Six signs of hope from our reporting in 2021
Six signs of hope from our reporting in 2021
by Alyson Clary | Dec. 28, 2021
As we close out 2021 and usher in a new year, the APM Research Lab looked back over our reporting from the past year and highlighted the good news found within our stories. Read through our list below of hopeful data points and find links back to the original articles containing them.
Large voter turnout in Georgia special election
4.4 million voters in Georgia voted in the January 5 special election for U.S. Senate, a drop of only 10% from the 4.9 million who voted in the November 2020 election. This number represents 60% of all eligible voters in Georgia and is an exceptionally high turnout for a runoff election in the state over the past 20 years. We analyzed demographic data to get a sense of who came out to vote and how voter turnout in January 2021 compared to voter turnout in past special elections.
Support for LGBTQ rights at all-time high
83% of all American adults support LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws and 70% support same-sex marriage according to the 2020 American Values Survey. This is a notable increase in levels of support from 2015, when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage throughout the country in their Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Our story, from January, on increasing support for LGBTQ Americans also looked at recent data on the well-being of LGBTQ youth and how shifting perceptions among all Americans is impacting them.
Progress on COVID-19 vaccination
Note: See our Inoculation Nation page for notes on a handful of possible anomalies with the CDC-reported data used in the map above.
In February, we began reporting on the country’s COVID-19 vaccination progress under the title “Inoculation Nation.” Among other data, we tracked the number of vaccine doses distributed by the federal government, the number of vaccine doses administered to Americans and the progress of each state toward the low end of an initially-designated threshold for “herd immunity”: 70% of the entire population.
It may seem off-key to recognize some hopefulness related to COVID-19 given the currently spiking case loads in many cities and states due to the highly contagious omicron variant. Nonetheless, if we think back to just over a year ago when a COVID-19 vaccine was not yet available, it is quite remarkable that over 70% of Americans have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Much progress remains in basic vaccination in several states, not to mention the now-recommended booster shoots and gaining approval for safe vaccinations for those younger than 5. And while the roll-out has been far from perfect, getting more than 70% of Americans to do something new in just over 12 months is no small feat.
Growing offshore wind capacity
The U.S. currently has an offshore wind capacity of 42 megawatts (MW). As shown in the graph above, this places the U.S. far behind the offshore wind capacity of other nations. But the U.S. isn’t expected to be in last place for much longer. In March the Biden administration announced a plan to dramatically accelerate offshore wind development, vowing to install 30,000 MW of the energy source by 2030—enough power to meet the demand of 10 million homes.
As reported by Kristine Liao, the U.S. is already well on its way to achieving that target. Besides the 42 MW already in operation, the country has announced 32 other offshore wind projects that will increase its offshore wind capacity dramatically within the next 15 years.
Bipartisan consensus
Political divisiveness in America can leave many feeling hopeless as to whether we can agree on anything that would move the country forward. This was also the case back in 2019 when we first reported on a number of issues that both Republicans and Democrats agree on.
This year, largely through our new partnership with the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, we continued to find that a lot of common ground exists in the country. In analyzing results from McCourtney’s nationally representative Mood of the Nation poll, we found bipartisan consensus on a number of issues ranging from who should be allowed to vote and how would-be voters can be supported while waiting in line to vote, to whether the U.S. should help Afghan refugees and fellow Americans displaced by extreme weather.
Hopefulness abounds across different racial and ethnic groups in Minnesota
This year we conducted the groundbreaking Minnesota’s Diverse Communities Survey. At the core of the survey is our effort to provide, as scientifically representative as possible, a picture of the opinions and experiences of many of Minnesota’s racial and ethnic groups. We have been publishing the results in a series of reports since early fall.
The survey shed light on persistent racial disparities and experiences of discrimination in the state. But it also revealed positive things. For example, 71% of all Minnesotans remain hopeful about the future, a proportion that is consistent among most racial and ethnic groups surveyed. Minnesotans also shared the “single most positive thing” currently happening in their community and we recorded their answers verbatim. Here are some examples of what respondents said:
“Some non-African American people have started to realize the inequities built into the fabric of our democracy. These people are now starting to speak up about it.” — 54-year-old Black man from Minnesota
“Dakota and Ojibwe language revitalization at the early childhood level.” — 61-year-old Indigenous woman from Minnesota
“Increasing exposure to our culture and ethnicity through art exhibits and presentations that explains who the Hmong people are and our importance in American history.” — 27-year-old Hmong man from Minnesota
You can find all of our reports and articles from the Minnesota’s Diverse Communities Survey here.
On behalf of all of us at the Research Lab, we wish you a happy and hopeful New Year!
-Alyson