Demography of the United States

History

In 1900, when the U.S. population was 76 million, there were 66.8 million Whites in the United States, representing 88% of the total population, 8.8 million African Americans, with about 90% of them still living in Southern states, and slightly more than 500,000 Hispanics.

Under the law, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has increased, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007. Around a million people legally immigrated to the United States per year in the 1990s, up from 250,000 per year in the 1950s. In 2009, 37% of immigrants originated in Asia, 42% in North America, and 11% in Africa.

In 1900, non-Hispanic whites comprised almost 97% of the population of the 10 largest American cities. By 2006, non-Hispanic whites had dwindled to a minority in 35 of the nation's 50 largest cities. The Census Bureau reported that minorities (including Hispanic whites) made up 50.4% of the children born in the U.S. between July 2010 and July 2011, compared to 37% in 1990.

In 2010 the state with the lowest fertility rate was Rhode Island, with a rate of 1.63, while Utah had the greatest rate with a rate of 2.45. This correlates with the ages of the states' populations: Rhode Island has the ninth-oldest median age in the US—39.2—while Utah has the youngest—29.0.

Vital statistics

The U.S. total fertility rate as of 2010 census is 1.931:

1.948 for White Americans (including White Hispanics)

1.791 for non-Hispanic Whites

1.972 for Black Americans (including Black Hispanics)

1.958 for non-Hispanic Blacks

1.404 for Native Americans (including Hispanics)

1.689 for Asian Americans (including Hispanics)

Other:

2.350 for Hispanics (of all racial groups)

1.831 for non-Hispanics (of all racial groups)

(Note that ~95% of Hispanics are included as "white Hispanics" by CDC, which does not recognize the Census' "Some other race" category and counts people in that category as white.)

Source: National Vital statistics report based on 2010 US Census data

2013–2014 birth data by race

Note: Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number. Also note that growth arrows indicate an increase or decrease in the number of births, not in the fertility rate.

NOTE: that growth arrows indicate an increase or decrease in the number of births, not in the fertility rate.

Population density

The most densely populated state is New Jersey (1,121/mi² or 433/km²). See List of U.S. states by population density for maps and complete statistics.

The United States Census Bureau publishes a popular "dot" or "nighttime" map showing population distribution at resolutions of 1,000 and 7,500 people, as well as complete listings of population density by place name.

Cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 31 "global cities" of all types, with 8 in the "alpha" group of global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Boston, San Francisco, Miami and Atlanta. As of 2011, the United States had 51 metropolitan areas with a population of over 1,000,000 people each. (See Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas.)

As of 2011, about 250 million Americans live in or around urban areas. That means more than three-quarters of the U.S. population shares just about three percent of the U.S. land area.

The following table shows the populations of the 18 of top twenty metropolitan areas, at the time of the 2010 Census. Note Denver and Baltimore have over 2.5 million residents in their metro areas.

Race and ethnicity

The U.S. population's distribution by race and ethnicity in 2010 was as follows; due to rounding, percentage figures may not add up to the totals shown.

Hispanic or Latino origin

The total population of Hispanic and Latino Americans comprised 50.5 million or 16.3% of the national total in 2010. The category of "Hispanic or Latino" is considered by the U.S. Census Bureau to be separate from racial categories, including all people who identify their ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino. The U.S. Census Bureau defines Hispanic or Latino as "those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 or ACS questionnaire"—"Mexican", "Puerto Rican", or "Cuban"—as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino." Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race.

All Data from 2010 U.S. Census Bureau

Other groups

There were 22.1 million veterans in 2009, meaning that less than 10% of Americans served in the Armed Forces.

In 2010, the Washington Post estimated that there were 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

There were about 2 million people in prison in 2010.

The 2000 U.S. Census counted same-sex couples in an oblique way; asking the sex and the relationship to the "main householder", whose sex was also asked. One organization specializing in analyzing gay demographic data reported, based on this count in the 2000 census and in the 2000 supplementary survey, that same-sex couples comprised between 0.99% and 1.13% of U.S. couples in 2000. A 2006 report issued by The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation concluded that the number of same-sex couples in the U.S. grew from 2000 to 2005, from nearly 600,000 couples in 2000 to almost 777,000 in 2005. A 2006 UCLA study reported that 4.1% of Americans aged 18–45 identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

A 2011 report by the Institute estimated that 4 million adults identify as gay or lesbian, representing 1.7% of the population over 18. A spokesperson said that, until recently, few studies have tried to eliminate people who had occasionally undertaken homosexual behavior or entertained homosexual thoughts, from people who identified as lesbian or gay. (Older estimates have varied depending on methodology and timing; see Demographics of sexual orientation for a list of studies.) The American Community Survey from the 2000 U.S. Census estimated 776,943 same-sex couple households in the country as a whole, representing about 0.5% of the population.

