America has surpassed 300 million people

Chat about anything and everything... (well almost anything) Whether it be the front porch or the pot belly stove or news of interest or a topic of your liking, this is the place to post it.

Moderator: S2k Moderators

Message
Author
JonathanBelles
Professional-Met
Professional-Met
Posts: 11430
Age: 35
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 9:00 pm
Location: School: Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL) Home: St. Petersburg, Florida
Contact:

America has surpassed 300 million people

#1 Postby JonathanBelles » Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:39 pm

People power: U.S. to top 300 million
POSTED: 11:42 a.m. EDT, October 15, 2006

More on CNN TV: Anderson Cooper and his team examine the 300 million milestone in a special report on "Anderson Cooper 360°," Monday, 10 p.m. ET.
Adjust font size:
Decrease fontDecrease font
Enlarge fontEnlarge font

(CNN) -- At 7:46 ET Tuesday morning, the United States will become a nation of 300 million people, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Fueled by an estimated net gain of one person every 11 seconds, America -- already the world's third most populous country -- will join China and India with populations greater than 300 million.

The main reason is simple: Births outnumber deaths. According to the Census Bureau, a child is born every seven seconds, but a death occurs every 13 seconds.

But immigration also plays a role. The Census Bureau estimates that a migrant enters the country every 31 seconds.

America claimed 100 million people in 1915 but didn't reach 200 million until 1967. The 400 millionth person is likely to arrive in 2043, according to the Census Bureau.
Flight to South, West

Since 1967, the American population has undergone several demographic changes. Americans have moved out of the Northeast and Midwest and into the West and the South, according to the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau.

For instance, in 1967, Phoenix, Arizona, had a population just shy of 440,000, according to the Census Bureau. By 2006, the city had 1.5 million residents and was the sixth most populous in the nation. Florida in 1967 had a population of 6.2 million; the Sunshine State now boasts 17.8 million people.

"The West surpassed the Northeast in total population back in 2000 and is projected to overtake the Midwest region before 2030," said Linda Jacobsen, director of domestic programs for the Population Reference Bureau, told reporters Wednesday in an online discussion. "The South will continue to have the largest population of any region through 2030."

In addition, American suburbs have seen steady growth -- between 1970 and 2000, the percentage of the total population living in suburbs grew from 38 percent to 50 percent.

Despite the larger population, however, there are fewer large households in the United States. In 1970, less than 18 percent of households consisted of just one person. Over the next 30 years, one-person households increased to nearly 26 percent of the total population.

The change is fueled by both young and old; young people may delay getting married and choose to live on their own, while older people who are divorced or widowed also live alone rather than remarry.

"As men and especially women live longer and are healthier and are able to live independently, the share of households that consist of a person living alone will likely continue to increase," Jacobsen said in a report tied to the attainment of the 300 million mark.

And classifying households is not as easy as it may have been in previous years, Jacobsen noted in the report. A household with a mother, a child and the mother's boyfriend, for instance, might not be classified as a family, the Population Reference Bureau said.

Meanwhile, married-couple households have dropped from nearly 75 percent in 1967 to 50 percent today. And nonfamily households have increased from 17 percent to 33 percent.

Other points noted by the Census Bureau include more women in the workforce and better-educated Americans.
Immigrants bypassing 'gateway states'

Migration is playing an increasing factor in population statistics and is projected to continue to do so. According to the Census Bureau, there were 9.7 million foreign-born people in the country in 1967. By 2004, that number had mushroomed to 34.3 million -- 12 percent of the total population.

"Immigration is certainly contributing to the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. population," Jacobsen said Wednesday. "The share of the population who will be Asian and the share who will be Hispanic is projected to double between 2000 and 2050."

However, she said, "it is important to note that the share of the population that was foreign-born was higher [13 percent to 15 percent] during the whole period from 1860 to 1920 than it is today. One pattern that is different today is that immigrants are increasingly dispersed in communities across the U.S."

The Population Reference Bureau noted in its report that traditional "gateway" states such as New York, New Jersey, California, Texas and Florida have long been a "first stop" for immigrants.

