The United States is estimated to have a population of 327,996,618 as of June 25, 2018, making it the third most populous country in the world. It is very urbanized, with 81% residing in cities and suburbs as of 2014 (the worldwide urban rate is 54%). California and Texas are the most populous states, as the mean center of U.S. population has consistently shifted westward and southward. New York City is the most populous city in the United States.
The total fertility rate in the United States estimated for 2016 is 1.82 children per woman, which is below the replacement fertility rate of approximately 2.1. The United States Census Bureau shows a population increase of 0.75% for the twelve-month period ending in July 2012. Though high by industrialized country standards, this is below the world average annual rate of 1.1%.
There were about 125.9 million adult women in the United States in 2014. The number of men was 119.4 million. At age 85 and older, there were almost twice as many women as men (4 million vs. 2.1 million). People under 21 years of age made up over a quarter of the U.S. population (27.1%), and people age 65 and over made up one-seventh (14.5%). The national median age was 37.8 years in 2015.
The United States Census Bureau defines white people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." It includes people who reported "White" or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish." Whites constitute the majority of the U.S. population, with a total of about 245,532,000 or 77.7% of the population as of 2013. Non-Hispanic whites make up 62.6% of the country's population, despite changes due to immigration since the 1960s, and the lower birth-rates among whites.
The American population almost quadrupled during the 20th century--at a growth rate of about 1.3% a year--from about 76 million in 1900 to 281 million in 2000. It is estimated to have reached the 200 million mark in 1967, and the 300 million mark on October 17, 2006. Population growth is fastest among minorities as a whole, and according to the Census Bureau's estimation for 2012, 50.4% of American children under the age of 1 belonged to racial and ethnic minority groups.
The non-Hispanic white population of the US is expected to fall below 50% by 2045. It has also been hypothesized in the Huffington Post that the Hispanic population of the United States citizenry will become the majority ethnic group by 2060. According to Pew Research Center study released in 2018, by 2040, Islam will surpass Judaism to become the second largest religion in the US due to higher immigration and birth rates.
Hispanic and Latino Americans accounted for 48% of the national population growth of 2.9 million between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006. Immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants are expected to provide most of the U.S. population gains in the decades ahead.
The Census Bureau projects a U.S. population of 417 million in 2060, a 38% increase from 2007 (301.3 million), and the United Nations estimates the U.S. population will be 402 million in 2050, an increase of 32% from 2007. In an official census report, it was reported that 54.4% (2,150,926 out of 3,953,593) of births in 2010 were non-Hispanic white. This represents an increase of 0.3% compared to the previous year, which was 54.1%.
Video Demography of the United States
History
In 1900, when the U.S. population was 76 million, there were 66.8 million Whites in the United States, representing 88% of the total population, 8.8 million Black Americans, with about 90% of them still living in Southern states, and slightly more than 500,000 Hispanics.
Under the law, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has increased, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007. Around a million people legally immigrated to the United States per year in the 1990s, up from 250,000 per year in the 1950s. In 2009, 37% of immigrants originated in Asia, 42% in North America, and 11% in Africa.
In 1900, non-Hispanic whites comprised almost 97% of the population of the 10 largest American cities. The Census Bureau reported that minorities (including Hispanic whites) made up 50.4% of the children born in the U.S. between July 2010 and July 2011, compared to 37% in 1990.
In 2010 the state with the lowest fertility rate was Rhode Island, with a rate of 1.63, while Utah had the greatest rate with a rate of 2.45. This correlates with the ages of the states' populations: Rhode Island has the ninth-oldest median age in the US--39.2--while Utah has the youngest--29.0.
Maps Demography of the United States
Vital statistics
The U.S. total fertility rate as of 2010 census is 1.931:
- 1.948 for White Americans (including White Hispanics)
- 1.791 for non-Hispanic Whites
- 1.972 for Black Americans (including Black Hispanics)
- 1.958 for non-Hispanic Blacks
- 1.404 for Native Americans (including Hispanics)
- 1.689 for Asian Americans (including Hispanics)
Other:
- 2.350 for Hispanics (of all racial groups)
- 1.831 for non-Hispanics (of all racial groups)
(Note that ~95% of Hispanics are included as "white Hispanics" by CDC, which does not recognize the Census' "Some other race" category and counts people in that category as white.)
