call HART crazy .. but
According to my CTV News headlines .. The population of the United States officially hit the historic milestone of 300 million this morning, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
United States population hits 300-million mark
Updated Tue. Oct. 17 2006 9:03 AM ETCTV.ca News Staff
The population of the United States officially hit the historic milestone of 300 million Tuesday morning, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
The 300 millionth resident clocked in at 7:46 a.m. ET, according to the Census Bureau’s “population clock.”
The Census Bureau estimates a birth every seven seconds, one death every 13 seconds, and a new immigrant every 31 seconds. The result is an increase of one person every 11 seconds.
The U.S. adds about 2.8 million people a year, for a growth rate of less than 1 per cent.
With that formula in mind, it is impossible to tell for sure if the 300-millionth person was a newborn, or one who crossed over one of the borders. But experts say they have an idea who that person is.
The 300-millionth resident is probably Hispanic because they are the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S., William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, told The Associated Press.
Twelve per cent of U.S. residents, or 34.3 million people, are foreign-born, with the largest number coming from Mexico, according to the Census Bureau. The U.S. ranks third in net immigration, behind Ireland and Australia, with a rate of 3.4 per 1,000 people in the population in 2005. It is projected that 25 per cent of the population will be Hispanic in 2050.
According to Census Bureau data, most immigrants initially live in the so-called gateway states California, Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Texas.
From there, they move on to areas such as Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas, the states with the highest rate of internal migration of foreign-born residents.
No celebrations are planned for the 300-million benchmark, which makes the United States the third most populous country in the world after China at 1.3 billion and India at 1.1 billion. The world population is 6.6 billion.
Many experts believe the population actually hit 300 million months ago.
“I don’t think anybody believes it will be the precise moment when the population hits 300 million,” Howard Hogan, the Census Bureau’s associate director for demographic programs, told AP.
But, he added, “We’re confident that we’re somewhat close.”
Not only is it difficult estimating the exact number of people in a country the size of the U.S., it gets even more complicated when you take into account illegal immigration — another reason why the milestone is passing without much hullabaloo.
Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, told AP that the Census Bureau has improved its population estimates in the past few years, but it still undercounts illegal immigrants.
There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Experts disagree on the numbers, but many estimate that more than 1 million of illegal immigrants don’t show up in census figures.
“The census clearly misses people,” said Passel, a former Census Bureau employee who used to help estimate the undercount. “Having said that, when they crossed 200 million, they were missing about 5 million people. We think the 2000 census missed a lot less than 5 million people.”
Tuesday’s milestone comes nearly 39 years after the 200-million milestone was reached on November 20, 1967 when Lyndon B. Johnson was president and the country was preoccupied with the Vietnam War.
To mark that milestone, former president Johnson held a news conference to hail America’s history and to talk about the challenges ahead. Life magazine sent off a team of photographers to find a baby born at the exact moment, anointing a boy born in Atlanta as the 200-millionth American.
This year, experts say, there’s a good chance the 300-millionth American has already travelled across the border from Mexico.
“It’s a couple of weeks before an election when illegal immigration is a high-profile issue and they don’t want to make a big deal out of it,” Frey said.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told the wire agency the Bush administration isn’t downplaying the milestone, though he said he had no plans for Tuesday.
Census Bureau employees planned to mark the moment Tuesday afternoon with cake and punch.
“I would hate to think that we are going to be low key about this,” said Gutierrez, whose department oversees the Census Bureau. “I would hope that we make a big deal about it.”
Other figures released by the Census Bureau show the changing face of the U.S.:
In 1915, when the country’s population hit 100 million, 15 per cent were foreign-born and most immigrants came from Germany. When the population reached 200 million in 1967, five per cent were foreign-born and the leading country of origin was Italy. In 2006, foreign-born residents comprise 12 per cent of the total population and Mexico is the leading country of origin.
The average American family comprised 4.5 people in 1915, 3.3 in 1967 and 2.6 in 2006.
In 1915, the percentage of women in the labour force was 23 per cent, compared to 41 per cent in 1967 and 58 per cent in 2006.
The percentage of the population, age 25 and older, who had at least a high school diploma was 13.5 per cent in 1915, compared to 51.1 per cent in 1967 and 85.2 per cent in 2006.
Life expectancy at birth in 1915 was 54.5 years; in 1967 it was 70.5 years; and in 2006 it was 77.8 years.
The most popular names for boys and girls were John and Mary in 1915; Michael and Lisa in 1967; and Jacob and Emily in 2006.
With files from The Associated Press
© 2006 CTV Inc. All Rights Reserved.Source: CTV.ca
CANADA .. On The Other Hand…
According to Statistics Canada … at this very moment of posting (October 17, 2006) .. our population is only 32,658,409 ..
The clock is using the annual growth rate (0.926%) measured for the year ending on June 30th, 2005. By applying this rate to the estimated Canadian population as of July 1st, 2005, Canada’s population is growing by one unit every minute and 46 seconds.
This growth is broken down into:
One birth every one minute and 33 seconds
One death every two minutes and 14 seconds
A net migration gain of one person every 2 minutes and 41 seconds
At this rate, the population of Canada will reach 32,569,394 by July 1st, 2006
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