Humanities at work in American households: a new survey charts their prevalence. From the press release:

In a news release […], the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reports on the first broad national survey on the humanities, which asked Americans about their engagement in a variety of humanistic activities, as well as their beliefs about the personal, societal, and economic benefits of the humanities.

The findings indicate…:

  • 85% of Americans respond favorably to the term “humanities” after it has been defined for them.
  • Although most Americans have a favorable view of the humanities generally, people are more enthusiastic about science and one of the humanities’ component disciplines, history.
  • Around 90% of Americans believe the humanities help people understand others whose lives are different from their own.
  • 86% of Americans agree that the humanities strengthen American democracy,and 73% agree that they make the economy stronger….
  •  97% of Americans occasionally engage in at least one form of humanities activity.
  • Few people engage frequently in a broad range of humanities activities, or even in all the activities associated with a given discipline (e.g., someone who watches history shows is not very likely to also research history topics online).
  • Black Americans are more engaged with the humanities than the general public, due principally to higher rates of religious text study, literary and poetry event attendance, and online sharing of humanities content.
  • 81% of Americans frequently use at least one humanities skill in their jobs.
  • 57% of American workers often write to describe or explain something on their jobs (and another 20% do so sometimes)….
  • The youngest American adults (ages 18 to 29) are less likely than older Americans to use humanities skills at work.

h/t Rob Townsend (@rbthisted)

For other reports by Humanities Indicators, see here.