Tue, Oct. 17, 2006
U.S. reaches historic population point: 300,000,000
IMMIGRATION DRIVING GROWTH
By Mike Swift / Mercury News
Email= swift@mercurynews.com or (408) 271-3648
When the nation's odometer clicked over to 300,000,000 people at 4:46 this morning, it was a milestone more figurative than literal.
Someone is born in this country every seven seconds; someone dies every 13 seconds; and one new immigrant arrives every 31 seconds. Put them together, and presto: the United States has added one new resident every 11.25 seconds since the U.S. Census Bureau made the last official count in 2000.
When the nation's odometer clicked over to 300,000,000 people at 4:46 this morning, it was a milestone more figurative than literal.
Someone is born in this country every seven seconds; someone dies every 13 seconds; and one new immigrant arrives every 31 seconds. Put them together, and presto: the United States has added one new resident every 11.25 seconds since the U.S. Census Bureau made the last official count in 2000.
The actual 300-millionth person could be an Indian software engineer who arrives in Silicon Valley, or an American Indian girl born in Truth or Consequences, N.M.
Demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution speculated -- partly tongue in cheek -- that No. 300 million would be a Latino boy born in Los Angeles County, based on the fact that Latinos are growing more than other U.S. ethnic groups, that Los Angeles has the biggest numeric increases and the fact that boy babies outnumber girls.
Demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution speculated -- partly tongue in cheek -- that No. 300 million would be a Latino boy born in Los Angeles County, based on the fact that Latinos are growing more than other U.S. ethnic groups, that Los Angeles has the biggest numeric increases and the fact that boy babies outnumber girls.
``We have no way of knowing where the 300-millionth individual would be,'' said Robert Berenstein, a spokesman for the Census Bureau.
The where and when are less important than the fact that 300 million represents a historical turning point.
What's been going on, in a word, is immigration. A growing percentage of Americans are foreign-born. And they are spreading from traditional hot spots such as California to every corner of the United States.
Without this influx of immigrants, the United States and California, its most populous state, would be following the path of many industrialized countries that are seeing their populations stagnate and age as women have fewer children.
When the nation marked 200 million people in 1967, only 5 percent of the population was foreign-born. That changed dramatically in the wake of the Immigration and Naturalization Services Act of 1965, when Congress abolished quotas that limited the number of immigrants arriving from certain nations, particularly in Asia.
About 12 percent of the nation is currently foreign-born -- less than the 15 percent peak in 1910, but a far greater share than in the late '60s. And while it took the nation 52 years to grow from 100 million to 200 million people, the United States reached 300 million in just 39 years. The Census Bureau says it will reach 400 million even more quickly, by 2043.
In places like Santa Clara County, where about 36 percent of the population was foreign-born in 2005 -- tops in the state along with Los Angeles County -- immigrants are not only fueling population and economic growth, they are starting to reshape their home countries as well. Unlike past generations where immigration was a one-way trip, global jet travel and the Internet have allowed the most successful immigrants to become pollinators of their home countries as well as their adopted home.
Consider entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Hasan Kamil and his wife, Talat Hasan, of Saratoga, natives of India. They have so many investments and philanthropic interests on both sides of the Pacific that they recently bought a house in New Delhi because they travel back and forth so much.
``You have to have lawyers on both sides and accountants on both sides,'' Talat Hasan said.
Since the 1990s, new arrivals have spread out beyond California to corners of America that had few or no immigrants for much of the 20th century.
In 1990, almost half the counties in the United States were more than 99 percent native-born, including vast swaths of the South and the Midwest. By 2000, just one-quarter of the nation's counties were devoid of immigrants, as Latinos and other immigrant groups followed work to states like North Carolina, according to an analysis of census data by the Population Reference Bureau, a research group in Washington, D.C.
Organizations such as the Center for Environment and Population warn that America's immigration-fueled growth, coupled with wasteful patterns of consumption, is causing environmental problems not only for the United States, but for the planet.
In 1990, almost half the counties in the United States were more than 99 percent native-born, including vast swaths of the South and the Midwest. By 2000, just one-quarter of the nation's counties were devoid of immigrants, as Latinos and other immigrant groups followed work to states like North Carolina, according to an analysis of census data by the Population Reference Bureau, a research group in Washington, D.C.
Organizations such as the Center for Environment and Population warn that America's immigration-fueled growth, coupled with wasteful patterns of consumption, is causing environmental problems not only for the United States, but for the planet.
However, in many other industrialized countries without a significant number of immigrants the problem isn't growth, it's contraction.
In Germany, legislators are worried about their country becoming, in Frey's words, a ``geriatric ghetto.'' They are considering a plan to pay women who leave the workforce to have a child about $2,500 a month. In Spain, there are only half as many children younger than 5 than people in their parents' age group.
``You can't go back now and say, `Oops, we forgot to have kids,' '' said Carl Haub, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau. He said those countries are headed for a time when one-third of the population will be older than 65.
Meanwhile, in the lobby of Census Bureau headquarters in Suitland, Md., the digital ``population clock'' ticked past 299,995,000 Monday afternoon, moving steadily toward 300 million. And a government agency more comfortable dealing with statistics than media hype was coping with a different consequence of immigration -- media interest from across the globe, from Brazil to China.
``Man,'' said Stephen Buckner, a Census Bureau public information officer. ``We've been flat-out for the past two days on this.''
Charts: Population growth (PDF)
Charts: Population growth (PDF)
Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta
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