Fewer than One-Third of Adults Have a Landline Phone

Only 31 percent of American adults live in a household with a landline phone, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) survey fielded July-December 2021. Among children, the proportion who live in a household with a landline is an even smaller 20 percent. 

NCHS has been asking the public about its telephone status since 2003. The reason for doing so is to provide health researchers who conduct RDD (random-digit-dial) telephone surveys with information about how the cell phone population differs from the landline population. With this information, "survey research organizations can evaluate whether they have appropriately included this [cell phone] population in their telephone surveys," explains NCHS.

The 31 percent of adults who live in a household with a landline phone in 2021 was less than half of the 66 percent who had a landline phone in their household a decade ago. The figure fell below 50 percent for the first time in 2015.

Percent of adults who live in a household with a landline phone

2021: 31%

2016: 46%

2011: 66%

2007: 84%

2003: 95%

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, July-December 2021 (PDF) and Early Release Reports on Wireless Substitution

Full-Service Restaurants Roar Back from the Pandemic

At least one thing is back to normal: food-away-from-home spending has returned to its top position in the food chain. With Covid receding, or increasingly ignored, Americans in 2021 spent more on "food away from home" than they did on "food at home"—a return to the normal pattern. Not only that, but food away from home spending reached a record high in 2021 of $463 billion. This was fully 21 percent more than in 2020, after adjusting for inflation.

The category "food away from home" includes the amount spent on food purchased from full-service and fast-food restaurants, bars, vending machines, schools and colleges, and places of recreation. The category "food at home" includes the amount spent on food purchased from grocery stores, convenience and other food stores, mail order, and farmer's markets. 

Annual spending on food (in billions of inflation-adjusted dollars)

	Food at home	Food away from home	difference
2021	$430	$463	–$32
2020	$414	$382	$32
2019	$398	$454	–$56

Within the food-away-from-home category, spending at both fast-food and full-service restaurants fell in 2020. Full-service restaurant spending dropped 27 percent between 2019 and 2020, and fast-food spending fell 6 percent. The 2021 rebound in full-service restaurant spending was impressive—an increase of 45 percent to a record high of $162 billion. Fast-food spending climbed 14 percent and hit a record high of $164 billion. 

In all but four years of the USDA's Food Expenditure data series, which dates back to 1997, spending at full-service restaurants has exceeded spending at fast-food restaurants. The first time when full-service dining fell behind fast-food was in 2010, a consequence of the Great Recession, but the difference was just 0.3 percent. The next time full-service spending fell behind fast-food spending was in 2019, the year before the pandemic—again, by just 0.3 percent. In 2020, full-service spending was a stunning 22 percent below fast-food. In 2021, full-service closed most of the gap and was just 1 percent behind fast-food. 

Source: USDA, Food Expenditure Series, Constant Dollar Food and Alcohol Expenditures, with Taxes and Tips, for All Purchasers

44% of Americans Know Someone Who Is Transgender

More than 100 million Americans (44 percent of adults) know someone who is transgender (their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth), according to the results of a Pew Research Center survey. More than 50 million (20 percent) know someone who is nonbinary (they identify as neither male nor female). 

Overall, 1.6 percent of adults are either transgender (0.6 percent) or nonbinary (1.0 percent). The figure is highest among 18-to-29-year-olds (5.1 percent) and falls with age. Among people aged 30 to 49, 1.6 percent say they are transgender or nonbinary. Among those aged 50 or older, the share is just 0.3 percent. 

The number of transgender and nonbinary adults may be small but their reach is large...

