Recent Publications

PewResearch.org features major reports, data-driven commentary and analysis, news stories, transcripts and presentations on trends in public opinion and related policy issues in the Pew Research Center's areas of special concentration: U.S. public opinion, global attitudes, the news media, the impact of the internet on American life, the role of religion in public life, the changing experiences of Hispanics in America and social and demographic trends.

When the material resides on project sites, summaries appear on the PewResearch.org site, with links to the full documents on the particular project web site. The archive of past reports and other features include material posted directly on pewresearch.org beginning in February 2006. Complete lists of all project reports and other features, including archives of material released prior to February 2006, can be found on the individual project websites.

The Paradoxical Relationship of Religion and Science
6 Nov 09While most embrace science and its benefits, strong religious convictions can affect some Americans' willingness to accept certain theories and discoveries. A new report examines the history of science and religion, the debates about them and how the two have been both adversaries and allies.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Bloggers Express Outrage Over Assault
5 Nov 09Many commentators put as much blamed the bystanders to the crime, and American society and culture, as those who actively participated.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Swine Flu Interest Outpaces Coverage
68% Hearing "Mostly Bad News" about Jobs
5 Nov 09The public's impression of economic news remains mixed at best, with 68% hearing "mostly bad news" about jobs.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Public Divided Over Afghan Troop Requests, But Still Sees Rationale for War
5 Nov 09As Obama weighs difficult choices in Afghanistan, the public also appears to be finding it difficult to judge the merits of different options for expanding, maintaining or contracting the U.S. effort on that front.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Social Isolation and New Technology
How the Internet and Mobile Phones Impact Americans' Social Networks
4 Nov 09A new study challenges previous research and commonplace fears about the harmful social impact of internet and cell phone use.
Pew Internet & American Life Project

Not Much New News
3 Nov 09For the fourth week in a row, health care, Afghanistan and the economic crisis accounted for roughly 40% of the newshole.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

End of Communism Cheered But Now With More Reservations
Two Decades After the Wall's Fall
2 Nov 09Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, publics of former Iron Curtain countries generally look back approvingly at the collapse of communism. However, enthusiasm about these changes has dimmed in most of the countries surveyed, and many say that most people were better off under communism.
Pew Global Attitudes Project

Partisanship and Cable News Audiences
30 Oct 09In recent years, Republican viewers have migrated increasingly to Fox News but Democrats comprise a larger share of the Fox News audience than Republicans do of CNN's audience.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

How the Public Judges News Network Ideology
Swine Flu Tops Weekly News Interest
29 Oct 09The perception of Fox News as mostly conservative is shared across news audiences, but Fox News viewers are more likely to see the other cable and network stations as mostly liberal.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Float On: Balloon Boy Still King Online
Global Warming Skeptics Find Big Audience on Blogs
29 Oct 09Anger over the drama surrounding Falcon Heene lived on in the blogs. Meanwhile, those on Twitter celebrated the five billionth tweet.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

The “Zeal of the Convert”: Is It the Real Deal?
29 Oct 09People who have switched religions consistently exhibit higher levels of religious commitment than those who still belong to their childhood faith, but the differences are relatively modest.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

College Enrollment Hits All-Time High, Fueled by Community College Surge
29 Oct 09Driven by a recession-era surge in enrollments at community college, the number of Americans ages 18 to 24 attending college hits a new high, while the high school dropout rate falls to a record low.
Social & Demographic Trends

Searching For Clues in the Global Warming Puzzle
27 Oct 09Why do fewer Americans believe the earth is warming? A range of possibilities, including a sour economy and, perhaps, a cooler than normal summer in parts of the U.S., may provide an explanation.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Bonus Coverage
White House vs. Fox is a Top Story
27 Oct 09Anger over Wall Street compensation brought the economy back onto the media's radar. Also, Obama versus Fox News made news on all outlets.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Social Media Float in Thin Air
Global Warming and Balloon Boy Take Up Online Talk
22 Oct 09While blogs filled with global warming skepticism, the rest of social media tweeted about Balloon Boy.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Public Finds Afghanistan News Unchanging, Hard to Follow
Growing Number Expects Health Care Bill to Pass
22 Oct 09As interest in the war remains modest, most Americans are unable to correctly estimate the number of U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan. Also, a majority now expects health care reform to pass.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming
Modest Support for “Cap and Trade” Policy
22 Oct 09There has been a sharp decline in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. Still, there is more support than opposition for cap and trade policy.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