"But increasingly, immigrants don't go to traditional gateway states at all," Jacobsen said. Some go directly to relatives in destinations such as North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia.

Although the majority of current immigrants are Mexican, Jacobsen said Wednesday that a proposal to build a fence along the Mexican border would not slow population growth -- "not in the short term."

"Hispanics in the U.S., especially Mexicans, have higher fertility rates than non-Hispanic whites," she said. "Even if no additional immigrants came across the border in the next few years, population would continue to grow in the U.S. because of this built-in momentum."
Impact on the environment

Although the nation's growth rate is larger than that of any other industrialized country in the world, it remains slower than that of developing countries, including India and China, she said.

The country's burgeoning population is having an adverse effect on the environment, Jacobsen said.

Land is being developed at twice the rate of population growth, and some of the nation's fastest-growing regions are in the Western dry areas, which affects water resources.

Air pollution is a problem in larger cities, she said, and poor air quality may contribute to increased health problems among children and the elderly.

Energy is also a concern; the United States consumes a quarter of the world's energy and is the single largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world.

There really is no way to determine who the actual 300 millionth person will be, Jacobsen said. The Census Bureau's population clock is just an estimate.
0 likes   

kevin

#2 Postby kevin » Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:51 pm

This kind of growth is probably healthy. Especially since it mostly comes from immigration and their larger families. Without an increased population social welfare will suffer, so long as its not too large. The US is also a large country with plenty of room and resources to be tapped. Its only natural that people are coming here. And unlike most other countries, we actually turn our immigrants into citizens within a few generations at the most.
0 likes   

User avatar
coriolis
Retired Staff
Retired Staff
Posts: 8314
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2003 10:58 pm
Location: Muncy, PA

#3 Postby coriolis » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:09 pm

You guys in the sunbelt can have the growth! As it says, the northeast is not growing that fast and some portions are declining. That means that old farts like me who like to see things stay the same as they used to be will be happy.
0 likes   
This space for rent.

Scorpion

#4 Postby Scorpion » Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:41 pm

Ridiculous how fast the population grows. This immigration needs to be halted significantly, as that is where the majority of the growth is coming from.
0 likes   

Jim Cantore

#5 Postby Jim Cantore » Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:48 pm

Scorpion wrote:Ridiculous how fast the population grows. This immigration needs to be halted significantly, as that is where the majority of the growth is coming from.


I agree, we have enough people as it is, we only have so much room.

New Jersey is ridiculous, you can hardly breathe anymore.
0 likes   

kevin

#6 Postby kevin » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:28 pm

Category 5 wrote:
Scorpion wrote:Ridiculous how fast the population grows. This immigration needs to be halted significantly, as that is where the majority of the growth is coming from.


I agree, we have enough people as it is, we only have so much room.

New Jersey is ridiculous, you can hardly breathe anymore.


You could always move. Plenty of room.
0 likes   

CajunMama
Retired Staff
Retired Staff
Posts: 10791
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2003 9:57 pm
Location: 30.22N, 92.05W Lafayette, LA

#7 Postby CajunMama » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:22 am

just a reminder....please post the link for your articles.
0 likes   

User avatar
senorpepr
Military Met/Moderator
Military Met/Moderator
Posts: 12542
Age: 43
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 9:22 pm
Location: Mackenbach, Germany
Contact:

#8 Postby senorpepr » Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:50 am

Scorpion wrote:Ridiculous how fast the population grows. This immigration needs to be halted significantly, as that is where the majority of the growth is coming from.

Immigration isn't the main reason why the population is growing the way it is. True, it has an effect, but the main cause of the population increase is sex.

On average, the typical family has two children.

A family has two kids: their two kids have two kids, their two kids have two kids, etc. By the end, man and wife becomes a plethora of folks.

