Pew Daily Number

Though numerous foreign-policy analysts point to Pakistan, with its deadly mix of extremists and nuclear weapons, as possibly the most dangerous country in the world, the American public does not perceive the threat to be on par with other notable international concerns.

Of the 61% of Americans who use the internet for medical information, six-in-ten say they or someone they know has been helped by following health advice found online, up significantly from 2006 when only 31% of e-patients said this.

Measures of support for a government social safety net continue to show some of the largest divides in partisan opinions; as they have historically, a substantial majority of Democrats say that it is the government’s responsibility "to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves" (77%) while only 46% of Republicans take that view.

When the question was first asked in 1996, only about a third of Americans considered the microwave a necessity.

While the most popular video games played by teens today span a variety of genres and ratings, including both games with violent and nonviolent content, about a third of teenagers who play video games report that at least one of their three favorite games is rated Mature or Adults Only.

Nearly half of unauthorized-immigrant households (47%) consist of a couple with children, and most of those children (73%) were born in the United States.

In a survey taken before the former vice presidential candidate abruptly announced she was stepping down as governor of Alaska, 45% of Americans said they had a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin -- about the same number that had an unfavorable opinion of her (44%). Views of Palin have shifted only slightly since the end of last fall’s campaign; in mid-October, 48% expressed an unfavorable opinion and 42% had a favorable opinion.

Roughly half-way through his first year in office, President Barack Obama continues to hold high marks from the American people; 61% approve of the job he is doing as president.

In a 2007 Pew poll, about half (49%) of Americans say they completely agree with the statement "I am patriotic" - a decline from the near-record 56% who said so in August 2003. (In November 1991, 58% said they completely agreed with the statement.) While patriotic sentiment has remained at a very high level for a very long time , strong expressions of patriotism have fluctuated in frequency somewhat.

Three-in-ten Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the country today, up slightly from the beginning of the year (20%) and three-times higher than the record-low level of satisfaction (11%) reached in October 2008.