This year, Pew said, 43% of Americans oppose gay marriage while 47% support it.
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Political parties differed, however, with 68% of Republicans, 63% of independents and 57% of Democrats able to identify the historic court case, Pew said.
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Still, Pew researchers said that percentage represents as many as 19 million potential airline passengers.
James Bell, director of international survey research at Pew, said Chinese people who said they like American ideas about democracy were more likely to say they are closely following the election.
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"Those teens who used sites like Twitter and Instagram reported feeling like they could better express themselves on these platforms, where they felt freed from the social expectations and constraints of Facebook, " the Pew survey said.
Dr Susan Lieberman from Pew Environment Group said it was a big day for the convention.
More than 58% of the estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the United States are Mexican, the Pew Hispanic Center said last year.
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At the start of the Bill Clinton administration in 1993, 57 percent of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center said it was very important to control gun ownership.
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"Once someone has a wireless device, she becomes much more active in how she uses the internet -- not just with wireless connectivity, but also with wired devices, " said Pew.
Smith, the Pew researcher, said in a phone interview that much of the growth in Twitter is driven by younger people who use the mobile Web or apps to access Twitter's services.
Matt Rand, director of Global Shark Conservation for the Pew Environment Group said that this was the latest of a number of studies "confirming the importance of preserving the parts of the ocean where sharks breed and raise their pups".
By a 51%-45% margin, Americans questioned in a new Pew Research Center poll said it was more important to control gun ownership than to protect gun rights.
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"The abiding memory is of her arriving and leaving church in the electric scooter and she used to come in the side door, scoot across, park up and into the front pew, " he said.
Among those living near a Wal-Mart, the Pew study found 81% said it was a good place to shop.
"It's not as if young people today are being raised in a way completely different from Christianity, " said Smith, the Pew researcher.
"We've known that the religiously unaffiliated has been growing for decades, " said Greg Smith, Pew's associate director of religion research and the lead researcher on the new study.
D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer at the Pew Research Center in Washington, said the birth rate, rather than immigration, is the primary driving factor in the Latino boom.
"There's a large share of Americans for whom this is not a black-and-white issue, " said Michael Dimock, the Pew center's director.
Still, people bring their faith with them when they move, said Phillip Connor, a Pew researcher and the lead researcher on the study.
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"The causes of last year's mishaps must be remedied so they do not occur in the future, " Marilyn Heiman, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts' Arctic program, said in an e-mail.
"This means that Obama is doing better among Hispanic Clinton supporters than he is among non-Hispanic white Clinton supporters, 70 percent of whom now say they have transferred their allegiance to Obama while 18 percent say they plan to vote for McCain, " Lopez said, referring to a recent Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey.
"The face of the country is changing, " said Jeffrey Passel, demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center.
Both sides are encouraged down this path by the fact that, while voters say they don't like negative campaigning, polls show it often works, said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.
"This wasn't a definitive debate, " said pollster Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
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According to a Pew opinion survey of Egyptians from June 2010, 59 percent said they back Islamists.
American Catholics are looking for some change, said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center.
Noting their 1994 midterm losses, Democrats, he said, have reason to worry about what the Pew poll says.
In a survey conducted last year on behalf of the Pew Hispanic Centre, two-thirds of Hispanic registered voters said they favoured the Democrats.
And 20% said they would emigrate without authorization, according to Pew.
"The Democrats' lead among Hispanic voters has grown just in the last four years, " said Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center.
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