Russell Contreras

Civil rights groups have called on Black college athletes to boycott schools in states that are rolling back voting rights. But highly paid NIL-era athletes are proving to be unwilling protesters.W...

The nation's old guard of Black leaders is still a key force for Democrats, but this year's primaries have revealed the rising influence of Black Gen Z voters who aren't swayed by their elders' sen...

The U.S. is experiencing one of the steepest and most widespread crime declines in modern history. Researchers aren't exactly sure why — but they have theories: Early research points to a mix of fa...

Data: FBI; Note: 2021 data was estimated due to a low number of agencies reporting; Chart: Noah Bressner/AxiosThe U.S. violent crime rate plunged 9.7% last year — the largest annual drop since the ...

Data: U.S. Census, USDA; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios VisualsThe U.S. is projected to become majority-minority in 2046, but hundreds of rural pockets crossed that demographic benchmark years ago, an Axi...

Data: Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA); Chart: Russell Contreras/AxiosViolent crime kept falling across many of the nation's largest cities through June, with homicides down 17.2% from the fi...

Synagogues across the U.S. are having congregants train to be volunteer security teams as antisemitic assaults hit record levels and Jewish gathering places face increasing threats.Driving the news...

A white separatist group is openly planning a network of whites-only settlements across rural America that aim to withstand legal challenges by operating essentially as private clubs.Why it matters...

President Trump's deportation campaign has expanded far beyond ICE, turning federal agents, state troopers, local police and even wildlife officers into a massive 50,000-person internal enforcement...

A former Ku Klux Klan hall in Texas is becoming an arts center — one of several racist landmarks across the U.S. that communities are trying to turn from symbols of terror into sites of reparation....

Data: Pew Research Center; Chart: Danielle Alberti/AxiosLatino voters aren't just splitting over President Trump. They're divided over how being Latino shapes their identity in America, according t...

Data: U.S. Census; Note: Data for Hawai'i and Alaska starts in 1955 and 1957, respectively; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios VisualAmerica's state governments now run on two very different tax engines: inco...

Data: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates; Chart: Russell Contreras/AxiosAmerica has a missing-middle problem — and this one is demographic.Why it matters: The shrinking 45-64 popu...

Data: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates; Chart: Russell Contreras/AxiosAmerica's child population fell by 1.8 million from 2020 to 2025 — with the under-18 population shrinking i...

Juneteenth is surviving the corporate DEI backlash, even as American institutions pull back from the promises that helped elevate it.Why it matters: The holiday's staying power shows how Black hist...

Data: PRRI American Identity Survey, May 1-18, 2026, PRRI American Identity Report; Chart: Russell Contreras/AxiosA profound identity crisis has gripped America ahead of its 250th birthday: Citizen...

Vice President JD Vance's memoir about his conversion to Catholicism, out Tuesday, puts a high-profile face on a small but distinctive slice of the U.S. Church.Why it matters: Parish reports have f...

The next great civil rights battle may be whether America's old racial categories can keep up with its future.Why it matters: The U.S. is heading toward a more Latino, Asian, Black immigrant and mu...

Data: U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Russell Contreras/AxiosWhite students now make up less than half of all Americans enrolled in school from nursery through graduate programs, according to an Axios a...

Most Americans say the country's best days are behind it as the U.S. approaches its 250th birthday, even as they're personally hopeful about the future.Why it matters: A new Pew Research Center ana...

Millions of working Americans struggle to read at a functional level — and artificial intelligence may be helping hide it.Why it matters: Low literacy is quietly becoming a major economic drag, eve...