RT: More Americans Tweeting
19% of Internet Users on Twitter or Another Service
21 Oct 09One-in-five online Americans are now on Twitter. Those on social networking websites, mobile internet users and young adults have been most responsible for the proliferation of tweets.
Pew Internet & American Life Project

Balloon Boy Takes Media for a Ride
Snowe Day Puts Health Care News Atop Media Agenda
20 Oct 09While votes and arguments about health care lead the media agenda for the full week, the story of an empty balloon was the No. 1 topic from Thursday on.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Email, Nobel and Dave
15 Oct 09News of an email scam that compromised thousands of passwords animated the blogosphere until late in the week, when the focus shifted abruptly to Barack Obama’s surprising Nobel Peace Prize. On YouTube, a Letterman mea culpa drew the most hits.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Updated Demographic Profiles of U.S. Hispanics by Country of Origin
15 Oct 09Five demographic profiles of Hispanic populations in the U.S. by country of origin -- Guatemalan, Colombian, Honduran, Ecuadorian and Peruvian -- have been added to the profiles of the five largest Hispanic populations -- Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, and Dominican -- posted earlier in the year by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Pew Hispanic Center

Swine Flu News Gets a Shot in the Arm
Fewer than Half Would Get Vaccine
15 Oct 09Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the media are overstating the danger of the swine flu and that they would not get vaccinated.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

The States of Marriage and Divorce
Lots of Ex’s Live in Texas
15 Oct 09Marriage, divorce and remarriage rates vary significantly among states as do average education and income levels. Analysis of new Census data reveals some interesting patterns.
Social & Demographic Trends

But What Do the Polls Show?
How public opinion surveys came to play a major role in policymaking and politics
14 Oct 09Perhaps the best way to think about public opinion and its relationship to politics and policymaking is that the American public is typically short on facts, but often long on judgment.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

What Does the Public Know?
Well-Known: Public Option, Sotomayor
Little-Known: Cap & Trade, Baucus
14 Oct 09There is a lot to keep up with in the news right now. Many Americans know key facts about health care and the economy, but questions about Afghanistan and environmental legislation in Congress stump the public.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Afghanistan No Longer a Forgotten War
Coverage Focused on Internal Debate Over Troops Levels
14 Oct 09After years of being ignored by the media -- the war accounted for only 1% of the newshole in 2008 -- Afghanistan has emerged atop the news agenda.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Obama's Nobel Prize
9 Oct 09News that President Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is another sign of his international appeal, as his election effectively turned around America's negative image in many countries.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Global Attitudes Project

Most Still Oppose Gay Marriage, but Support for Civil Unions Continues to Rise
9 Oct 09A 57% majority of Americans support civil unions, continuing a long-term trend of increasing support, but a majority still opposes same-sex marriage. The issue continues to sharply divide religious and political groups.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Celebrity Jeopardy: Blogs Talk Polanski
8 Oct 09The Roman Polanski saga generated three times the news links as did the second-largest story in the blogosphere.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Mother Nature Makes News
8 Oct 09A trio of tragedies -- a typhoon, a tsunami and an earthquake -- combined to make Sept. 28-Oct. 4 the second-biggest week of natural disaster coverage in 2009, confirming again the tendency of network newscasts to devote significant coverage to such disasters. An interactive feature charts media coverage of these and other disasters of recent years.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Mixed Views of Economic Policies and Health Care Reform Persist
8 Oct 09Most Americans remain optimistic that Barack Obama’s policies will help the economy, but see no clear signs of recovery yet; many key provisions of health care reform remain popular but support for the overall package has slipped.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Public Renews Rx for Health Care News
Debate Still Interesting and Important, but also Hard to Follow
8 Oct 09Health care has been the public's top story for weeks, and few say it has received too much media coverage. But a large majority still finds the topic hard to understand.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Mapping the Global Muslim Population
A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population
8 Oct 09A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today, representing 23% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion. A series of interactive maps show the size and distribution of the worldwide Muslim population.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

