POPULATION
INTRODUCTION
The demographics of the United States depict a largely urban
nation, with around 80 percent of its population living in urban
and suburban areas. The mean population center of the United
States has consistently shifted westward and southward, with
California and Texas currently the most populous states.
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the population of the
United States is around 310 million. The U.S. population is
characterized as slow growth, with a large baby boomer cohort.
Births, supplemented by immigration, help to offset the aging
population. The total U.S. population crossed the 200,000,000
mark in 1968, and the 100,000,000 mark around 1915. The U.S.
population more than tripled during the 20th century, a growth
rate of about 1.3 percent a year, having been about 76 million in
1900.
DEMOGRAPHICS
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, there are an
estimated 310 million people in the United States, with a natural
population increase of about 5.89 people per 1,000 population
(with 14.14 births and 8.25 deaths per 1,000 population). The net
migration rate is estimated at 3.31 migrants per 1,000
population. Thus, the population growth rate is estimated at
0.92%. About 80% of the population lives in urban areas. The mean
population center of the United States has consistently shifted
westward and southward, with California and Texas currently the
most populous states. People under 20 years of age make up over a
quarter of the U.S. population (27.6%), and people age 65 and
over made up one-eighth (12.6%). The national median age was 36.7
years. The country has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million
members each, with numerous others represented in smaller
amounts. In terms of wealth distribution, thirty-five million
Americans live in poverty, about 12.6% of the population; twenty
percent of the population possesses 80% of the nation's
wealth.
POPULATION GROWTH
The total U.S. population crossed the 100 million mark around
1915, the 200 million mark in 1967, and the 300 million mark in
2006 (estimated on Tuesday, October 17). The U.S. population more
than tripled during the 20th century - a growth rate of about
1.3% a year - from about 76 million in 1900 to 281 million in
2000. This is unlike most European countries, especially Germany,
Russia, Italy, and Greece, or Asian countries such as Japan or
South Korea, whose populations are slowly declining, and whose
fertility rates are below replacement. Population growth is
fastest among minorities (taken as a group), and according to the
United States Census Bureau's estimates, 45% of American children
under the age of 5 are minorities. The nation's minority
population is estimated at 102.5 million. Hispanic and Latino
Americans accounted for almost half of the national population
growth. Based on a population clock maintained by the U.S. Census
Bureau, the current U.S. population exceeds 305 million, which is
4.5% of the world's population. The latest U.S. Census Bureau
report projects a population of 439 million in the year 2050.
CITIES
About 80% of Americans live in urban areas (as defined by the
Census Bureau, such areas include the suburbs); about half of
those reside in cities with populations over 50,000. The United
States has dozens of major cities, which play an important role
in U.S. culture, heritage, and economy. More than 250
incorporated places have populations of at least 100,000, nine
cities have populations greater than 1 million, and four cities
have over 2 million inhabitants. The United States has 8 of the
60 global cities of all types, with three "alpha" global cities:
New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The 10 largest cities,
based on the 2010 United States Census (as of
April 1, 2010) of the resident population, are New York City, New
York (the population within the city limits is 8,175,133), Los
Angeles, California (3,792,621), Chicago, Illinois (2,695,598),
Houston, Texas (2,099,451), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1,526,006),
Phoenix, Arizona (1,445,632), San Antonio, Texas
(1,327,407), San Diego, California (1,307,402), Dallas, Texas (1,197,816),
San Jose, California (945,942). The resident
population of Washington D.C. is 601,723. In
addition, there are 51 metropolitan areas with a population of
over 1,000,000 people each.
NOTE: As defined by the United States
Census Bureau, an incorporated place is defined as a place that
has a self-governing local government and as such has been
"incorporated" into the state it is in. Each state has different
laws defining how a place can be incorporated and so an
"incorporated place" as recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau can
designate a variety of places, such as a city, town, village,
borough, and township.
The other type of place defined by the U.S. Census Bureau for
statistical purposes are census-designated places.
Census-designated places are distinct from incorporated places
because they do not have a local government and thus depend on
higher government bodies, such as a county, for governance.
Census-designated places are defined as being in an
unincorporated area.
POPULATION DENSITY
According to the United States Census Bureau's 2000 U.S. Census,
the most densely populated state is New Jersey (438/sq km). The
most densely populated incorporated place in the United States is
Guttenberg, New Jersey (56,012 people per square mile). The most
densely populated unincorporated census-designated place in the
United States is Friendship Village, Washington, D.C. (81,991.7
people per square mile).
U.S. population density within each county (except those in
Hawaii and Alaska), in persons per sq. mile (based on the United
States Census Bureau's 2000 U.S. Census data): 1-4 (yellow), 5-9
(light green), 10-24 (teal), 25-49 (dark teal), 50-99
(blue-green), 100-249 (blue), 250-66,995 (black).
