Short Reads

President Obama said the inclusion of openly gay athletes in the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia underscores American values. Obama and his administration had been viewed positively by LGBT Americans even before this most recent expression of support for LGBT rights.

Here are some data points that measure how the public in the U.S. and around the world see the challenges ahead for 2014.

Most U.S. adults believe Jesus was born of a virgin, including one-third of Americans with no specific religious affiliation.

One-in-five adults who don’t have kids that believe in Santa still plan on a visit from Santa this year.

How much do you know about the world’s Christian population? Which country has the largest Catholic population, and which has the largest number of Protestants? W have a short, ten-question quiz on the global Christian population to test your knowledge.

Congress enacted 57 laws -- just 49 of them substantive -- in the first session of its two-year term, the smallest first-year legislative output in nearly two decades.

In the course of conducting public opinion surveys and demographic analyses, the Pew Research Center found a wide range of data milestones, breakthroughs, peaks and valleys in 2013.

About eight-in-ten non-Christians in the U.S. celebrate Christmas.

Polling organizations devote a great deal of attention to the wording of survey questions, but they need to be just as concerned about how questions are ordered. The context in which a specific question is asked, particularly what directly precedes a question in a telephone interview, often has an impact on the way people respond.