Having a secure job replaces homeownership as the key to being middle-class
Nearly nine-in-ten Americans now say having a secure job is essential to being in the middle-class; in 1991, it was homeownership.
Around the world, governments promote home ownership
High on Congress’ long to-do list is deciding what to do about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant government-run companies that dominate the nation’s mortgage market (together they accounted for 78% of all mortgage-backed securities issued in the first quarter of this year). Which is another way of saying, Congress has to decide […]
Obama returns focus to America’s struggling middle class
As President Obama prepares to make a "major" speech on the economy today, our past reports describe the challenges the middle class has faced in the past decades.
Chart of the Week: Keeping track of the world’s richest people
If you've ever woken up wondering "Is Bill Gates or Carlos Slim the world's richest person today?", Bloomberg's new visualization of data on the 100 richest billionaires is for you.
Welcome to the Global Middle-Class Surge
By Alan Murray, President, Pew Research Center This op-ed was published in The Wall Street Journal on July 18, 2013. The mass uprisings this summer in Egypt, Turkey and Brazil are powerful reminders that the middle classes drive history. What remains unclear, however, is where they are driving it. The world today is witnessing its third great […]
The politics and demographics of food stamp recipients
The House on July 11 passed a farm bill stripped of funding for food stamps. A Pew Research survey last year found about one-in-five (22%) of Democrats say they had received food stamps compared with 10% of Republicans.
Chart of the Week: The landscape of food assistance
A chart based on American Community Survey data shows how unevenly food stamp recipients are distributed across the country.
Mapping Mediterranean Misery
The closer the country is to the outer edge of the spider graph, the more negative its attitudes are; the closer it is to the center of the graph, the more positive its attitudes are. To see more countries, select in the legend below.
Economic recovery favors the more-affluent who own stocks
While the stock market has been surging, there is a big gap who who benefits that has implications for the strength of the economic recovery.
Breadwinner Moms
A record 40% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The share was just 11% in 1960.