RACES AND ETHNIC GROUPS
The majority of Americans (around 80%) are the descendants of
white immigrants; people of solely non-Hispanic white ancestry
represent around 67% of the population. The non-Hispanic white
population is proportionally declining, both due to immigration
from nonwhite countries and due to a higher birth rate among
ethnic and racial minorities. If current immigration trends
continue, the number of non-Hispanic whites is expected to be
reduced to a plurality by 2040-2050. The largest ethnic group of
European ancestry is German at around 15%, followed by Irish
(11%), English (9%), Italian (6%) and Scandinavian (4%). Many
immigrants also hail from Slavic countries, such as Poland and
Russia, as well as from French Canada. African Americans, or
Blacks, largely descend from Africans who arrived as slaves
during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, and account
for about 13% of the population. Asian Americans account for
around 4%. At about 1.5% of the total population, Native
Americans and Alaska Natives number about 4.4 million,
approximately 35% of whom are living on reservations.
Current demographic trends include the immigration of Hispanics
from Latin America into the Southwest, a region that is home to
about 60% of the 35 million Hispanics in the United States.
Immigrants from Mexico make up about 65% of the Hispanic
community, are second only to the German-descent population in
the single-ethnic category. The Hispanic population, which has
been growing at an annual rate of about 4.5% since the 1990s, is
expected to increase significantly in the coming decades, because
of both immigration and a higher birth rate among Latinos than
among the general population.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
Religion in the United States is remarkable both in its high
adherence as well as its rich diversity. Though the First
Amendment to the country's Constitution explicitly forbids any
official religion, the practice of religion and its importance in
the lives of Americans are widespread and unusually strong among
developed nations, with a majority of citizens reporting that
religion played a "very important" role in their lives. Because
the First Amendment also guarantees free worship of religion, a
large number of faiths, spanning the country's multicultural
heritage, as well as those founded within the country, have lead
the United States to become the most religiously diverse country
in the world.
NOTE: The United States government does
not collect religious data in its census. The best source of
religious data is the American Religious Identification Survey
(ARIS), a random digit-dialed telephone survey of American
residential households in the contiguous United States by the
Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture and
the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in
Public Life.
According to 2008 AMERICAN RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION SURVEY
(ARIS), the majority of Americans identify themselves as
Christians (76%, compared to 86.2% in 1990) while non-Christian
religions (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and
others) collectively make up 3.9% of the adult population
(compared to 3.3% in 1990). Another 15% of the adult population
(only 8.2% in 1990) identify as having no religious affiliation
compared with far higher rates in other Western countries such as
United Kingdom (44%) and Sweden (69%). Difference in religious
belief and practice are also highly heterogeneous within the
country: only 59% of Americans living in Western states report a
belief in God, yet in the South (the "Bible Belt") the figure is
as high as 86%.
Despite the growing diversity nationally, some religious groups
clearly occupy a dominant demographic position in particular
states. For instance, Catholics are the majority of the
population in Massachusetts and Rhode Island as are Mormons in
Utah and Baptists in Mississippi. Catholics comprise over 40% of
Vermont, New Mexico, New York and New Jersey, while Baptists are
over 40% in a number of southern states such as South Carolina,
Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia.
Historical traces of a Bible Belt in the South and a less
religious West are still evident. Those with "no religion"
constitute the largest "denomination" in Oregon, Washington,
Idaho and Wyoming. In contrast, the percentage of adults who
adhere to "no religion" is below 10% in North and South Dakota,
the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and those with no religion continue to
have a greater preference for the Democratic party over the
Republican - much as they did in 1990. Evangelical or Born Again
Christians and Mormons are the most apt to identify as
Republicans. Buddhists and those with no religion are most likely
to be political independents. In keeping with their theology,
Jehovah's Witnesses disavow political involvement.
In both the 1990 and 2008 studies, the Buddhist and Muslim
population appears to have the highest proportion of young adults
under age thirty (37% and 42%, respectively), and the lowest
percentage of females (47% and 48%, respectively). A number of
the major Christian groups have aged since 1990, most notably the
Catholics, Methodists, and Lutherans.
Women are more likely than men to describe their outlook as
"religious." Older Americans are more likely than younger to
describe their outlook as "religious." Black Americans are least
likely to describe themselves as secular, Asian Americans are
most likely to do so.
NATIVE AMERICANS
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples
from the regions of North America now encompassed by the
continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the
island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct
tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as
intact political communities. There has been a wide range of
terms used to describe them and no consensus has been reached
among indigenous members as to what they collectively prefer to
be called. Native Americans have also been known as Indians,
American Indians, Aboriginal Americans, Amerindians, Amerinds,
Colored, First Americans, Indigenous, Original Americans, Red
Indians, or Red Men.