Source: National Vital statistics report based on 2010 US Census data
Vital statistics
Population density
The most densely populated state is New Jersey (1,121/mi2 or 433/km2). See List of U.S. states by population density for maps and complete statistics.
The United States Census Bureau publishes a popular "dot" or "nighttime" map showing population distribution at resolutions of 1,000 and 7,500 people, as well as complete listings of population density by place name.
Cities
The United States has dozens of major cities, including 31 "global cities" of all types, with 10 in the "alpha" group of global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Boston, San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Atlanta. As of 2011, the United States had 51 metropolitan areas with a population of over 1,000,000 people each. (See Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas.)
As of 2011, about 250 million Americans live in or around urban areas. That means more than three-quarters of the U.S. population shares just about three percent of the U.S. land area.
The following table shows the populations of the top twenty metropolitan areas. Note Denver and Baltimore have over 2.5 million residents in their metro areas.
Race and ethnicity
Race
The United States Census Bureau collects racial data in accordance with guidelines provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and these data are based on self-identification. The Census Bureaus uses five racial classifications that are defined as indicated below. State classifications of race may differ from federal classifications.
- White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East (i.e. West/Southwest Asia including Arabs, Assyrians, Jews, Kurds, Persians and Turks), Central Asia (i.e. Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) and North Africa (i.e. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt).
- Black: A person having origins in any of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, including the aboriginal Austronesian peoples of Madagascar.
- American Indian/Alaska Native: A person having indigenous origins in any of the Amerindian peoples of the Americas or the Eskimo-Aleut peoples of Arctic North America.
- Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia - including the Austronesian aboriginal peoples of Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, East Timor and Indonesia. (Persons with origins in any of the original peoples in Central Asia and West/Southwest Asia are classified as 'White'.)
- Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Australasia, Polynesia, Melanesia or Micronesia.
Data about race and ethnicity are self-reported to the Census Bureau. Since the 2000 census, Congress has authorised people to identify themselves according to more than one racial classification by selecting more than one category. Only one ethnicity may be selected, however, because the U.S. Census recognizes only two ethnicities--Hispanic and Non-Hispanic--which are mutually exclusive since you can be one or the other, but not both. The Census Bureau defines "Hispanic" as any person who has an ancestral connection to Spain.
According to the 2010-2015 American Community Survey, the racial composition of the United States in 2015 was:
Hispanic or Latino origin
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines "Hispanic or Latino" as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race. People who identify with the terms "Hispanic" or "Latino" are those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the decennial census questionnaire and various Census Bureau survey questionnaires - "Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano" or "Puerto Rican" or "Cuban" - as well as those who indicate that they are "another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin." People who identify their origin as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race.
Other groups
There were 22.1 million veterans in 2009, meaning that less than 10% of Americans served in the Armed Forces.
In 2010, The Washington Post estimated that there were 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.
There were about 2 million people in prison in 2010.
The 2000 U.S. Census counted same-sex couples in an oblique way; asking the sex and the relationship to the "main householder", whose sex was also asked. One organization specializing in analyzing gay demographic data reported, based on this count in the 2000 census and in the 2000 supplementary survey, that same-sex couples comprised between 0.99% and 1.13% of U.S. couples in 2000. A 2006 report issued by The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation concluded that the number of same-sex couples in the U.S. grew from 2000 to 2005, from nearly 600,000 couples in 2000 to almost 777,000 in 2005. A 2006 UCLA study reported that 4.1% of Americans aged 18-45 identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
A 2011 report by the Institute estimated that 4 million adults identify as gay or lesbian, representing 1.7% of the population over 18. A spokesperson said that, until recently, few studies have tried to eliminate people who had occasionally undertaken homosexual behavior or entertained homosexual thoughts, from people who identified as lesbian or gay. (Older estimates have varied depending on methodology and timing; see Demographics of sexual orientation for a list of studies.) The American Community Survey from the 2000 U.S. Census estimated 776,943 same-sex couple households in the country as a whole, representing about 0.5% of the population.
Projections
A report by the U.S. Census Bureau projects a decrease in the ratio of Whites between 2010 and 2050, from 79.5% to 74.0%. At the same time, Non-Hispanic Whites are projected to no longer make up a majority of the population by 2042, but will remain the largest single ethnic group. In 2050 they will compose 46.3% of the population. Non-Hispanic whites made up 85% of the population in 1960.
