Short Reads

A survey of more than 38,000 Muslims in 39 countries and territories found that a median of 93% say they fast during Ramadan.

Political unrest continued in Egypt after a chaotic political week in which two of the key players – both unpopular with the Egyptian public – illustrated the difficulty in finding a leader who can overcome the country’s divisions.

The immigration bill approved by the Senate now goes to the Republican-controlled House. Here's a look at public opinion among Republicans on the issues involved.

In 2011, a strong majority of the world’s population lived in countries with high religious restrictions.

Every month when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its jobs report, people home in on one particular metric: the unemployment rate. But there are a lot of other interesting and potentially significant data in the report, though interpreting them appropriately can be tricky. Take, for example, the duration of unemployment. There’s little doubt that more […]

The overall U.S. birth rate declined to an all-time low in 2011. Birth rates reached an all-time low among women in their teens and early 20s, while rising to the highest level in four decades among women in their early 40s.

At midyear, the national opinion polls provide little indication of which way the political wind is blowing looking ahead to 2014, and 2016. Most of the key public opinion measures are mixed, or uncertain.

Compared to other generations, a smaller percentage of Millennials say the U.S. is the greatest country in the world.

When casinos come to town, an increase in public corruption is likely to follow. Or so claim two economists who studied federal corruption conviction rates in states before and after they legalized casino gambling. They focused on the years 1985 to 2000, a period of intense efforts by the casino industry to legalize casinos in […]

In Egypt, the government’s restrictions on religion also are coupled with a Muslim public that is considerably less tolerant of religious pluralism than Muslims elsewhere.