A Very Scary Christmas
Over time, Americans have become less likely to value religion and have become less patriotic than in the past while becoming more likely to value money. These trends are evident in Gallup data and The Wall Street Journal data, although the two surveys present different pictures of the magnitude of change, particularly in recent years.
Americans place more value on community activities than in previous years, according to Gallup data. This type of increase was evident in the Journal’s polling between 1998 and 2019 as well, although it shows a big drop this year concomitant with the shift in interviewing mode.
And while Americans who don’t have children have maintained a generally constant interest in having children or regret that they did not, Journal data show a decline in perceived importance of having children over time. Given the differences in the two organization’s question wordings about children, the Journal findings on desire to have children may offer some additional perspective on how Americans’ desire to raise families is evolving, helping explain the de facto drop in U.S. births in recent decades.
A Very Scary Christmas