Youngest Adults Least Attentive To COVID-19 News

An overwhelming majority of all U.S. adults (92%) said in late March that they were "fairly" or "very" closely following news about the COVID-19 pandemic.

But within that large share, notable differences emerge by age, according to surveys conducted as part of Pew Research Center's Election News Pathways project. 

More than two-thirds of adults ages 65 or older (69%) said they were following news about the pandemic very closely. At the other end of the spectrum, about four-in-ten Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 (42%) said they were paying as much attention to COVID-19 news. 

And while some age groups have started paying more attention to news about the outbreak over time, the youngest and oldest U.S. adults have largely remained unchanged. 

The current analysis stems from two surveys conducted on the Center’s American Trends Panel: One on March 10-16, 2020 among 8,914 U.S. adults and a second on March 19-24, 2020 among 11,537 U.S. adults. 

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