The report foresees the Hispanic or Latino population rising from 16% today to 30% by 2050, the Black percentage barely rising from 12.9% to 13.1%, and Asian Americans upping their 4.6% share to 7.8%. The United States had a population of 310 million people in October 2010, and is projected to reach 400 million by 2039 and 439 million in 2050. It is further projected that 82% of the increase in population from 2005 to 2050 will be due to immigrants and their children.
Of the nation's children in 2050, 62% are expected to be of a minority ethnicity, up from 44% today. Approximately 39% are projected to be Hispanic or Latino (up from 22% in 2008), and 38% are projected to be single-race, non-Hispanic Whites (down from 56% in 2008). Racial and ethnic minorities surpassed non-Hispanic whites as the largest group of American children under 5 years old in 2015.
In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau projected the future censuses as follows:
Religion
Religious affiliations in 2004
The table below is based mainly on selected data as reported to the United States Census Bureau. It only includes the voluntary self-reported membership of religious bodies with 750,000 or more. The definition of a member is determined by each religious body. In 2004, the US census bureau reported that about 13% of the population did not identify themselves as a member of any religion.
In a Pew Research Survey performed in 2012, Americans without a religion (atheists, agnostics, nothing in particular, etc.) surpassed Evangelical Protestant Americans with almost 20% of Americans being nonreligious. If this current growth rate continues, by 2050, around 51% of Americans will not have a religion.
A survey conducted in 2014 by the same organization indicated that the percentage of Americans unaffiliated with a religion rose to nearly 23% of the population, up from 16% in 2007.
Religions of American adults
The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008, was a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 54,461 American residential households in the contiguous United States. The 1990 sample size was 113,723; 2001 sample size was 50,281.
Adult respondents were asked the open-ended question, "What is your religion, if any?". Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers. The religion of the spouse or partner was also asked. If the initial answer was "Protestant" or "Christian" further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination. About one-third of the sample was asked more detailed demographic questions.
Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008
Figures are not adjusted for refusals to reply; investigators suspect refusals are possibly more representative of "no religion" than any other group.
Marriage
In 2010, the median age for marriage for men was 27; for women, 26.
Income
In 2006, the median household income in the United States was around $46,326. Household and personal income depends on variables such as race, number of income earners, educational attainment and marital status.
Economic class
Social classes in the United States lack distinct boundaries and may overlap. Even their existence (when distinguished from economic strata) is controversial. The following table provides a summary of some prominent academic theories on the stratification of American society:
Health
In 2010, the average man weighed 194.7 pounds (88.3 kg); the average woman 164.7 pounds (74.7 kg). The height of an American man was 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) and woman 5 feet 3.8 inches (1.621 m) The average BMI is 27.3 for males (overweight) and 28.5 for females (overweight).
According to a Gallup poll in 2012, an estimated 26% of the population were obese, 21% smoked, and 11% had diabetes.
A nationwide study reported by The New York Times in 2010 indicated that 19.5% of teens, aged 12-19, had developed "slight" hearing loss. "Slight" was defined as an inability to hear at 16 to 24 decibels.
According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2011, an estimated 1.2 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.
Generational cohorts
A study by William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their books Generations and Fourth Turning, looked at generational similarities and differences going back to the 15th century and concluded that over 80-year spans, generations proceed through four stages of about 20 years each.
A definitive recent study of US generational cohorts was done by Schuman and Scott (2012) in which a broad sample of adults of all ages was asked, "What world events are especially important to you?" They found that 33 events were mentioned with great frequency. When the ages of the respondents were correlated with the expressed importance rankings, seven (some put 8 or 9) distinct cohorts became evident.
Today the following descriptors are frequently used for these cohorts:
- Lost Generation - born from approximately 1883 to 1900.
- G.I. Generation - born from approximately 1901 to 1924 (in the U.S. the depression cohort who fought and won World War II).
- Silent Generation - born from approximately 1925 to 1942 during the Great Depression and World War II. The label was originally applied to people in North America but has also been applied to those in Western Europe, Australasia and South America. It includes most of those who fought during the Korean War.
