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Michael Bergman
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e-mail: 2000usa@census.gov
Radio sound bites
Census Bureau Frames U. S. in Global Context;
Identifies Aging, Fertility Trends
A 13 percent increase in population size in the 1990s helped the United
States maintain its position as the third most populous country in the
world, according to an analysis released today by the Commerce
Department's Census Bureau.
According to the Census 2000 brief titled, The United States in
International Context [pdf], with a population of 281 million people,
this country had more people in 2000 than any other nation in the world,
except China (1.3 billion) and India (1 billion). The world's population
stood at 6.1 billion.
Peter Way, chief of the Census Bureau's International Programs Center,
said, "The size of a country's total population tells only a small part of
its demographic story. A country's population growth rate and its age-sex
composition indicate the challenges it faces in providing health care for
its children and elderly, providing education to its youth, providing
employment opportunities for its young adults and supporting its elderly
population."
The United States ranked fourth among all countries with 3 percent
of the world's under-15 population and third among all countries with
8 percent of the world's elderly population.
The brief noted a shift in age structures in the United States and
other developed countries. For example, the population of children under
age 5 in many developed countries declined in the late 1990s.
Low-fertility countries, it said, will be confronted in the coming decades
with growing elderly populations and fewer workers entering the labor force.
During the 1990s, the U.S. population, which represents less than
5 percent of the world's people, grew five times the percentage increase
of all other industrialized countries combined: 13 percent versus
2.5 percent. Other big gainers among the world's largest countries in the
1990s were: India, which grew 19 percent; China, 11 percent; Nigeria,
33 percent; and Indonesia, 19 percent. Together with the United States,
they accounted for nearly half of the global population increase in the
decade.
The United States outstripped all other developed countries in
population growth, according to the study, because of lower fertility in
most other industrialized countries, combined with substantial immigration
to the United States.
Other highlights:
- Though it has only about one-fourth the total population of India,
the United States has more people age 80 and over.
- The United States has more than twice the population of Nigeria but
fewer children under age 5.
- Over the next quarter century, the world's population is expected
to grow by 29 percent, with nearly all of the increase taking place
in developing countries. The U.S. population is expected to grow
23 percent by 2025.
- By 2025, the number of people age 65 and over throughout the world
will nearly double, while the number of children will increase just
3 percent. In the United States, the elderly population is expected
to jump nearly 80 percent, and working-age adults and children,
15 percent.
The brief is part of a series that analyzes population and housing data
collected from Census 2000. It includes data from the Census Bureau's
international database, which covers 227 countries with populations of
5,000 or more.
available free from Adobe.
