Statista

Fourth of July holiday travel is expected to reach a new record high in 2024, as more than 70 million Americans are forecast to hit the road or the skies to travel more than 50 miles for this year's celebrations. That's according to projections from AAA who are predicting that 60.6 million Americans will take to the nation's roads, while 5.7 million will take a plane and 4.6 million will travel by train or other means for Independence Day. That represents an increase of 5 percent from last year and 8 percent from 2019, as low air fares and gas prices are fueling Americans' appetite for travel. "With summer vacations in full swing and the flexibility of remote work, more Americans are taking extended trips around Independence Day," Paula Twidale, Senior Vice President of AAA Travel said in a statement. "We anticipate this July 4th week will be the busiest ever with an additional 5.7 million people traveling compared to 2019." All modes of transport are set to see a noticeable increase this year and road trips will continue to dominate Fourth of July travel. 85 percent of travelers are expected to drive to their holiday destination as gas prices have eased from the historic highs of the past two years. Even though air travel is far less common for Independence Day celebrations, airports are expected to be busier than ever these days. In the weeks leading up to July 4, the TSA reported several new records for performed safety checks at U.S. airports.

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After concern about civil rights peaked in the United States in early 2021, the share of respondents identifying it as an important issue for the country quickly dropped again – back to 2019 levels as of Q4 2021 and Q1 2022. It has stayed on this level ever since and as of Q1 of 2024, 26 percent in the U.S. said they considered civil rights important for the nation. This is according to the Statista Consumer Insights. Throughout 2020, civil rights took center stage in U.S. political discourse after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in May triggered mass protests and a reckoning with the still-rampant racial injustice in the country. As of Q2 2021, 32 percent of respondents still named civil rights as an important issue for the United States. Higher ranked issues at that time were the economic situation, unemployment, health and social security (at 43-45 percent as the Delta variant intensified concern about Covid-19 once more) as well as inflation (35 percent) and crime (33 percent). By Q1 of 2022, concern about civil rights was additionally overtaken by concern about climate and the environment as well as concern about education, immigration, poverty and housing, delegating its importance back to an also-ran.

Identification with the Democratic Party has plummeted in the U.S. to the lowest recorded levels, according to a Gallup database. Even before the first presidential debate featuring both current President Joe Biden and his challenger in the 2024 elections, Donald Trump, only 23 percent of U.S. respondents surveyed by the organization said in June that they identified as Democrats. This is fewer than ever since continuous records of the question started at the organization in 2004. Identification with the Republican Party was not much higher in June of this year at only 25 percent (while identifying as an Independent became much more popular). However, a look at Gallup’s records for previous years shows that Democrats mostly had a leg up when it comes to party identification. This applied both in June 2016, the year of Donald Trump’s election, and throughout his presidency. Only as recently as 2022, while Biden was already in office, did Republicans catch up and the finally overtake Democrats in some months, for example June 2024. However, the low support for established parties and the heightened will to identify as an Independent still speaks to a level of resignation with both established U.S. parties. Identification with Republicans reached its lowest point over the last 20 years in October 2013 at just 20 percent and also hit 22 percent during the Trump administration in January 2018. Meanwhile, the lowest Democratic party affiliation had ever dropped before was 24 percent in September 2022 and September 2023, both under Biden. While Biden’s approval hit 38 percent in June, this is not so far removed from Trump’s 39 percent in June 2020 at the same time in his presidency that Biden is at now. Biden has received heavy criticism for his performance at the debate on Thursday – including from inside his own party – for speaking at times incoherently and rambling while appearing no younger than his age, 81. Trump was meanwhile criticized for insults and wrong characterizations of his Congressional colleagues as well as promoting racial stereotypes of Black and Latino Americans as well as Palestinians. He also downplayed and made false claims in regards to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, used false statements concerning his record of taxation, the economy and environmental protection as well as crime in the U.S.