- Baby Boomers - There are no precise dates for when this cohort starts or ends; demographers and researchers typically use starting birth years ranging from the early-to-mid 1940s and ending birth years ranging from 1960 to 1964.
- Generation X - demographers and researchers typically use birth years ranging from the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s.
- In the U.S., some called Generation Xers the "baby bust" generation because of the drop in the birth rate following the baby boom. The drop in fertility rates in America began in the late 1950s. But according to authors and demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe (who use 1961 to 1981 for Gen X birth years), there are approximately 88.5 million Gen Xers in the U.S. today.
- Millennials (also known as Generation Y) - demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years.
- Generation Z (also known as Homelanders or Digital Natives) - demographers and researchers typically use starting birth years that range from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, and as of yet there is little consensus about ending birth years.
U.S. demographic birth cohorts
Subdivided groups are present when peak boom years or inverted peak bust years are present, and may be represented by a normal or inverted bell-shaped curve (rather than a straight curve). The boom subdivided cohorts may be considered as "pre-peak" (including peak year) and "post-peak". The year 1957 was the baby boom peak with 4.3 million births and 122.7 fertility rate. Although post-peak births (such as trailing edge boomers) are in decline, and sometimes referred to as a "bust", there are still a relatively large number of births. The dearth-in-birth bust cohorts include those up to the valley birth year, and those including and beyond, leading up to the subsequent normal birth rate. The baby boom began around 1943 to 1946.
From the decline in U.S. birth rates starting in 1958 and the introduction of the birth control pill in 1960, the Baby Boomer normal distribution curve is negatively skewed. The trend in birth rates from 1958 to 1961 show a tendency to end late in the decade at approximately 1969, thus returning to pre-WWII levels, with 12 years of rising and 12 years of declining birth rates. Pre-war birth rates were defined as anywhere between 1939 and 1941 by demographers such as the Taeuber's, Philip M. Hauser and William Fielding Ogburn.
Demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Ages
Median ages are 37.3 years; males are 36.1 years; females are 38.5 years estimated as of 2012.
As of 2012, people are distributed by age as follows:
- 0-14 years: 19.8% (male 31,639,127 and female 30,305,704)
- 15-64 years: 66.8% (male 101,612,000 and female 104,577,000)
- 65 years and over: 13.4% (male 18,332,000 and female 23,174,000)
Birth, growth and death rates
The growth rate is 0.76% as estimated from 2014-2010 by the U.S. Census
The birth rate is 12.5 births/1,000 population, estimated as of 2013. This was the lowest since records began. There were 3,957,577 births in 2013.
- 13.9 births/1,000 population per year (provisional data for 2008)
- 14.3 births/1,000 population per year (provisional data for 2007)
In 2009, Time magazine reported that 40% of births were to unmarried women. The following is a breakdown by race for unwed births: 17% Asian, 29% White, 53% Hispanics, 66% Native Americans, and 72% Black American.
The drop in the birth rate from 2007 to 2009 is believed to be associated with the Late-2000s recession.
A study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that more than half (51 percent) of live hospital births in 2008 and 2011 were male.
Per U.S. federal government data released in March 2011, births fell 4% from 2007 to 2009, the largest drop in the U.S. for any two-year period since the 1970s. Births have declined for three consecutive years, and are now 7% below the peak in 2007. This drop has continued through 2010, according to data released by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics in June 2011. Numerous experts have suggested that this decline is largely a reflection of unfavorable economic conditions. This connection between birth rates and economic downturns partly stems from the fact that American birth rates have now fallen to levels that are comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Teen birth rates in the U.S. are at the lowest level in U.S. history. In fact, teen birth rates in the U.S. have consistently decreased since 1991 through 2011, except for a brief increase between 2005 and 2007. The other aberration from this otherwise steady decline in teen birth rates is the 6% decrease in birth rates for 15- to 19-year-olds between 2008 and 2009. Despite these years of decrease, U.S. teen birth rates are still higher than in other developed nations. Racial differences prevail with teen birth and pregnancy rates as well. The American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic black teen pregnancy rates are more than double the non-Hispanic white teen birth rate.
Birth data
Note: Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number. Also note that growth arrows indicate an increase or decrease in the number of births, not in the fertility rate.
NOTE:
- TFR = Total fertility rate.
- Growth arrows indicate an increase or decrease in the number of births, not in the fertility rate.