The Changing Pathways of Hispanic Youths into Adulthood
7 Oct 09Even as their share of the young adult population has risen dramatically, young Latino adults in the United States have become more likely to be in school or the work force now than their counterparts were in previous generations.
Pew Hispanic Center

Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap
7 Oct 09Almost all Latino young adults say a college education is important, but only half say they themselves plan to get a degree. The reason for the disparity: Immigrants, who feel financial pressures to support a family, are half as likely as native-born Latinos to plan on graduating.
Pew Hispanic Center

Media Fan Olympic Flame
Foreign Affairs Stay in the News
6 Oct 09Obama's decision to lobby directly to bring the games to Chicago provided grist for the partisan Washington mill last week.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Public Supports Military Action Against Iran to Prevent Nuclear Weapons
Diplomacy Favored, But Most Doubt Its Effectiveness
6 Oct 09About six-in-ten Americans feel it is more important to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons with military force than to avoid conflict. However, most also approve of direct negotiations and tougher economic sanctions. The efficacy of diplomacy is questioned, though.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Covering the Great Recession
How the Media Have Depicted the Economic Crisis
5 Oct 09The gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression has been covered in the media largely from the top down, told primarily from the perspective of the Obama administration and big business.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Strong Support For Watchdog Role, Despite Public Criticism Of News Media
2 Oct 09The percentage of Americans saying that press criticism of political leaders keeps them honest is nearly as high now as it was in the 1980s, when views of the media were far less negative than they are today.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Health Care: Politics in the Pews
Religious Groups Weigh In on Health Care Reform
2 Oct 09Many religious organizations have taken on the look of political campaigns, as advocates for and against health care reform preach their politics.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Blogs: Under the Table and Screaming
1 Oct 09Rants about troop levels in Afghanistan and Dave Matthews’s comments about the element of racism in opposition to Obama dominated the blogosphere.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Support for Abortion Slips
Issue Ranks Lower on the Agenda
1 Oct 09The election of President Obama may have moved the needle on abortion opinion. Opposition to abortion is up among Republicans, while opinion has changed little among the president’s strongest backers. As the importance of abortion as an issue has declined among liberals, opposition from conservatives has become more firm.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

The Harried Life of the Working Mother
1 Oct 09A solid majority of Americans (75%) reject the idea that women should return to their traditional roles in society, but many women remain conflicted about the competing roles they play at work and at home.
Social & Demographic Trends

Media Have Less Influence on Views about Health Care, Economy
Health Care Debate Continues to Top News Interest
30 Sep 09News outlets play much less of a role in shaping views of health reform and the economy -- where personal experiences are an important factor -- than they do on environmental issues and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Foreign Policy at the Forefront
Health Care Coverage Falls Off
30 Sep 09Taking a detour from the health care debate, the media moved to foreign affairs, covering the UN and continuing their recent scrutiny of Afghanistan.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Where the News Comes From -- And Why It Matters
25 Sep 09Newspapers are still the largest originating, gathering source of real news; the crisis they face is not loss of audience but loss of revenue.
Pew Research Center

Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access
25 Sep 09Six-in-ten Hispanic adults living in the United States who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents lack health insurance.
Pew Hispanic Center

Blogs Focus on Obama Critics
24 Sep 09Online, three storylines dominated a week spent in large part in assessing the president's standing with the American public.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

What Divides America?
Immigration and Income -- Not Race -- Are Seen as Primary Sources of Social Conflict
24 Sep 09While conflict over race may be America's most historical and inflamed division, more Americans currently see divisions between immigrants and native-born Americans, as well as rich-poor divides, as stronger social conflicts.
Social & Demographic Trends

Salazar v. Buono: Can Government Give One Religion's Symbol Prominence in a Public Park?
24 Sep 09The Supreme Court will soon take up a case with the potential to determine the fate of a cross on display in the Mojave National Preserve, as well as similar religious displays across the country. The court's decision might also determine who may bring Establishment Clause lawsuits in federal court in the future.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life