One of my favorite reads in the new year is Pew Research’s “striking findings” series in which the organization annually looks back to the recently ended year and offers up a list of noteworthy demographic and cultural data points and trends from the myriad surveys and analyses it conducts.

Given the organization’s broad purview, the Pew findings are a generally comprehensive barometer of things percolating in the larger zeitgeist and it’s always good to see some numbers attached to trends that are talked about in the media and in conversations with friends.

As taken from Pew Research Center Senior Writer/Editor John Gramlich’s “19 striking findings from 2019” article, here are some of the 19.

  • Hispanics are projected to be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the 2020 U.S. electorate, overtaking the number of black eligible voters for the first time. Combining Hispanic (13.3% of eligible voters), black (12.5%) and Asian (4.7%) voters, non-whites will make up a third of eligible voters, their largest share ever.
  • Roughly a third of Gen Zers (35%) say they know someone who prefers to be referred to using gender-neutral pronouns. Survey authors, take note: your future respondents (Gen Zers – Americans born after 1996) are the most likely to say that forms or online profiles that ask about a person’s gender should include options other than “man” or “woman.” Fifty-nine percent of Gen Zers hold this view, compared with half of Millennials and four-in-10 or fewer Gen Xers (born 1965 to 1980), Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) and members of the Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945).
  • The decline of Christianity is continuing at a rapid pace in the U.S. Around two-thirds of U.S. adults surveyed by phone described themselves as Christian – down 12 percentage points since 2009. Meanwhile, the “nones” – religiously unaffiliated adults who describe their religion as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – are at 26%, up from 17% a decade ago.
  • Roughly six-in-10 U.S. adults say they don’t think it is possible to go through daily life without having data (online and offline) collected about them by companies (62% say this) or the government (63%).
  • Two-thirds of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, a dramatic reversal from two decades ago. The support spans gender, ethnicity and political affiliation (though Democrats remain far more likely than Republicans to favor it, 78% vs. 55%).
  • Despite the economic troubles facing the news industry, 71% of Americans believe their local news media organizations are doing well financially. This belief endures even though only 14% of U.S. adults said they have paid for local news in the past year through subscriptions, donations or memberships. When asked why they don’t pay for local news, around half of non-payers (49%) point to the widespread availability of free content. Well, just be aware that if you continue not paying, there may not be any free news left to consume, folks.
  • Confirming what any Twitter veteran has likely long suspected, Pew’s data shows that the most active 10% of adult Twitter users in the U.S. produce 80% of all tweets sent by these users. (The median adult user tweets just twice a month.) When the tweets are coming from someone you like, it’s not so bad but when they come from someone you find annoying it’s, well, annoying. But that’s what the block and mute functions are for, right? A follow-up study focusing on tweets about national politics found that 97% of tweets that were created by U.S. adults and mentioned national politics came from just 10% of users.
  • A single person watching YouTube videos for eight hours a day with no breaks or days off would need more than 16 years to watch all the content posted by just the most popular channels on the platform during a single week. I think my youngest daughter is certainly up to the task.