on political polarization in America has renewed debate among journalists and academics over what is called “asymmetrical polarization” – the idea that one party has moved further ideologically than the other. A number of congressional scholars have concluded that the widening partisan gap in Congress is attributable mostly to a rightward shift among […]
A dug-in electorate bodes poorly for the Democrats in November
Since the Affordable Care Act was passed nearly four years ago, a plurality of Americans have disapproved of it. Since the onset of the Great Recession 6 years ago, more than 80% of Americans have rated economic conditions as only fair or poor. And since winning a second term, Barack Obama’s approval score has mostly been in the mid-40s or lower.
In countries near Syria, widespread fear about the spread of violence, extremists
Middle East worries about spreading violence and a possible triumph by extremists in Syria have been evident in Pew Research surveys the past two years.
So, you married an atheist…
Most Christians would be unhappy if a family member married an atheist.
5 facts about the World Cup – and the people who are watching
Aside from the Olympics, there are few events that garner as much global coverage as the World Cup.
One-in-four Native Americans and Alaska Natives are living in poverty
On his visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota today, President Obama is using his first stop at a Native American reservation while in office to highlight the challenges Native Americans face. In an op-ed published in Indian Country Today, Obama called the poverty and high school dropout rates among Native Americans […]
Why we didn’t include the y-axis on our polarization chart
In a histogram, it’s the area under the curve that matters, not the height of any specific point. The total area under the curve is equal to 100% of respondents, but we are most interested in where respondents fall along the horizontal axis.
Chart of the Week: The World Cup of (almost) everything
Interactive brackets let you see how the 32 nations competing in the World Cup stack up on 70 different sporting, economic and social indicators.