Death rate
As of July 2010, it was estimated that there were 8.18 deaths/1,000 population per year. In 2015 it was 8.44/1,000 population/year.
Immigration and emigration
13% of the population was foreign-born in 2009 - a rise of 350% since 1970 when foreign-born people accounted for 3.7% of the population, including 11.2 million illegal immigrants, 80% of whom come from Latin America. Latin America is the largest region-of-birth group, accounting for over half (53%) of all foreign born population in US, and thus is also the largest source of both legal and illegal immigration to US. In 2011, there are 18.1 million naturalized citizens in the United States, accounting for 45% of the foreign-born population (40.4 million) and 6% of the total US population at the time, and around 680,000 legal immigrants are naturalized annually.
4.32 people migrate per 1,000 population, estimated in 2010.
Sex ratios
As of 2010:
- At birth: 1.048 male or female
- Under 15 years: 1.04 male or female
- 15-64 years: 1 male or female
- 65 years and over: 0.75 male or female
- Total population: 0.97 male or female
Infant mortality rate
As of 2010:
- Total: 6.22 deaths per 1,000 live births
- Male: 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births
- Female: 5.53 deaths per 1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth
As of 2010:
- Total population: 78.11 years
- Male: 75.65 years
- Female: 80.69 years
Total fertility rate
As of 2016:
- 1.82 children born per woman
Unemployment rate
As of July 2017, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.3 percent (U3 rate).
As of July 2016, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.9 percent (U3 rate).
As of July 2015, the U.S. unemployment rate was 5.3 percent (U3 rate).
As of July 2014, the U.S. unemployment rate was 6.2 percent (U3 rate).
The U6 unemployment rate as of April 2017 was 8.6 percent. The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U3 rate), but also counts "marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons." Note that some of these part-time workers counted as employed by U3 could be working as little as an hour a week. And the "marginally attached workers" include those who have gotten discouraged and stopped looking, but still want to work. The age considered for this calculation is 16 years and over.
Mobility
In 2013, about 15% of Americans moved. Most of these, 67%, moved within the same county. Of the 33% who moved beyond local county boundaries, 13% of those moved more than 200 miles (320 km).
See also
- Outline of the United States
- Index of United States articles
- Book:United States
- Maps of American ancestries
- Languages of the United States
- Immigration to the United States
- Emigration from the United States
- Places in the United States with notable demographic characteristics
- Demographic history of the United States
- Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States
- Race and ethnicity in the United States
- Urbanization in the United States
- Historical Statistics of the United States
- Hispanic and Latino Americans
Lists:
- Lists of U.S. cities with non-white majority populations
- List of metropolitan areas in the Americas
- List of U.S. states and territories by population
Income:
- Household income in the United States
- Personal income in the United States
- Affluence in the United States
- List of highest-income counties in the United States
- List of lowest-income counties in the United States
Population:
- United States
- Demographics of the United States
- United States Census Bureau
- List of U.S. states and territories by population
- List of metropolitan areas of the United States
- List of United States cities by population
- List of United States counties and county-equivalents
- United States Office of Management and Budget
- The OMB has defined 1098 statistical areas comprising 388 MSAs, 541 ?SAs, and 169 CSAs
- Primary statistical area - List of the 574 PSAs
- Combined Statistical Area - List of the 169 CSAs
- Core Based Statistical Area - List of the 929 CBSAs
- Metropolitan Statistical Area - List of the 388 MSAs
- Micropolitan Statistical Area - List of the 541 ?SAs
- Primary statistical area - List of the 574 PSAs
- The OMB has defined 1098 statistical areas comprising 388 MSAs, 541 ?SAs, and 169 CSAs
- United States Census Bureau
- United States urban area - List of United States urban areas
References
External links
- United States Census Bureau
- New York Times: "Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census"
- 2000 Census of Population and Housing United States, U.S. Census Bureau
- Asian-Nation: Demographics of Asian American /2006-07-04-us-population_x.htm?csp=34 Countdown to 300 million
- Census Ancestry Map
- USA Today 2004 Election County by County Map
- BeliefNet State by State Religious Affiliation at the Wayback Machine (archived April 21, 2008) (archived from the original on 2008-04-21)
- Health by State
- Google - public data "Population in the U.S.A."
Source of article : Wikipedia