As the summer holiday travel season is in full swing, U.S. airports are getting quite busy these days. In fact, they're busier than ever according to figures released by the Transport Security Administration (TSA). Sunday, June 23 even broke the all-time record for most people screened at U.S. airports, with 2.99 million people passing through TSA safety checks. That's only the tip of the iceberg, tough. According the TSA, 8 of the 10 busiest travel days ever at U.S. airports have occurred in the past month and more records are expected for the Independence Day travel period. "We expect this summer to be our busiest ever and summer travel usually peaks over the Independence Day holiday," TSA administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. As our chart shows, daily passenger throughput at U.S. airports has consistently exceeded pre-pandemic levels this year after roughly matching 2019 traffic in 2023. With an average of 2.73 million passengers per day passing through TSA checkpoints, June 2024 was the busiest month ever at U.S. airports and there are no signs of Americans' appetite for air travel waning in July. Following an abysmal 2020, when airport throughput fell below one million passengers per day, flight traffic picked up noticeably in the second quarter of 2021, as the vaccine rollout proceeded rapidly. Passenger throughput started climbing steadily, with TSA safety checks exceeding two million in a single day for the first time in the Covid era on June 11, 2021. Throughout the busy summer season, the daily average hovered around the two million mark, trailing 2019 passenger numbers by roughly 500,000 a day on average. By the end of 2021, the gap had narrowed to 350,000-400,000 before gradually climbing closer to pre-pandemic levels throughout 2022. Prior to the pandemic, daily passenger volumes of 2+ million were the norm rather than the exception. At the onset of the pandemic, daily passenger throughput fell as low as 100,000 in April 2020, before slowly climbing back to its current level. In 2023, the TSA performed an average of 2.35 million safety checks per day, compared to 925,000 in 2020 and 2.32 million in 2019. Through June 29 of this year, average daily passenger traffic stands at 2.43 million for this year.

As memories of Covid-19 restrictions are quickly fading, Americans are looking forward to proper, carefree Fourth of July celebrations this year. According to AAA, more than 70 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles this Independence Day week in order to celebrate with their friends and families – a new record. Aside from the obligatory fireworks, a proper cookout is the key ingredient for a real Independence Day celebration in many households. Speaking of ingredients: how much will a typical Fourth of July menu set you back these days? Well, there’s the catch: inflation makes no exception for national holidays, so expect your feast to be more expensive than ever this year. According to the American Farm Bureau’s annual Fourth of July market basket survey, a 10-person cookout involving cheeseburgers, chicken breasts, pork chops and several sides and dessert options will cost $71.22 this year. That’s up "just" 5 percent from last, but 30 percent from 2019.

Every year, parts of the world's forests disappear - an area of around 178 million hectares from 1990 to 2020. Africa is the world region with the highest net forest loss in this period (-14.3 percent), as our infographic with data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows. It is closely followed by South America with a decline of 13.3 percent. In North and Central America and Oceania, forest area is stable, while an increase can be observed in Europe and Asia.   Tropical forests in particular are under threat due to various causes. In Brazil alone, around 1.77 million hectares of rainforest were destroyed in 2022. One of the primary causes of forest loss is deforestation for agricultural purposes: the tropics play a growing role in the global production of agricultural products. The pressure on the land is correspondingly high; forests are cut down or burned to create arable land and pasture.   Rich countries in particular can afford the luxury of protected forests because they import food and plant-based raw materials. Other countries have to make more and more arable land available for the cultivation of crops. Moreover, the increase in forest area alone says nothing about the condition of the forests. For example, German forests have recently been increasingly affected by insect infestation and crown thinning.

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While few industries were spared by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, even fewer have been hit as hard as the tourism sector. After Covid-19 had made 2020 "the worst year in tourism history", international tourist arrivals increased by just 13 percent in 2021, as travel restrictions remained in place for long periods in many parts of the world. Now, more than four years after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, optimism has finally returned to the industry.    According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, global tourism continued its recovery in 2023, ending the year at 89 percent of pre-pandemic, i.e. 2019 levels, with an estimated 1.3 billion international tourist arrivals. China's reopening to foreign tourists in March 2023 marked another milestone on the road to full recovery, after the region had long trailed behind the rest of the world and continued to do so through 2023. In 2023, the Asia-Pacific region saw 237 million international tourist arrivals, which is equivalent to 65 percent of 2019 levels. All other regions have returned to at least 90 percent of pre-pandemic arrivals, with the Middle East the only region to surpass 2019 tourist arrivals last year.    Citing the “unleashing of remaining pent-up demand, increased air connectivity, and a stronger recovery of Asian markets and destinations”, the UNWTO now expects international tourism to make a full recovery by the end of 2024. This is no mean feat considering the challenging economic backdrop and the uncertainties associated with lingering geopolitical tensions and several ongoing conflicts. 

The most polluted city in the EU in 2021-2022 was Slavonski Brod, Croatia, where the average exposure to fine particles (PM2.5) was nearly six times the recommended maximum level, or 28 μg/m³. Many of the cities most affected by PM2.5 are located in Poland, a country still heavily dependent on coal, which produces a high amount of fine particles when burned. In Italy, the Po Valley, due to its geography and high concentration of industrial activities, remains one of the most polluted regions in Europe in terms of fine particles, resulting in two of the region's cities ranking towards the top of the list.