Latest Reports

Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality

The Markers of Old Age
29 Jun 09 Getting old isn't nearly as bad as people think it will be. Nor is it quite as good. On aspects of everyday life ranging from mental acuity to financial security, a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey finds a sizable gap between expectations that young and middle-aged adults have about old age and actual experiences reported by older adults themselves.

The survey also found that the generation gap is wider now than it has been at any time in the past 40 years. Nearly eight-in-ten adults say there is "a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today," up from 74% in 1969 at the height of the counterculture's challenges to the establishment.

Oldest are Most Sheltered

Different Age Groups, Different Recessions

Different Age Groups, Different Recessions
14 May 09 The ongoing recession has had different impacts on different age groups. Adults 65 and older have escaped its full fury. Adults in late middle age (50 to 64) have seen their nest eggs shrink the most and their anxieties about retirement swell the most. Younger adults (ages 18-49) have taken the worst lumps in the job market but remain relatively upbeat about their financial future, according to a new national survey by the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project.

28 May 09 Most Middle Aged Adults Are Rethinking Retirement Plans

Luxury or Necessity? The Public Makes a U-Turn

23 Apr 09 Americans are paring down the list of familiar household appliances they say they can't live without, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. No longer do substantial majorities of the public say a microwave oven, a television set or even home air conditioning is a necessity. Instead, nearly half or more now see each of these items as a luxury. Similarly, the proportion that considers a dishwasher or a clothes dryer to be essential has dropped sharply in the past three years.

Denver Tops List of Favorite Cities

For Nearly Half of America, Grass Is Greener Somewhere Else

29 Jan 09 Nearly half (46%) of the public would rather live in a different type of community from the one they\'re living in now - a sentiment most prevalent among city dwellers, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. When asked where they would like to live, respondents rank Denver, San Diego and Seattle at the top of a list of 30 large cities, and Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati at the bottom.

How Does Your Community Rate?

See How You Compare
Rate your community as a place to live, then compare your responses to those from our national survey.

A State-by-State Typology

Magnet or Sticky?

Magnet or Sticky?

11 Mar 09 Alaska has trouble keeping 'em down on the tundra: Just 28% of adults born in that state still live there, placing it 50th on this measure of state population "stickiness." New York, meantime, is the nation's least "magnetic" state: Just 19% of its current residents were born in another state. Find out where your state lands on these novel measures of state migration patterns.

Home Sweet Homes

Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where's Home?

Home Sweet Homes
29 Dec 08 Americans are settling down: Only 11.9% of the U.S. population changed residences between 2007 and 2008, the lowest share since the 1940s. A new national survey by the Pew Research Center and an analysis of Census data explore geographic mobility in the United States.

Fully 63% of all adults have moved to a new community at least once in their lives while 37% have never left their hometowns. Job or business opportunities are the biggest reasons people say they moved. Those who never left their home towns list family connections as the reason they never moved away.

Also, more than one in five adults say the place "in their heart" they consider home isn't the place they're living now.
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Noted Elsewhere
Noted Elsewhere

Do Top Teachers Avoid Minority Schools?

Posted: 29 Jun 09
Journal of Labor Economics
High-quality teachers tend to leave schools that experience an increase in black students, a Cornell University researcher found. C. Krabo Jackson studied what happened when the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district ended its race-based busing program in 2002, suddenly distributing minority students across the schools. He found that the share of top teachers immediately declined in schools that experienced an increase in minority enrollment, suggesting that teachers moved in anticipation of more black students.
Read a summary

The Alphabet Effect on Charitable Giving

Posted: 15 Jun 09
National Bureau of Economic Research
People are more likely to make charitable donations if asked personally rather than via email or mail, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that used real-world data to replicate experimental findings. Volunteer alumni from one university called prospects on an alphabetized list, but did not have time to finish the list. Prospects with names at the front of the alphabet, researchers report, were most likely to donate.
Read the abstract

Facebook Use and Grades

Posted: 1 Jun 09
Ohio State University
College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than other students, according to researchers at Ohio State University. Overall, Facebook users averaged one to five hours a week studying and had grade point averages between 3.0 and 3.5. In contrast, non-users studied 11 to 15 hours per week and had GPAs of 3.5 to 4.0.
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About the Project
The Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project studies behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key realms of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure. The project explores these topics by combining original public opinion survey research with social, economic and demographic data analysis. Read more
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