Pew’s Review Of 2025 Sees Concerning Trends

Throughout the year, the non-partisan Pew Research Center surveys Americans on a wide variety of topics important to health, politics, the economy, religion, social welfare, the internet’s impact on the mental health of adults and kids, sports and much more.

As 2025 ended, it published a synopsis of some of it most “striking” findings for the year that has just ended. Below we provide a few of those findings from its top 12 and some of our thoughts about them.

After more than 50 years of rapid growth, the number of immigrants living in the United States is on the decline. 

This decline is directly related to the Trump Administration’s aggressive campaign to remove undocumented immigrants from the country, Pew says.

“In January 2025, there were 53.3 million immigrants in the U.S., making up close to 16% of the country’s population. Both the number and the share were record highs. But by June, the nation’s immigrant population decreased by more than a million, to 51.9 million,” reported. 

The decline continues due to aggressive ICE raids around the country, along with forced deportations. Other immigrants, undocumented and documented, have left voluntarily.

“Most immigrants are in the U.S. legally. As of 2023, 73% were either naturalized American citizens, lawful permanent residents, or temporary lawful residents. The remaining 27% were unauthorized immigrants,” Pew reports.

Seventy-three percent of those arrested by ICE had no criminal record. Among those arrested and charged with violating the law, many were accused of minor offenses, such as traffic violations.  Some individuals arrested by ICE have been American citizens.

The repercussions of the rapidly falling immigrant population in America are already having adverse impacts.

“America is about to tumble off the edge of a massive demographic cliff,” Kelli Korducki writes in an article published by Business Insider.

“The timing is no coincidence. The U.S. birth rate peaked in 2007, with just over 4.3 million births that year. That number has dropped almost every year since, reaching a 30-year low of 3.8 million births in 2017. Last year, the rate was down to 3.6 million.”

Before long, Korducki writes, communities, businesses, local governments, healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturers will reach the tipping point of an employee-shortage crisis. That tipping point is already here for rural Minnesota and is worsening under the current immigration purge.

For the first time in nearly two decades of surveys, most Hispanics say their group’s situation in the country has worsened.

Just four years ago, only 26% of Hispanics in America saw their lives in the United States worsening. Now that number has jumped to 68%.

Views of the U.S. have worsened – and views of China have improved.

Pew surveyed countries around the world about their citizens’ views of America. It found that China has gained considerable ground in favorability as compared to the U.S. 

When it comes to their leaders, Pew reports 22% of adults surveyed have confidence in Trump, while 24% expressed confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping.

America’s staunchest allies and economic partners, the countries of western Europe, have lost confidence in the United States as a reliable ally and trading partner. Tariff battles, changing support for Ukraine, and the current administration’s support of Russia over European interests at times have all contributed to the erosion of a once solid relationship.

Seven-in-ten Americans now say the nation’s higher education system is generally going in the wrong direction, up from 56% in 2020. 

The affordability of college is directly related to the affordability of groceries, health insurance, doctor visits, clothing, rent, and housing. All are rising as the middle and lower classes in the United States experience increasing unease about making ends meet.  

Health insurance premiums could increase by up to 26% in the coming month. Every dollar spent on health insurance is one less dollar available for other necessities of life. The impact will ripple through the entire economy.

There is deep unease among students and parents about what students should prepare for in tomorrow’s economy, where artificial intelligence programs could render the jobs students study for today obsolete by the time they graduate. 

Most parents with a child under 2 years old (62%) say their child watches videos on YouTube, up from 45% in 2020. This includes 35% who report that their child watches YouTube daily, Pew reports.

Many parents fail to recognize what is lost by allowing their children to bury themselves in an addictive video program on their smartphones or other electronic gadgets. It is a cold companion. It is devoid of warmth, and parental affection and focus. It is a mental pacifier that stunts growth and creativity. 

Too often, it is given to a child because the parents want them distracted while they bury themselves in their phones or tablets. It sets the child up for addictive device habits that will rob them of social interactions with family and friends in the future.

Republicans have become much less likely to say healthy children should be required to get the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine to attend public school. 

“The percentage of Republicans who hold this view has fallen from 79% in 2019 to 52% this year,” Pew says. “Pew’s survey found that Republicans are divided over some aspects of vaccine safety. For instance, 32% of Republicans are highly confident that the childhood vaccine schedule is safe, while 31% are not too or not at all confident. A 71% majority of Democrats are highly confident,” Pew says.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital estimates 2,010 cases since Jan. 1, the most since 2000, and the infections continue to spread.   Two unvaccinated children in Texas died of the measles, and an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico died from the disease.

In 2000, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. But foreign travel can easily bring it here. Its spread was contained by a highly vaccinated population. Not anymore.