Author: Beshay

(Tempura/Getty Images) Young adults in the United States are reaching family and financial milestones later in life than they were 40 years ago. That begs the question: What are the best ages to reach these milestones? What do people in other countries think is the best age for these milestones? We also asked about these life events in 18 other, mostly middle-income countries where we survey people face-to-face. The responses look generally similar to the ones Americans give (among those who say there is a best age for each event). On average across the 18 non-U.S. countries, people say it…

With Congress considering legislation that would extend the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration, a majority of Americans continue to say taxes should be increased, not decreased, for large businesses and corporations. They also say this for household income over $400,000 a year. More than six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say tax rates on large businesses and corporations should be raised. This includes 34% who say they should be raised a lot. Another 19% say large businesses’ tax rates should be lowered, while 17% say they should be kept the same as they are now. About six-in-ten (58%) say…

Elon Musk (left) listens as President-elect Donald Trump addresses the House Republican Conference in November 2024 in Washington, D.C.; Mark Zuckerberg appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) Americans’ views of two prominent tech executives – Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – tilt more negative than positive. Musk is a deeply polarizing figure, with Republicans largely viewing him favorably and Democrats largely unfavorably. By contrast, views of Zuckerberg are less polarized, with majorities in both parties viewing him unfavorably. Just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they have…

The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities. Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Knight Foundation is a social investor committed to supporting informed and engaged communities. Learn more > About one-in-five U.S. adults (21%) say they regularly get news from news influencers on social media, according to our recent study. The study is part of the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the…

Influencers make a social media video about Sponge Cake the cat in New York City’s Times Square on Jan. 19, 2025. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images) On TikTok, Americans often follow people who have a strong social media presence. These people are often referred to as “influencers” or “content creators,” though they rarely use either term to describe themselves on the platform itself. Creator accounts make up about half of all accounts that U.S. TikTok users follow. Here is what our research tells us about the content creators U.S. adults follow on TikTok. In this analysis, creator accounts are those…

Republicans and Democrats have long held very different views of federal “career employees” – the civil servants who work for government agencies or departments and do not change with administrations. That continues to be the case today: Most Democrats have high levels of confidence in the federal workforce, while most Republicans do not. The Trump administration has made reducing the size of this workforce – through its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team in particular – one of its top priorities. How we did this Pew Research Center conducted this survey to assess Americans’ views of career civil servants, presidential…

A graph showing figures on the U.S. economy during a press conference at the Federal Reserve on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images) Republicans and Democrats have very different predictions about how the U.S. economy will fare in the next year. About three-quarters of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (73%) expect the economy to be better a year into President Donald Trump’s second term. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic leaners (64%) say it’ll be worse. Overall, 40% of Americans expect economic conditions to improve in 2025. About as many say they will worsen (37%), and 23% say…

A World Health Organization sign is seen at the entrance to the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images) On the first day of his second administration, President Donald Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations health agency. He cited dissatisfaction with the organization’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the United States’ role as its largest funder. But what do Americans think of the WHO? Here are some key findings about U.S. opinion of the organization, drawn from Pew Research Center surveys conducted before Trump’s announcement. More…

(Photo illustration by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) TikTok has become an important news source for many Americans. About half of TikTok users (52%) – equivalent to 17% of all U.S. adults – say they regularly get news on the site. But many TikTok users appear not to be actively following journalists or news media outlets on the site. In fact, fewer than 1% of all the TikTok accounts that Americans follow belong to these types of institutional news sources. This raises an apparent contradiction: How are so many U.S. TikTok users getting news there if such a small share of…

As debates continue over whether chatbots should have a role in the classroom, more teens are turning to ChatGPT to help with schoolwork. Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand American teens’ use and understanding of ChatGPT in a school setting. We surveyed 1,391 U.S. teens from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024, through Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel. The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live…