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.
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.
On Dec. 4, 2025, The Pew Charitable Trusts, International Code Council (ICC), National League of Cities, and the American Planning Association hosted a roundtable of local planning and building officials and national housing stakeholders and experts.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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For more than 75 years, we have used data to make a difference
Roads and bridges in the United States are a vital part of daily life, connecting people to jobs, schools, homes, and services and supporting nearly $19 trillion in freight each year. In fiscal year 2024, the latest year for which data was available, states spent about $247 billion—roughly 8% of their total expenditures that year—on these roadway assets.
Low-cost micro-units, often called single-room occupancies, or SROs, were once a reliable form of housing for the United States’ poorest residents of, and newcomers to, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and many other major U.S. cities.