Demographics & Politics

Just over half of Americans (53%) say there are “still significant obstacles that make it harder for women to get ahead than men,” while somewhat fewer (45%) say “the obstacles that once made it harder for women than men to get ahead are now largely gone.”

As the political season transitioned from the primaries to the general election campaign, many American churchgoers were hearing at least some discussion of social and political issues from the pulpits at their houses of worship.

In the 1972 and 1976 elections, there was no difference in candidate support between men and women. But over the last nine presidential elections, women have consistently voted for Democratic presidential candidates at higher rates than men.

A majority of black Americans say that at some point in their lives they’ve experienced discrimination or were treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity, but blacks who have attended college are more likely than those without any college experience to say so.

In 2008, Barack Obama won 88 of the 100 largest U.S. counties; four years later he won 86 of them. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won more than a third of the 100 biggest counties was 1988.

Evangelicals and churchgoing Republicans were initially skeptical of Trump, but their support for him has now firmed up.

Since 1945, Democratic presidents have appointed three times as many black judges, and also more Hispanic and Asian judges, to the federal bench as their Republican counterparts.

Blacks and whites differ on the extent to which a person's race can be a burden or a benefit. For blacks, the answer is clear: 65% say “it is a lot more difficult to be black in this country than it is to be white.” Fewer than half as many whites (27%) agree.

Clinton backers are nearly twice as likely as those who support Donald Trump to say the treatment of minorities is very important to their 2016 decision (79% vs. 42%).