Stopping immigration won't end the population growth. If you want something to be halted that will have an effect--hault sex. However, I don't think that solution will be quite popular.
0 likes   

User avatar
Yarrah
Category 2
Category 2
Posts: 658
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:15 pm
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Contact:

#9 Postby Yarrah » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:41 am

^^ You're right that immigration isn't the only factor, although I think it plays a subtantial role; birthrates in the US aren't that high (14 births per 1000 people, almost the same as the rest of the western world). So IMHO the best way to stop the population growth is to limit the immigration. Halting sex will be impossible.
0 likes   

User avatar
HURAKAN
Professional-Met
Professional-Met
Posts: 46086
Age: 38
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 4:34 pm
Location: Key West, FL
Contact:

#10 Postby HURAKAN » Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:23 am

It will be difficult from a country that has always opened its arms to immigration just say, "no more immigration." I have always enjoyed since I moved to the United States the different cultures that make the union. I'm Cuban, and I celebrate Thanksgiving, always put something green in St. Patrick's, go out in Halloween with my sister to get the candies, and many other things that aren't common in my culture, I have adopted them. I believe it's hypocritical how the same Americans that want the Mexican out of the US also celebrate "Cinco de Mayo." That's just absurd.

To finish, lets just remember that except for the Native Americans, we're all immigrants!!!
0 likes   

User avatar
gtalum
S2K Supporter
S2K Supporter
Posts: 4749
Age: 49
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 3:48 pm
Location: Bradenton, FL
Contact:

#11 Postby gtalum » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:04 am

Halting immigration is both impractical and suicidal. If growth were to stop, our growth-dependent government would collapse under the weight of social security and medicare, for one thing.
0 likes   

User avatar
JenBayles
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 3461
Age: 62
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2003 3:27 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

#12 Postby JenBayles » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:22 am

I think your position is a little extreme gt. I seem to recall that immigration was halted for many years after WWII. The problem is ILlegal immigration. Most of them don't make enough money to pay into the system, but still manage to reap the benefits. Ask any school who is getting free breakfasts and lunches and tutoring and after school care. I doubt anyone has a problem with legal immigration, and those folks usually have a job and a sponsor, and want to assimilate into American culture.
0 likes   

User avatar
gtalum
S2K Supporter
S2K Supporter
Posts: 4749
Age: 49
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 3:48 pm
Location: Bradenton, FL
Contact:

#13 Postby gtalum » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:32 am

JenBayles wrote:I think your position is a little extreme gt. I seem to recall that immigration was halted for many years after WWII. The problem is ILlegal immigration. Most of them don't make enough money to pay into the system, but still manage to reap the benefits. Ask any school who is getting free breakfasts and lunches and tutoring and after school care. I doubt anyone has a problem with legal immigration, and those folks usually have a job and a sponsor, and want to assimilate into American culture.


A few years after WW2 the social security system wasn't on the verge of collapse. Also, the populaitonw as rapidly increasing naturally, with tehe baby boom and all. A stall in population growth would spell the end of independent American society. ;)

Anyway, eliminating the illegal immigration problem is easy: make it easier to immigrate legally. As long as things are better here than elsewhere, people will immigrate no matter what it takes. If you make it easy to do so legally, you can keep track of the people immigrating, enforce labor laws, and tax them.

And who cares if they "assimilate"? It's not true that all or even most immigrants chose to assimilate in the past. There's a reason that major US cities have "Chinatown", "Little Italy", etc. Immigrants tended to cluster together and hold onto their old culture. Their children, though, would integrate naturally with Americans. That's the way it's always been and the way it will continue to be.
Last edited by gtalum on Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
0 likes   

User avatar
JenBayles
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 3461
Age: 62
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2003 3:27 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

#14 Postby JenBayles » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:38 am

Funny, my grandfather who came from Sweden didn't hold on to his language or home country traditions. His parents insisted all 10 children speak English both a home and in public.
0 likes   

User avatar
gtalum
S2K Supporter
S2K Supporter
Posts: 4749
Age: 49
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 3:48 pm
Location: Bradenton, FL
Contact:

#15 Postby gtalum » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:47 am

JenBayles wrote:Funny, my grandfather who came from Sweden didn't hold on to his language or home country traditions. His parents insisted all 10 children speak English both a home and in public.


On the othe rhand, my grandparents never learned English until much later. My father nearly failed kindergarten because of it.

