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Population (General Facts)
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| Estimated Number of Printed Pages: 15
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| TOPICS COVERED: While researching Why Do We Love These People? and The Factbook, we found a general awareness of key population issues was useful, because, while not directly relating to families, it helped us understand families within a larger context. So here are a few of interesting facts relating to the U.S. population and the global population – primarily to show general comparisons and trends. Information about specific racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. is included in the Related Memos. Aging and Children also have additional population information.
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| It's interesting to note that population forecasts are essential – and sometimes, complete fiction. In 1912, a panel of experts warned that the U.S. population was rapidly dying out, and if the nation was to survive, it would be dependent on foreign immigration for its population.* In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists warned that there was a coming "population bomb." There would be so many people, the experts warned, humanity would wipe out the world. They prophesied that by 2000, there could be as many as 6.3 billion people in the world – more than it could handle – and it would be global disaster by 2025. But then after a decade or so, the experts decided population controls had been effective and the bomb wouldn't come – the population would probably only hit 5.4 billion by 2000, so we need not worry so much. The actual world population in 2005 turned out to be . . . 6.46 billion. And now we worry about a "birth dearth" – that our world's population is aging and its numbers are shrinking.
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| Population Growth in the U.S.
296,976,031
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| U.S. population, August 24, 2005. 1
76 million
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| The U.S. population, in 1900. 2.
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| 281 million
The U.S. population, in 2000. 3.
32.7 million
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| The growth of the U.S. population in the 1990s – the largest numerical increase of any decade in U.S. history. 4.
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| Despite the fact that the 1990s was the decade of the greatest numerical growth, it wasn't the greatest percentage growth for the U.S. population. In fact, it was the third lowest percent increase in the century at only a 13.2 percent increase. In 1900-1910, the population added 16 million – half the 1990s increase – but that meant the total population jumped up 21 percent in just ten years. 5.
23 Percent Larger
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| The estimated growth of the U.S. population in 2025, compared to 2000. 6.
6.0 percent
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| of the world’s population in lived in the U.S. in 1950. 7.
4.5 percent
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| of the world’s population in lived in the U.S. in 2000. The percentage of total global population living in the United States has actually declined each decade. So as much as the growth of the U.S. population has been exponential, it's comparatively dwarfed by what is going on in the rest of the world. 8.
96 males to 100 females
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| the ratio of males to females in the U.S. in 2000. 9.
More men than women -
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| In 2000, the U.S. male population was larger than its female population up for every age group until those aged 30 to 34. 10.
More women than men -
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| In 2000, starting with those aged 35 to 39, American women outnumbered men– a fact which gets progressively more significant as the men's and women's ages increased. At age 65 and above, there were approximately six million more older women than older men (20.6 million to 14.4 million). 11.
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| Change in the U.S. Population
The Typical Person in the United States at the Turn of the 20th Century
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| was male, under 23 years old, and White. He usually lived in a Northeastern or a Midwestern state, in a nonmetropolitan area. He rented a home. He probably lived in a household with five or more other people – since almost half of the population did so. 12.
The Typical Person in the United States at the Turn of the 21st Century
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| is female, at least 35 years old, and probably White (but much less likely to be so). She lives in a Southern or a Western states, in metropolitan area. She probably owns a home, and she either lives alone or in a household with just one or two other people. 13.
One out of every eight Americans
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| was of a race other than White at the start of the 20th century. 14.
One out of every four Americans
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| was of a race other than White by the 20th century's end. 15.
Less Than One Percent
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| of the U.S. population, from 1900 to 1960, who were people of races other than White or Black. 16.
1.4 Percent
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| of the U.S. population, in 1970, who were people of races other than White or Black. 17.
12.5 Percent
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| of the U.S. population who were people of races other than White or Black by the year 2000. 18.
7.9 percent
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| was the rate of growth for the U.S.'s White non-Hispanic population between 1980 and 2000. 19.
88 percent
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| was the combined rate of growth for the people of races other than White and people of every race who were of Hispanic origin. That is eleven times the growth of the White population. 20.
36.2 million
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| people in the U.S. – 12.9 percent of the total population – who identified themselves as Black in the 2000 Census. Of those, the vast majority – 34.4 million reported Black as their only race; the remainder said they were two or more races. 21.
11.9 million
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| Number of people – 4.2 percent of the total population – who reported that they were Asian in the U.S. 2002 Census. This includes 10.2 million (3.6 percent) who described themselves as Asian alone, and another 0.6 percent who described themselves as Asian and at least one other race. 22.
Nationalities / ethnicities with at least one percent of the Asian population in the U.S. –
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| Asian Indian, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Pakistani, Thai and Vietnamese. 23.
13.5 million
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| Number of people reported themselves to be Asian in the U.S. in 2003 – a 12.5 percent growth in three years. 24.
80 percent
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| of Asians in the U.S. are members of one of five groups: Asian Indian (16.2 percent of the Asian population), Chinese (23.8 percent of the Asian population), Filipino (18.3 percent of the Asian population), Korean (10.5 percent of the Asian population), and Vietnamese (10.9 percent of the Asian population). Each of these has a U.S. population of at least one million people. 25.
Almost four-fifths
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| of Asians in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, but about three-fifths of them speak English “very well.” 26.
861,000
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| Number of those in the U.S. who identified themselves as Pacific Islander – such as Native Hawaiian or Guamanian – in the 2000 Census. 27.
Pacific Islander Men Under 35
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| outnumber Pacific Islander women in the U.S. 28.
But Pacific Islander Women Over 64
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| outnumber Pacific Islander men in the U.S. 29.
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| According to the U.S. federal government, "Hispanic" or "Latino" identifies someone as a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin. Therefore, it's an ethnic identification – not a racial one – so Hispanics can be of any race. 30.
35.2 million
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| Number of Hispanics in the U.S. as of 2000. That’s 12.5 percent of the total population – a "61 percent increase since 1990. Among the Hispanic or Latino groups, Mexicans were the largest with 20.9 million [59.3 percent]." 31.
39.9 million
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| Number of Hispanics in the U.S. as of July 1, 2003 – about one-half of the population's growth since 2000. 32.
13 percent
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| The growth in the Hispanic population since 2000 – while the total U.S. population only increased 3.3. percent. 33.
Less than 22.9 years old
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| Half of the U.S. population, in 1900. 34.
More than 35.3 years old
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| Half of the U.S. population, at 2000 – the highest median age in the nation's history. 35.
Children under the age of five
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| were the largest 5-year age group in the U.S. in 1900 and 1950. 36.
Adults aged 35 to 39 and 40 to 44
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| were the largest 5-year age groups in the U.S. in 2000 – those being the aging Baby Boomers. 37.
3.1 million
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| – or 4.1% of the total U.S. population – were age 65 or older in 1900. 38.
35.0 million
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| – or 12.4% of the total U.S. population – were age 65 or older in 2000. That is a ten-fold increase in the century, which far exceeds the rate of growth of the entire population – which had just tripled in size. 39.
About 47.0
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| The U.S. average life expectancy at birth in 1900. 40.
About 77.0
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| The U.S. average life expectancy at birth in 2000. 41.
Over 100
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| infants would die before their first birthday in the U.S. in 1900. 42.
Less than 10
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| The global life expectancy at birth, from 2000 to 2005. That's a rise from 47 years in 1950-1955, and it's expected to rise to 75 years by 2045- 2050. 44.
48 years
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| the life expectancy in Southern Africa – which is a decrease from 62 years in 1990-1995. The cause – deaths from HIV/AIDS. Experts expect that life expectancy there will continue to fall for another ten years – to 43 years – before starting to slowly recover. 45.
95 percent
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| of all population growth is absorbed by the developing world – so that by the year 2025, the developing world's population is expected to grow by 35 million people annually – with 22 million by the least developed countries. 46.
Five percent
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| of all population growth is absorbed by the developed world – and by 2050, the population of the more developed countries are projected to decline by about 1 million people a year. 47.
1.2 billion to . . . 1.2 billion
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| The population of developed countries as a whole and which is expected to remain virtually unchanged between 2005 and 2050. In contrast, the population of the 50 least developed countries is projected to more than double, passing from 0.8 billion in 2005 to 1.7 billion in 2050. 48.
0.8 billion to . . . 1.7 billion
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| By contrast, the population of the 50 least developed countries is projected to more than double during the same period, from 0.8 billion in 2005 to 1.7 billion in 2050. 49.
6,462,198,041
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| World population, August 24, 2005. 50.
Two-thirds As Many People
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| Because of dramatically falling birth rates, in 24 European countries, one generation will be replaced by two-thirds as many people – or less. 51.
One-fifth
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| of the world's population lives in China. 52.
More than one-third
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| of the world's population lives in China or India. 53.
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Having Under Five Percent of the world's population, United States ranked third in terms of total population size in 2000.
Here's a U.S. Census chart illustrating the changing distribution of the world's population over the last half of the Twentieth Century. 54.
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Almost half of the global population increase from 1950 to 2000
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| came from just five countries: the United States, India, China, Nigeria, and Indonesia. 55.
One Percent Decrease
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| in population is expected in the more developed countries (other than the U.S.) over the next 25 years. 56.
35 Percent Increase
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| in population is expected in the less developed countries over the next 25 years. 57.
Half the population, but more young children
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| Nigeria has a total population that is less than half of the United States. But it has a larger population of children under than age of five. 58.
Three percent increase by 2025
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| The total number of children, globally. will be just 3 percent larger than in 2000. 59.
Nearly doubling by 2025
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| By 2025, the total number of elderly throughout the world will almost double. That's a percentage increase is three-times the growth of the working-age population. 60.
The US Population is "Older"
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| When the U.S. population is described as "older" than other nations around the world, that means that it has larger percentages of people in two older age groups– those 65 or older and those 80 or older (known as the "oldest old"). 61.
The US Population is "Younger"
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| However, unlike most other developed countries, the United States also has a slightly younger population – has a greater percentage of the population of the world's youth. There are primarily two reasons for this. First, U.S. birth rates – primarily driven by the higher rates of recent Hispanic immigrants and their children – are slightly higher than those of other more developed counties . At the same time, about 10 million more people entered the United States than left the country during the 1990-2000 period, which added to the young adult age groups of our population. So, the both reasons for our nation is slightly younger are actually largely the same: immigration. 62.
Eight percent
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| of the world's elderly live in the U.S. – ranking the nation as having the third largest population of elderly in the world. 63.
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| Though the U.S. population is only one-fourth of the size of India's, the United States has more people ages 80 and over than India does. 64.
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| the ratio of males to females worldwide in 2000. 66.
94 males to 100 females
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| the ratio of males to females for more developed countries (excluding the U.S.) in 2000. 67.
103 males to 100 females
the ratio of males to females for less developed countries in 2000. 68.
117 males to 100 females
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| the gender imbalance in China in 2000. For second children born in a family, the disparity was much greater: there were 152 males born to 100 females. 69.
77 years
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| Average life expectancy for a Japanese man. 70.
84 years
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| Average life expectancy for a Japanese woman in 1999. 71.
43.5
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| Life expectancy, for a female born in Afghanistan in 2000-2005. 72.
____________________________________________________
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| 2. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 1. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 3. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 1. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 4. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), pp. 1, 13. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 5. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 13. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 6. Thomas M.McDevitt and Patricia M. Rowe, The United States in International Context: 2000, Census 2000 Brief, C2KBR/01-11. U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC (2002), p. 10 (internal citation omitted). Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kbr01-11.pdf .
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| 7. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 14. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 8. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 14. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 12. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 3. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 13. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 3. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 14. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 71. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 15. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 71. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 16. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 76. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 17. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 76. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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| 18. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-4, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (November 2002), p. 76. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf
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