U.S. POPULATION TO HIT 300MILLION IN 2006

[Anonymous]

U.S. Population to Hit 300 Million in 2006
WASHINGTON,
Jun.  2006 The U.S. population is on target to hit 300 million this
fall and it’s a good bet the milestone baby _ or immigrant _ will be
Hispanic.
No one will know for sure because the date and time
will be just an estimate.But Latinos _ immigrants and those born in
this country _ are driving the population growth. They accounted for
almost half the increase last year, more than any other ethnic or
racial group. White non-Hispanics, who make up about two-thirds of the
population, accounted for less than one-fifth of the increase.Phil
Shawe sees the impact at his company, Translations.com. The New
York-based business started in 1992, when it mainly helped U.S.
companies translate documents for work done overseas. Today, the
company’s domestic business is booming on projects such as helping a
pharmacy print prescription labels in up to five languages or providing
over-the-phone translation services for tax preparers.”It’s been a huge
growth area for our business,” said Shawe, the president and chief
executive. “Not only is the Hispanic market growing faster than the
average, but it is also growing in purchasing power.”When the
population reached 200 million in 1967, there was no accurate tally of
U.S. Hispanics. The first effort to count Hispanics came in the 1970
census, and the results were dubious.The Census Bureau counted about
9.6 million Latinos, a little less than 5 percent of the population.
The bureau acknowledged that the figure was inflated in the Midwest and
South because some people who checked the box saying they were “Central
or South American” thought that designation meant they were from the
central or southern United States.Most people in the U.S. did not have
any neighbors from Central America or South America in the 1960s. The
baby boom had just ended in 1964, and the country was growing through
birth rates, not immigration, said Howard Hogan, the Census Bureau’s
associate director for demographic programs.People responding to the
Census survey _ which uses the term “foreign born” rather than
immigrant _ are not asked whether they are legal or illegal.In 1967,
there were fewer than 10 million people in the U.S. who were born in
other countries; that was not even one in 20. White non-Hispanics made
up about 83 percent of the population.

Today, there are 36 million immigrants, about one in eight.“We
were much more of an insular society back then,” said William Frey, a
demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “It
was much more of a white, middle-class, suburban society.”As of midday
Sunday, there were 299,061,199 people in the United States, according
to the Census Bureau’s population clock. The estimate is based on
annual numbers for births, deaths and immigration, averaged throughout
the year.The U.S. adds a person every 11 seconds, according to the
clock. A baby is born every eight seconds, someone dies every 13
seconds, and someone migrates to the U.S. every 30 seconds.At that
rate, the 300 millionth person in the U.S. will be born _ or cross the
border _ in October, though bureau officials are wary of committing to
a particular month because of the subjective nature of the
clock.Hispanics surpassed blacks as the largest minority group in the
2001, and today make up more than 14 percent of the population.The
growth of the Latino population promises to have profound cultural,
political and economic effects.”I think we’ve already seen these
changes,” said Clara Rodriguez, a sociology professor at Fordham
University.”I think the music has been influenced by the Caribbean
rhythms and the Latino singers,” Rodriguez said. “I think economically,
clearly immigrants are coming to work.”Don’t forget the salsa-ketchup
wars, well-publicized since salsa surpassed ketchup in U.S. sales in
the 1990s, pitting the two condiments in a seesaw battle for supremacy
ever since.Many people are embracing the changes, but some are not, as
evidenced by the national debate on immigration. The growing number of
Hispanics is closely tied to immigration because about 40 percent are
immigrants.”I think there is a little bit of a culture shock effect,
especially with the language,” said Frey, the demographer. “But as
people get to know their new neighbors, they find they are not that
different from them.”The U.S. added 2.8 million people last year _ a
little more than a million from immigration and about 1.7 million
because births outnumbered deaths.The U.S. is the third largest country
in the world, behind China and India. America’s population is
increasing by a little less than 1 percent a year, a pace that will
keep it in third place for the foreseeable future, said Carl Haub, a
demographer at the Population Reference Bureau.

The world, with a population of 6.5 billion, is growing a little faster than 1 percent a year.
By
the time the U.S. population hits 400 million, in the 2040s, white
non-Hispanics will be but a bare majority. Hispanics are projected to
make up close to one-quarter of the population, and blacks more than 14
percent. Asians will increase their share of the population to more
than 7 percent.Those percentages, however, are just projections. They
are subject to big revisions, depending on immigration policy, cultural
changes and natural or manmade disasters.”In terms of projecting out a
year or two, we’re not too bad,” said Hogan of the Census Bureau. “In
2043, I don’t think anybody here would think they are particularly
accurate.”One thing is certain: A lot more people who say they are
Central American or South American will actually be from those
places.”The over 40 population dominated by the baby boomers, they’re
the ones in power now,” said Frey. “But when we get to 2043, a lot of
them will not be with us anymore. Those under 40 will be in power and
we will be even more of a global society.”

[Author]

June 26, 2006 at 10:51 AM