http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusiness ... 4521.shtml

International
US population to pass 300 million milestone in October
By Finfacts Team
Jan 16, 2006, 09:15



According to the US Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 01/16/06 at 08:04 GMT (EST+5) is 297,916,328.

COMPONENT SETTINGS
One birth every.................................. 8 seconds
One death every.................................. 12 seconds
One international migrant (net) every............ 31 seconds
Net gain of one person every..................... 14 seconds

Sometime this month of January, somewhere in the United States, a couple -- most likely Hispanic, with Spanish as their mother tongue -- will conceive the 300 millionth American.

The prediction is based on the latest census statistics, which show the US population over 297,900,000, the New York Times reported Friday.

With a baby being born every eight seconds, someone dying every 12 seconds and the nation gaining an immigrant every 31 seconds, the population clock ticks over one numeral roughly every 14 seconds.

At that rate, the total is expected to top 300 million late this year. But with those projections adjusted monthly and the number of births typically peaking during the summer, the benchmark is likely to be reached about nine months from now.

"You end up with a number in October," said Katrina Wengert, a demographer and a keeper of the Census Bureau's official Population Clock is quoted by the Times.

The newspaper reports that in 1967, when the population reached 200 million, Life magazine dispatched 23 photographers to locate the baby and devoted a five-page spread to its search. Instead of deciding on a statistically valid symbol of the average American newborn, the magazine chose the one born at precisely the appointed time.

Life immortalized Robert Ken Woo Jr. of Atlanta, whose parents, a computer programmer and a chemical engineer, had immigrated seven years earlier from China. Mr. Woo graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and is a litigator. Now 38, he still lives in Atlanta with his wife, Angie, who is also a lawyer, and their three daughters.

"He did feel an obligation to do well," Ms. Woo said. "But I think he would have done well, regardless."

This time, like last, the selection is subject to all manner of qualifications, not the least of which is the conceit that the census can measure individuals so precisely as to determine the exact time that the population tops 300 million or, playing the odds, can define the average American newborn.

The Times says that even so, demographers do know that the United States, which ranks third in population behind China and India, is still gaining people while many other industrialized nations are not. (Japan, officials there announced last month, has begun shrinking.) Driven by immigration and higher fertility rates, particularly among newcomers from abroad, the United States' population is growing by just under 1 percent annually, the equivalent of the entire population of Chicago (2.8 million).