Not all immigrants chose to assimilate. It's a fact of immigration, and will continue to be. Peopel who want to come to work should be able to, regardless of whether they choose to "assimilate" or not.
0 likes   

User avatar
HURAKAN
Professional-Met
Professional-Met
Posts: 46086
Age: 38
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 4:34 pm
Location: Key West, FL
Contact:

#16 Postby HURAKAN » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:15 am

I think I became acculturated even before touching American ground. I had nothing in Cuba, and here I have everything. Of course, my parents, sister, and grandparents from my mother side, are here, therefore, in Cuba I have very little close family members. My grandparents from my dad side, four cousins, my aunt and my uncle. Because of these family members is that I went back to Cuba to visit, and probably will go back in 2007.

When I came in 1999 I was 12 years old, so it wasn't very easy to learn English but as you can read, now I have no problem with that. During the first days and months, there wasn't a moment that I wished to go back. No matter the frustration of not understanding, I knew I was in a better place.

Nonetheless, I feel very proud of my native language, Spanish. It's a beautiful language, and if you live in Miami, you know sometimes is more important to know Spanish than English!!!! Especially if you go to Little Havana!!! Furtheremore, that's the only way I can communicate with most of my family members. My sister came when she was three, so she knows more English than Spanish. It's funny because she talks to me in English and I reply back in Spanish or Spanglish, rarely in English. That's because I don't want her to forget Spanish.

I just like the United States very much, and that's why I became a citizen a month ago and will vote in November.
0 likes   

User avatar
HURAKAN
Professional-Met
Professional-Met
Posts: 46086
Age: 38
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 4:34 pm
Location: Key West, FL
Contact:

#17 Postby HURAKAN » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:19 am

U.S. 299,993,139
World 6,550,775,431
14:18 GMT (EST+5) Oct 16, 2006
0 likes   

User avatar
gtalum
S2K Supporter
S2K Supporter
Posts: 4749
Age: 49
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 3:48 pm
Location: Bradenton, FL
Contact:

#18 Postby gtalum » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:21 am

That's a nice story, Hurakan. :)

In a nutshell, and at the risk of sounding political (I'm not, really, as no politican advocates a good immigration policy) I just think that our immigration policy is extremely illogical. We need immigrants. Immigrants want to come here desperately. Yet we make it so difficult to get in legally, that they instead come illegally. Then we complain about the illegal immigrants and all the problems that occur because of the large number of illegal immigrants in the country.

It should be extremely easy for an immigrant to come here to live and work legally. Then it will be easy to give them social security numbers and tax them for their services. Also, it would prevent the exploitation of illegal immigrants which drives down all American wages. It would also make it very difficult for terrorists to sneak in with the masses.

The number of problems that can be solved with a simple change to our immigration policy is astounding. We should be asking why it hasn't been done.
0 likes   

User avatar
Yarrah
Category 2
Category 2
Posts: 658
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:15 pm
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Contact:

#19 Postby Yarrah » Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:35 am

gtalum wrote:And who cares if they "assimilate"? It's not true that all or even most immigrants chose to assimilate in the past. There's a reason that major US cities have "Chinatown", "Little Italy", etc. Immigrants tended to cluster together and hold onto their old culture. Their children, though, would integrate naturally with Americans. That's the way it's always been and the way it will continue to be.

I wish it would go that easy over here. Most of the immigrants here are very reluctant to assimilate and that's causing some serious problems. I always wonder why there's such a big difference between the way immigrants assimilate over here and in the US.
0 likes   

User avatar
senorpepr
Military Met/Moderator
Military Met/Moderator
Posts: 12542
Age: 43
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 9:22 pm
Location: Mackenbach, Germany
Contact:

#20 Postby senorpepr » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:46 pm

HURAKAN wrote:To finish, lets just remember that except for the Native Americans, we're all immigrants!!!


By Native Americans, I assume you mean American Indians. If that is the case, even them aren't truely native to this land. They immigrated from Asia via the Bering Straight.
0 likes   


Return to “Off Topic”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests