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U.S. Population to Hit 300 Million in 2006
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, AP

WASHINGTON (June 25) - 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.
one will know for sure because the date and time will be just an estimate.

But Latino immigrants and those born in the United States 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 American 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.

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 America in 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."

There are also 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."

__________________
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

ChrisF202

Am I the only one here who is disturbed by those numbers? I honestly fear for the future of this nation if we dont increase the native born population. Look at how Europe is dying because the natives are not having enough babies as compared to the Muslim immigrants having like 10 kids each.

astralis

LOL. europe is dying not because the natives aren't having enough babies but because it sucks at integrating immigrants. same with japan.

the trick isn't to somehow "increase the native born population" a la mussolini-style family rewards, the trick is to learn how to embrace immigrants and accept them into society, and vice versa. it's what the US has done fairly successfully since its inception.

dalem

Exactly. Who cares where Americans come from as long as they want to be Americans? We just have to keep getting people to buy into America as opposed to leasing a small piece of it for their own purposes and we will continue to grow ever stronger.

-dale

ArmchairGeneral

I wonder how many of those "native-born White non-Hispanics" were 1st or 2nd generations down from immigrant parents. I would guess that a bunch of them had Jewish, Irish, Italian, etc parents or grandparents. Without immigration, America is nothing. Among my great grandparents were a Norwegian and a Scot. Without immigration I wouldn't be here. Of course, without slavery, I wouldn't be here either, so I guess that argument has some flaws.

__________________
"Apocalyptic thought is curiously pleasurable."
-Theodore Dalrymple

ChrisF202

I dont exactly think they want to be Americans when 500,000 of them march around waving Mexican, El Salvadoran, Hondoran etc flags.

astralis

right, it's just like the irish, every bloody st. patrick's day in almost every major city they go around waving irish flags while busily screaming "erin go braugh"! hell, back in the late 1860s they even took foreign policy into their own hands and invaded canada. i don't exactly think they want to be americans, either!

Jay

It doesnt matter, coz they are still Americans. Or by natives do you mean American Indians? Or do you specifically want "white" American population to increase?

__________________
A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

percentage_plyr

yea he means WHITES.

a pretty racist argument actually.

__________________
ALL RIGHT RESERVED, ALL WRONG AVENGED.

......and on the 8th day,God said,"OK,Murphy,now you take over!"

Wooglin

LOL.

Except he is referring to mass protests of foreign nationals on US soil and not "Cinco de Mayo". That was a sad comparison Astralis.

ChrisF202

Right on Wooglin, thanks for backing me up here.

2DREZQ

I don't care where they are from. Let them come, learn english. pay taxes, and value America more than the land of their birth, and I will call them AMERICAN.

__________________
USS North Dakota

Confed999

Amen...

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

gunnut

The only "native" Americans are the original natives here before the European powers showed up. Compare to them, we are all immigrants, just a matter of timing.

I don't care what people look like, as long as they are willing to assimilate, swear allegiance to the Constitution, they are Americans.

By the way, Europe is dying not due to immigration, but because of socialism. Let that be an example for the US.

Confed999

And even those were colonists.