Projections

A report by the U.S. Census Bureau projects a decrease in the ratio of Whites between 2010 and 2050, from 79.5% to 74.0%. At the same time, Non-Hispanic Whites are projected to no longer make up a majority of the population by 2042, but will remain the largest single ethnic group. In 2050 they will compose 46.3% of the population. Non-Hispanic whites made up 85% of the population in 1960.

The report foresees the Hispanic or Latino population rising from 16% today to 30% by 2050, the Black percentage barely rising from 12.9% to 13.1%, and Asian Americans upping their 4.6% share to 7.8%. The United States had a population of 310 million people in October 2010, and is projected to reach 400 million by 2039 and 439 million in 2050. It is further projected that 82% of the increase in population from 2005 to 2050 will be due to immigrants and their children.

Of the nation's children in 2050, 62% are expected to be of a minority ethnicity, up from 44% today. Approximately 39% are projected to be Hispanic or Latino (up from 22% in 2008), and 38% are projected to be single-race, non-Hispanic Whites (down from 56% in 2008).

In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau projected the future censuses as follows:

Religious affiliations in 2004

The table below is based mainly on selected data as reported to the United States Census Bureau. It only includes the voluntary self-reported membership of religious bodies with 750,000 or more. The definition of a member is determined by each religious body. In 2004, the US census bureau reported that about 13% of the population did not identify themselves as a member of any religion.

In a Pew Research Survey performed in 2012, Americans without a religion (atheists, agnostics, nothing in particular, etc.) surpassed Evangelical Protestant Americans with almost 20% of Americans being nonreligious. If this current growth rate continues, by 2050, around 51% of Americans will not have a religion.

A survey conducted in 2014 by the same organization indicated that the percentage of Americans unaffiliated with a religion rose to nearly 23% of the population, up from 16% in 2007.

Religions of American adults

The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008, was a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 54,461 American residential households in the contiguous United States. The 1990 sample size was 113,723; 2001 sample size was 50,281.

Adult respondents were asked the open-ended question, "What is your religion, if any?". Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers. The religion of the spouse or partner was also asked. If the initial answer was "Protestant" or "Christian" further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination. About one-third of the sample was asked more detailed demographic questions.

Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008
Figures are not adjusted for refusals to reply; investigators suspect refusals are possibly more representative of "no religion" than any other group.

Marriage

In 2010, the median age for marriage for men was 27; for women, 26.

Income

In 2006, the median household income in the United States was around $46,326. Household and personal income depends on variables such as race, number of income earners, educational attainment and marital status.

Economic class

Social classes in the United States lack distinct boundaries and may overlap. Even their existence (when distinguished from economic strata) is controversial. The following table provides a summary of some prominent academic theories on the stratification of American society:

Health

In 2010, the average man weighed 194.7 pounds (88.3 kg); the average woman 164.7 pounds (74.7 kg). The height of an American man was 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) and woman 5 feet 3.8 inches (1.621 m) The average BMI is 27.3 for males (overweight) and 28.5 for females (overweight).

According to a Gallup poll in 2012, an estimated 26% of the population were obese, 21% smoked, and 11% had diabetes.

A nationwide study reported by the New York Times in 2010 indicated that 19.5% of teens, aged 12–19, had developed "slight" hearing loss. "Slight" was defined as an inability to hear at 16 to 24 decibels.

According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2011, an estimated 1.2 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.

Generational cohorts

A study by William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their books Generations and Fourth Turning, looked at generational similarities and differences going back to the 15th century and concluded that over 80-year spans, generations proceed through four stages of about 20 years each.

A definitive recent study of US generational cohorts was done by Schuman and Scott (2012) in which a broad sample of adults of all ages was asked, "What world events are especially important to you?" They found that 33 events were mentioned with great frequency. When the ages of the respondents were correlated with the expressed importance rankings, seven (some put 8 or 9) distinct cohorts became evident.

Today the following descriptors are frequently used for these cohorts (alive in 2000–10):

G.I. Generation – born from approximately 1901 to 1924 (depression cohort who fought and won World War II).

Silent Generation – born from approximately 1925 to 1942 during the Great Depression and World War II. The label was originally applied to people in North America but has also been applied to those in Western Europe, Australasia and South America. It includes most of those who fought during the Korean War.

Baby Boomers – commentators use birth dates ranging approximately from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s.

Generation X – commentators use birth dates ranging approximately from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.

In the U.S., some called Generation Xers the "baby bust" generation because of the drop in the birth rate following the baby boom. The drop in fertility rates in America began in the late 1950s. But according to authors and demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe (who use 1961 to 1981 for Gen X birth years), there are approximately 88.5 million Gen Xers in the U.S. today.

The Millennials also known as Generation Y – commentators use birth dates ranging approximately from the early 1980s to around 2000.

Generation Z – also known as the Homeland Generation or "digital natives" are the cohort of people born after the Millennials. The generation is most commonly defined with birth years starting in the very late 1990s,. although the early or mid-1990s and early 2000s have also been used as starting birth years for this generation.