European colonization of the Americas led to centuries of
conflict and adjustment between Old and New World societies. Most
of the written historical record about Native Americans was made
by Europeans after initial contact. Native Americans lived in
hunter/farmer subsistence societies with significantly different
value systems than those of the European colonists. The
differences in culture between the Native Americans and
Europeans, and the shifting alliances among different nations of
each culture, led to great misunderstandings and long lasting
cultural conflicts.
Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of what today
constitutes the United States of America vary significantly,
ranging from 1 million to 18 million.
After the colonies revolted against Great Britain and established
the United States of America, the ideology of Manifest destiny
became integral to the American nationalist movement. In the late
18th century, George Washington and Henry Knox conceived of the
idea of "civilizing" Native Americans in preparation of American
citizenship. Assimilation (whether voluntary as with the Choctaw,
or forced) became a consistent policy through American
administrations. In the early decades of the 19th century, Native
Americans of the American Deep South were removed from their
homelands to accommodate American expansion. By the American
Civil War, many Native American nations had been relocated west
of the Mississippi River. Major Native American resistance took
place in the form of "Indian Wars," which were frequent up until
the 1890s.
Native Americans today have a unique relationship with the United
States of America. They can be found as members of nations,
tribes, or bands of Native Americans who have sovereignty or
independence from the government of the United States. Their
societies and cultures still flourish amidst a larger immigrated
American populace of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and European
peoples. Native Americans who were not already U.S. citizens were
granted citizenship in 1924 by the Congress of the United
States.
At present, there are 563 Federally recognized tribal governments
in the United States. The United States recognizes the right of
these tribes to self-government and supports their tribal
sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the
right to form their own government, to enforce laws (both civil
and criminal), to tax, to establish membership, to license and
regulate activities, to zone and to exclude persons from tribal
territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government
include the same limitations applicable to states; for example,
neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in
foreign relations, or coin money.
According to the United States Census Bureau's 2000 Census, the
total population of American Indians and Alaska Natives (those of
one race or in combination with one or more other races) is
4,119,301 (1.5% of the total population). A little over one third
of the Native Americans in the United States live in three
states: California (627,562; including 333,346 of one race),
Oklahoma (391,949; including 273,230 of one race) and Arizona
(292,552; including 255,879 of one race). The projected
population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including
those of more than one race, on July 1, 2050 is 8.6 million. They
would comprise 2 percent of the total population.
The population of American Indians and Alaska Natives (those of
one race) is 2,475,956 (0.9% of the total population). Of this
number, 437,079 American Indians, 182 Eskimos, and 97 Aleuts
reside on 314 reservations and trust lands. About 50 percent of
the 437,358 American Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts reside on the
ten largest reservations and trust lands. The median age of the
single-race American Indian and Alaska Native population is 30.3
years, younger than the median of 36.6 years for the population
as a whole. About 27 percent of American Indians and Alaska
Natives are younger than 18, and 8 percent are 65 and older.
As of 2000, the largest tribes in the U.S. by population are
Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa, Apache, Lumbee,
Blackfeet, Iroquois, and Pueblo.
Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations,
forced cultural assimilation, outlawing of native languages and
culture, termination policies of the 1950s and 1960s and earlier,
as well as slavery have had deleterious effects on Native
Americans' mental and physical health. Contemporary health
problems include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease, diabetes,
and New World Syndrome.
In the early 21st century, Native American communities remain an
enduring fixture on the United States landscape, in the American
economy, and in the lives of Native Americans. Communities have
consistently formed governments that administer services like
firefighting, natural resource management, and law enforcement.
Most Native American communities have established court systems
to adjudicate matters related to local ordinances, and most also
look to various forms of moral and social authority vested in
traditional affiliations within the community. To address the
housing needs of Native Americans, Congress passed the Native
American Housing and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA) in 1996.
This legislation replaced public housing, and other 1937 Housing
Act programs directed towards Indian Housing Authorities, with a
block grant program directed towards Tribes.
Gambling has become a leading industry. Casinos operated by many
Native American governments in the United States are creating a
stream of gambling revenue that some communities are beginning to
use as leverage to build diversified economies. Native American
communities have waged and prevailed in legal battles to assure
recognition of rights to self-determination and to use of natural
resources. Some of those rights, known as treaty rights are
enumerated in early treaties signed with the young United States
government. Tribal sovereignty has become a cornerstone of
American jurisprudence, and at least on the surface, in national
legislative policies. Although many Native American tribes have
casinos, they are a source of conflict. Most tribes, especially
small ones such as the Winnemem Wintu of Redding, California,
feel that casinos and their proceeds destroy culture from the
inside out. These tribes refuse to participate in the gaming
industry.