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Founded in 1948, Pew addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects that lead to tangible progress.
Breaking the Plastic Wave 2025
The Rundown
Electricity demand in the U.S. is soaring, and experts estimate that it will increase 25% by 2030 from 2023 levels. That’s putting further stress on an already-taxed power grid. Investing in new high-voltage transmission lines is a critical part of easing that strain, but those projects can take up to 10 years to complete, on average.
As the destruction and costs from weather- and climate-related disasters in the U.S. continued to rise in 2025—the Los Angeles wildfires alone caused over $60 billion in damage, the most expensive wildfire in U.S. history—more states are cultivating resilience expertise and investing in projects to reduce risk.
Land-use and permitting reforms have gained increased attention as policymakers throughout the country struggle with the nation’s housing shortage, which is estimated to be 4 million to 7 million homes. This shortage has pushed rents, housing prices, and homelessness to record levels in recent years, with costs to buy and rent much higher than historical norms.
For the first time in history, the world has formally agreed to protect nearly half the planet. In September 2025, the United Nations ratified the high seas treaty, officially known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement—a landmark global pact to safeguard the parts of the ocean that lie beyond any one country’s national jurisdiction.
Our Work
Pew's work spans 7 key topics...
Good health is important to everyone. Pew conducts research and provides information and fact-based recommendations to state agencies, hospitals, researchers, and other health partners to help them provide better care. We find and share evidence-based practices to improve Americans’ health and well-being, including services that can prevent suicide, improve mental health care, and treat substance use disorder.
Latest In Advance Health & Well-Being
Communities throughout the country share common needs: affordable connections to broadband Internet, modern and reliable energy infrastructure, effective responses to mental health challenges, and ways to resolve legal disputes more quickly and fairly. To address these issues, Pew collaborates with states and local governments to find and promote evidence-based solutions that help provide stability and opportunity.
Latest In Build Communities
Economic opportunity is the foundation of American society. Pew supports national, state, and local efforts to expand opportunity and promote financial well-being. Our work helps people pay off student loans, navigate court proceedings such as debt collection, buy or rent a home, access affordable internet, and save for their retirement.
Latest In Improve Economic Advancement
Nonpartisan, fact-based improvements in federal policy can create jobs, lower costs, and help the nation prepare for the future. When our research shows that small changes can have a big impact, we work across party lines to improve national challenges like housing affordability, internet access, energy reliability, and health care.
Latest In Improve Federal Policy
The global ocean teems with life, and it contributes to the vital cycles that keep people and our planet healthy. But the seas are vulnerable to overfishing, loss of habitat such as seagrasses and mangroves, ineffective fisheries management, plastic pollution, and declining biodiversity. These mounting losses affect the coastal communities that depend on the ocean for food and jobs.
Latest In Protect Marine Life
States and cities are the “laboratories of democracy” in America—the places where lawmakers and governors look for new ways to help their communities succeed. Whether in Pew’s hometown of Philadelphia or any of the 50 state capitals, we help elected leaders respond to the needs of their citizens, use public dollars wisely, fix outdated policies, and build a better future for all.
Latest In Strengthen State Government
Conserving natural spaces conveys benefits far beyond the gains to wildlife and their habitats. As scores of studies show, protecting and restoring lands and waters, particularly when done in close partnership with local communities, also improves people’s lives—and local economies—by increasing tourism and outdoor recreation.
Latest In Support People & Nature
How We Work
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For more than 75 years, we have used data to make a difference
Collaboration powers scientific discovery. Now 14 accomplished researchers are teaming up to lead such a charge as The Pew Charitable Trusts’ 2025 Innovation Fund investigators. The new class, announced Dec. 9, brings together pairs of leading scientists whose studies span immunology, cancer biology, biophysics, and more. Through their interdisciplinary partnerships, these investigators will explore creative research projects at the forefront of health and medicine.
We are living in a time of remarkable medical innovation. While new medications and surgical techniques continue to be discovered, delivering relief for patients and their loved ones, some of the newest advancements are awe-inspiring in their potential to touch every one of us.
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