Percent who personally know someone who is transgender

Total aged 18-plus: 44%

Aged 18 to 49: 52%

Aged 30 to 49: 48%

Aged 50 to 64: 43%

Aged 65-plus: 33% 

Percent who personally know someone who is nonbinary

Total aged 18-plus: 20%

Aged 18 to 49: 37%

Aged 30 to 49: 24%

Aged 50 to 64: 13%

Aged 65-plus: 7% 

Source: Pew Research Center, About 5% of Young Adults in the U.S. Say Their Gender is Different from Their Sex Assigned at Birth

Marriages Fall To a Low Not Seen Since 1963

Americans are less inclined to marry these days. The pandemic didn't help matters. The marriage rate fell to 5.1 marriages per 1,000 population in 2020, according to the National Center for Health Statistics—yet another record low. The number of marriages fell to a level not seen since 1963. 

Marriage rate (and number of marriages), 2000 to 2020

2020: 5.1 (1.7 million)

2019: 6.1 (2.0 million)

2010: 6.8 (2.1 million)

2000: 8.2 (2.3 million)

Marriages were not the only vital statistic affected by the pandemic. Both the divorce rate and the number of divorces, which had already been on a downward slide, plunged in 2020 as the pandemic forced couples to hunker down. The divorce rate fell to a level not seen since 1961. There were fewer divorces than in any year since 1968.

Divorce rate (and number of divorces), 2000 to 2020

2020: 2.3 (631,000)

2019: 2.7 (747,000)

2010: 3.6 (872,000)

2000: 4.0 (944,000)

Marriage and divorce are likely to rebound as the effects of the pandemic fade. But because marriage and divorce were both in a long-term decline when the pandemic hit, the rebound could be short-lived.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Marriage and Divorce, National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends for 2000–2020

Most Americans Rarely or Never Read a Newspaper

Only 21 percent of Americans aged 18 or older read a newspaper every day, according to the 2021 General Social Survey. Readership has plummeted since 1972 when the 69 percent majority of the American public read a newspaper every day. 

Now, the share of adults who never read a newspaper (40 percent) is far greater than the share who read a newspaper daily. Fully 57 percent of the public reads a newspaper less than once a week or never. 

Frequency of reading a newspaper in 2021 and 1972

	2021	1972
Every day	21%	69%
Few times a week	14	15
Once a week	9	8
Less than once a week	17	4
Never	40	4

During the past 50 years, there have been two periods of decline in "every day" newspaper readership. The first occurred during the 1970s. Between 1972 and 1982, the percentage of adults who read a newspaper every day fell from 69 to 52 percent—a 17 percentage point drop. One factor behind the decline was the expansion of television news. 

Daily newspaper readership stabilized during the 1980s and was still at 52 percent in 1991. Then the internet happened. By 2002, the share who read a newspaper every day had fallen to 42 percent. By 2012, it was just 27 percent. Now at 21 percent, how much lower can it go?

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the General Social Survey

It's Getting Worse

In the 2020-21 school year, 145 elementary/middle/secondary schools in the United States experienced a school shooting—a record high. Not only that, but 2020-21 was the first year in which there were more school shootings at elementary schools (59) than at high schools (57), according to an analysis of the K-12 School Shooting Database by the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Number of public or private elementary-secondary schools with shootings, 2015-16 to 2020-21

2020-21: 145 

2019-20: 114

2018-19: 113

2017-18:   89

2016-17:   47

2015-16:   38

Forty-six people died from school shootings in 2020-21, below the record high of 52 fatalities from school shootings in 2017-18—the year of the shooting at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The fatality data for 2021-22 have yet to be released.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Condition of Education, Violent Deaths at School and Away from School and School Shootings and Digest of Education Statistics, Table 228.12

Many Say Coronavirus Pandemic Is Over

A substantial 34 percent of the American public say the coronavirus pandemic is over, according to a recent Gallup survey. Of course, Republicans and Democrats have very different perspectives...

Percent who say coronavirus pandemic is over

Democrats: 10%

Republicans: 66%

Although more than one-third of all adults think the coronavirus pandemic is over, just 21 percent say their own life is somewhat or completely back to pre-pandemic normal. 

Fully 50 percent of Americans say their lives will never return to normal.

Source: Gallup, One in Three Americans Think Pandemic Is Over