Trends in the United States in the Twenty-First Century

US suicide rate rose sharply among middle-aged

The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans climbed a startling 28 percent in a decade, a period that included the recession and the mortgage crisis, the government reported Thursday.

The trend was most pronounced among white men and women in that age group. Their suicide rate jumped 40 percent between 1999 and 2010.

But the rates in younger and older people held steady. And there was little change among middle-aged blacks, Hispanics and most other racial and ethnic groups, the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Read more

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Suicide Rate Soars for Middle-Aged Americans; Accounts for More Deaths Than Traffic Accidents

The Sex Lives of Unmarried Evangelicals

80 percent of young unmarried evangelicals have had sex? Really? Read more

Most pastors doubt global warming, but recycle

While many churches are acting "green," the majority of pastors disagree that global warming is real and manmade. The percentage of skeptics has dropped since 2010, but the percentage is still higher than in 2008, according to a survey by LifeWay Research.

The October 2012 survey of Protestant pastors' views of environmental issues shows Protestant pastors in the Northeast, older pastors, and pastors self-identifying as Democrats tend to be more environmentally active compared to younger, Republicans, and counterparts in other regions of the country.

Consistent in the LifeWay Research findings of 2012, 2010 and 2008 is that about a quarter of pastors say they speak on the environment to their churches "several times a year." The percentage of pastors who say they rarely speak on the environment decreased in 2012 to 34 percent. Fifteen percent of Protestant pastors say they never speak on the environment. Read more

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Climate change will threaten wine production, study shows
New Vineyards Could Create Conservation Challenges

Are we facing a future shortage of grape juice and wine for communion?

Poll: Aging US in denial about long-term care need

A new poll finds that Americans underestimate their chances of needing long-term care as they get older — and are taking few steps to get ready.

The poll examines how people 40 and over are preparing for this difficult and often pricey reality of aging. Two-thirds say they’ve done little to no planning.

In fact, three in 10 would rather not think about getting older at all. Only a quarter predict it’s very likely that they’ll need help getting around or caring for themselves during their senior years.

That’s a surprise considering the poll found more than half of the 40-plus crowd already have been caregivers for an impaired relative or friend. Read more

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Long-term care in aging US: Not for me, poll says

Who Volunteers the Most?

Religious Americans participate in charitable or volunteer organizations twice as much as do secular Americans. So says existing research. But a new study suggests that it's not people's religion that prompts them to become model volunteers, but which high school they attended.

According to Calvin College researchers Jonathan Hill and Kevin den Dulk, the type of high school people attend influences them more than any other factor—including religion, socioeconomic status, or family type.

What type makes the most difference? Their study, published this March in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, shows that graduates of Protestant high schools out-volunteer peers from Catholic, secular, public, and home schools—all by significant margins. Read more

Falling fertility rate poses problems, author says

Benches built to push couples to sit closer together, special holidays and monetary incentives are all ways other countries have tried to boost fertility rates, author and demographer Jonathan Last told a Washington audience recently.

The "bad news," said Last, is there are few examples of effective public policy to nudge fertility rates upward. Other countries that have tried to do so failed, the author of "What to Expect When No One's Expecting" said during an April 3 lecture at the Family Research Council.

The world population will peak before the end of this century and then quickly contract, Last predicted in a February opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times. This would be the first time this large and quick of a contraction took place since the Black Plague hit Europe in the Middle Ages.

Today, 97 percent of the world's population lives in countries where the fertility rate is falling, Last said in the article. Read more

Study: Religious Schools Perform Better Than Public, Charter Schools

Private religious schools perform better than public schools, and public charter schools performed no better than regular public schools, according to a new study by William Jeynes, professor of education at California State University at Long Beach and senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute at Princeton.

Jeynes spoke Monday with The Christian Post about the study. He found that religious, mostly Christian, school students were a full year ahead of students who attend public and charter schools.

The results of his research were recently published in vol. 87, issue 3 of the Peabody Journal of Education in an article titled, "A Meta-Analysis on the Effects and Contributions of Public, Public Charter, and Religious Schools on Student Outcomes," and were presented last month in a speech for Notre Dame University faculty. Read more

The Main Reason for Declining Church Attendance: Children's Sports?

Sunday used to be a day reserved by many Christians for attending worship services, but new research indicates the extent to which American churches today are competing against myriad other activities.

The biggest competition? Children's sports. Read more