There is one birth every 7 seconds and one death every 12 seconds. There is also one new international migrant every 30 seconds. The net gain is one more person every 12 seconds.
Need to Know
Why know these population figures? They impact on the quantity and quality of life in America. In turn, what happens in North America has worldwide significance, a cause and effect relationship demonstrated by the 2009 global financial meltdown.
Social consciousness brings with it awareness of factors behind momentous decisions on energy use and depletion, implementing the right immigration policies and assessing the nation’s ability to provide health care and social security benefits on an equitable basis.
This knowledge helps plan, provide, manage and maintain sufficient infrastructure to house, educate, feed and transport large numbers of people.
How the Population Clock Works
The population clock momentum is based upon national population estimates, using the latest available data on births, deaths, and international migration.
Each year the population clock is recalibrated when the bureau releases its new set of population estimates. Documentation detailing this process is provided through links on the population clock website.
Historical Perspective
The first U. S. census, taken in 1790, recorded four million Americans. By 1900, the population had grown to 76 million, a figure that had slightly more than doubled to just short of 154 million by 1951. By 2000, the population had increased to 281 million. The current projection is that the population will reach 308 million by 2010 and 439 million by 2050.
Much has been written about the baby boomers. Since 1900, there have been only three years that the population did not increase: 1918, 1944 and 1945. There was only one year in that time period when the population increase was more than 3%. That was the boomers: a 7.5 million increase in 1946, making a 5.72% increase that year.
The population increase is not only about the boomers. Since 1991, we have had an annual increase of more than 3 million. At 3:40 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 17, 2009, the population was at 307,195,728.
The Bottom Line
The issues faced by today’s society are complex ones. Reacting on a gut level to how we feel about such things as Mexican immigrants, the price of fuel, and mortgage interest rates—to name just a few crisis areas—is an increasingly careless approach. Population data is only one ingredient of the decision-making melange. There are numerous other data sets that back up policy decisions and legislative efforts.
The bottom line? An informed citizenry and leaders with intellectual prowess are needed to move the United States and Canada into a safe, secure and productive future. The overly simplistic Sarah Palins of the world do a democracy no favors by taking pot shots at intellectuals and claiming they have no sense of reality.
SOURCE: The United States Bureau of the Census
Rosemary E. Bachelor - Rosemary Bachelor, a prize-winning journalist, has had a career as an editor, feature writer, magazine publisher and author. Her latest ...
