Pew Research Center Staff

Nearly half (46%) of unauthorized adult immigrants in the U.S. today are parents of minor children.

Between May 2 and Nov. 27 of this year, there were more than 1.1 million postings on Twitter about Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul. He received far more discussion on social media than in the traditional news outlets.

The federal government has proposed banning the use of personal electronic devices while driving. How widespread is that use? A Pew Research Center study found that 27% of American adults say they have texted while driving, and 61% say they have talked on their cell phones while behind the wheel.

Senior research staff answer questions from readers relating to all the areas covered by our seven projects, ranging from polling techniques and findings, to media, technology, religious, demographic and global attitudes trends.

About three-in-ten (31%) Americans say that their impression of the Republican presidential field is getting worse as they learn more about the candidates.

The Census Bureau has developed an alternative measure of poverty that takes into account a wider range of factors than the official poverty measure. The alternative measure sets the poverty threshold for 2010 at $24,343, which is $2,230 higher than the official measure for a two-adult two-child family.

Nearly eight-in-ten (77%) Democrats believe there is solid evidence of global warming compared to 43% of Republicans.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the 10.2 million unauthorized adult immigrants in the United States have lived in this country for at least 10 years.

Large majorities of people in three former Soviet republics -- Russia (82%), Lithuania (91%) and Ukraine (95%) -- believe that politicians far more than ordinary people have benefited from the changes that have taken place in their countries since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The political conversation on Twitter is markedly different than that on blogs—and both are decidedly different than the political narrative presented by the mainstream press, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism that analyzed more than 20 million tweets, the online conversation and traditional news coverage about the campaign.