Income, Wealth & Poverty

The economic crisis topped the news agenda last week as Wall Street pay packages triggered anger and action in Washington. Agreement on a runoff election also generated a spike in Afghanistan coverage, and hostilities between the White House and Fox News made the roster of top stories.

Just as in offline politics, the well-off and well-educated are especially likely to participate in online activities that mirror offline forms of engagement. But there are hints that social media may alter this pattern.

Older adults are less likely than younger and middle-aged adults to say that in the past year they have cut back on spending; suffered losses in their retirement accounts; or experienced trouble paying for housing or medical care.

The boom-and-bust cycle in the U.S. housing market over the past decade and a half has generated greater gains and larger losses for minority groups than it has for whites, according to an analysis of housing, economic and demographic data.

The nation's 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants are more geographically dispersed than in the past, according to a new demographic and geographic analysis of this group that includes population and labor force estimates for each state.

The eight-year period from 1999 through 2007 is the longest in modern U.S. economic history in which inflation-adjusted median household income failed to surpass an earlier peak.

A 28-point divide separates Democrats and Republicans on the question of losing ground with respect to the gap between rich and poor.

This statistical profile of the Latino population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau's 2007 American Community Survey.

This statistical profile of the foreign-born population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau's 2007 American Community Survey.