Short Reads

The report on the racial and ethnic breakdown of voters in 2012 released Wednesday by the Census Bureau attracted lots of well-deserved attention. But for readers of political tea-leaves, a report the bureau issued last December tells an even more compelling story. That report projected the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. population through […]

52.9% of women aged 15-44, or about 32.5 million, were mothers in 2010, according to the Census Bureau. The U.S. birth rate dipped in 2011 to the lowest ever recorded, led by a plunge in births to immigrant women since the onset of the Great Recession. Today’s mothers have more education than ever before, according […]

Pakistanis will go to the polls Saturday in parliamentary elections that mark the first democratic transition from one elected civilian government to another in their country’s 66-year history. But support for democracy is thin in Pakistan, according to a Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the world. By a nearly two-to-one margin (56% to […]

From 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the most affluent 8 million households rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244.

The number of gun owners who say that protection is their top reason for having one has risen 22 percentage points since 1999.

Are you planning to wish your mom a Happy Mother’s Day on Facebook? If so, you’re not alone. “Moms” (defined as women with a child or children under the age of 18 living at home) are especially likely to be Facebook users, even compared with dads, or with other women, according to Pew Research Center’s 2012 […]

When 91% of the public thinks the country is on the wrong track, it’s usually a good sign for the opposition’s electoral hopes, and as Pakistan prepares for parliamentary elections on May 11, supporters of two major opposition parties are feeling optimistic. Moreover, as a new Pew Research Center poll highlights, the leaders of those […]

With the stock market hitting new highs and home prices marking their strongest gains since before the bubble burst, it’s starting to feel like a real economic recovery. But which is the better investment over time? That depends largely on your definition of “long term.” As the accompanying charts show, since the formal end of the […]

Today’s report from the Census Bureau on the diversifying American electorate in 2012 confirms an historic turnout milestone first noted last December by the Pew Research Center, but undercuts a number of other widely-reported demographic analyses of last year’s presidential vote. Here are the six most important take-aways from Census Bureau data: 1. For the […]

More than half of Americans have received government benefits at some point from a major federal entitlement program.