Publications

Asian Americans are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center.

The nation’s racial and ethnic minority groups—especially Hispanics—are growing more rapidly than the non-Hispanic white population, fueled by both immigration and births.

At the Population Association of America’s annual conference in San Francisco this week, papers on the recession’s impact on families, wealth, children, young adults, older Americans and other realms of life will be presented in at least 10 of the 200-plus sessions. Much of the research is preliminary, but it raises intriguing questions. One paper tries to assess whether the poor economy has affected divorce rates.

The Population Association of America's annual conference this week includes posters and papers by Pew Research Center authors. The posting includes links to their work.

Starting in 2013, the Census Bureau would like all of the more than 3 million households that receive its American Community Survey to be pushed to respond online, instead of mailing back the traditional paper questionnaire. The bureau recently released results of a test of online response that had some encouraging results.

In a reversal of traditional gender roles, young women now surpass young men in the importance they place on having a high-paying career or profession.

Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s comment this week about Ann Romney’s lack of work experience has put the “mommy wars” back in the news. Here is a summary of surveys in recent years that explore public attitudes about issues related to women, work and motherhood.

A new Pew Hispanic Center survey includes findings on how U.S. Latinos prefer to describe themselves, as well as their views on race, shared culture, language use, the immigrant experience and other topics. A central finding is that slightly more than half prefer to describe themselves by their family's country of origin, while only a minority use the words "Hispanic" or "Latino."

The release of records from the 1940 Census will help people research their family history, although at first the records can only be searched by address, not name. This posting details some of the findings and methods of the 1940 Census.