U.S. demographic birth cohorts

Subdivided groups are present when peak boom years or inverted peak bust years are present, and may be represented by a normal or inverted bell-shaped curve (rather than a straight curve). The boom subdivided cohorts may be considered as "pre-peak" (including peak year) and "post-peak". The year 1957 was the baby boom peak with 4.3 million births and 122.7 fertility rate. Although post-peak births (such as trailing edge boomers) are in decline, and sometimes referred to as a "bust", there are still a relatively large number of births. The dearth-in-birth bust cohorts include those up to the valley birth year, and those including and beyond, leading up to the subsequent normal birth rate. The Baby boom began around 1943 to 1946.

From the decline in U.S. birth rates starting in 1958 and the introduction of the birth control pill in 1960, the Baby Boomer normal distribution curve is negatively skewed. The trend in birth rates from 1958 to 1961 show a tendency to end late in the decade at approximately 1969, thus returning to pre-WWII levels, with 12 years of rising and 12 years of declining birth rates. Pre-war birth rates were defined as anywhere between 1939 and 1941 by demographers such as the Taeuber's, Philip M. Hauser and William Fielding Ogburn.

Demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Ages

Median ages are 37.3 years; males are 36.1 years; females are 38.5 years estimated as of 2012.

As of 2012, people are distributed by age as follows:

0–14 years: 19.8% (male 31,639,127/female 30,305,704)

15–64 years: 66.8% (male 101,612,000/female 104,577,000)

65 years and over: 13.4% (male 18,332,000/female 23,174,000) (2012 est.)

Birth, growth, and death rates

The growth rate is 0.760% as estimated from 2014-2010 by the US Census

The birth rate is 12.5 births/1,000 population, estimated as of 2013. This was the lowest since records began. There were 3,957,577 births in 2013.

13.9 births/1,000 population/year (Provisional Data for 2008) 14.3 births/1,000 population/year (Provisional Data for 2007)

In 2009, Time magazine reported that 40% of births were to unmarried women. The following is a breakdown by race for unwed births: 17% Asian, 29% White, 53% Hispanics, 66% Native Americans, and 72% African American.

The drop in the birth rate from 2007 to 2009 is believed to be associated with the Late-2000s recession.

A study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that more than half (51 percent) of live hospital births in 2008 and 2011 were male.

Per U.S. federal government data released in March 2011, births fell 4% from 2007 to 2009, the largest drop in the U.S. for any two-year period since the 1970s. Births have declined for three consecutive years, and are now 7% below the peak in 2007. This drop has continued through 2010, according to data released by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics in June 2011. Numerous experts have suggested that this decline is largely a reflection of unfavorable economic conditions. This connection between birth rates and economic downturns partly stems from the fact that American birth rates have now fallen to levels that are comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Teen birth rates in the U.S. are at the lowest level in U.S. history. In fact, teen birth rates in the U.S. have consistently decreased since 1991 through 2011, except for a brief increase between 2005 and 2007. The other aberration from this otherwise steady decline in teen birth rates is the 6% decrease in birth rates for 15- to 19-year-olds between 2008 and 2009. Despite these years of decrease, U.S. teen birth rates are still higher than in other developed nations. Racial differences prevail with teen birth and pregnancy rates as well. The American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic black teen pregnancy rates are more than double the non-Hispanic white teen birth rate.

Death rate

As of July 2010, it was estimated that there were 8.18 deaths/1,000 population.

Immigration and emigration

13% of the population was foreign-born in 2009 a rise of 350% since 1970 when foreign-born people accounted for 3.7% of the population, including 11.2 million illegal aliens, 80% of whom come from Latin America. Latin America is the largest region-of-birth group, accounting for over half (53%) of all foreign born population in US, and thus is also the largest source of both legal and illegal immigration to US. In 2011, there are 18.1 million naturalized citizens in USA, accounting for 45% of the foreign-born population (40.4 million) and 6% of the total US population at the time, and around 680,000 legal immigrants are naturalized annually.

4.32 people migrate per 1,000 population, estimated in 2010.

Sex ratios

at birth: 1.048 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15–64 years: 1 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2010 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 6.22 deaths/1,000 live births male: 6.9 deaths/1,000 live births female: 5.53 deaths/1,000 live births (2010 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 78.11 years male: 75.65 years female: 80.69 years (2010 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.84 children born/woman (2015). Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - National Vital Statistics System.

Unemployment rate

As of July 2016, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.9 percent (U3 Rate).

As of July 2015, the U.S. unemployment rate was 5.3 percent (U3 Rate).

As of July 2014, the U.S. unemployment rate was 6.2 percent (U3 Rate).

As of February 2014, the U6 unemployment rate is 14.9 percent. The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts "marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons." Note that some of these part-time workers counted as employed by U-3 could be working as little as an hour a week. And the "marginally attached workers" include those who have gotten discouraged and stopped looking, but still want to work. The age considered for this calculation is 16 years and over.

Mobility

In 2013, about 15% of Americans moved. Most of these, 67%, moved within the same county. Of the 33% who moved beyond local county boundaries, 13% of those moved more than 200 miles (320 km).