Demographic changes since 2000

Currently, United States is the third largest populous country in the world with over 316.8 million people. In relation to the year two thousand, the population has grown by over 17%. The growths in population have been observed in all aspects. According to the Census Bureau statistics, over 80% of the US populations live in cities making US the most urbanized country (Beavers & Amico, 2005). Considering the fertility rates, it is estimated that every American woman have 1.8 children. In other words, supposing that all women belong to a household, then each household would have either one or two children. The fertility rate of over 1.8 is below the world average, which is approximated to be over 2.1% (Beavers & Amico, 2005).

In relation to other developed countries, the America fertility rate is still considered below average. However, growth in population is still higher. Immigrations contribute to considerable increase in population. In addition, the fertility rates in immigrant women are also high. Estimations are that in the next five decades, the immigrant and minority populations will contribute about 63% of the total children born in America (Guzmán, 2001). However, in the last decade, the number of children has increased by 17.7%. Under the category, minority groups including the Hispanics and Latinos have contributed 38.4%.

In terms of age, people below twenty years have increased by over 1.3% while people above sixty-five years have increased by about 0.8%. People under the age of twenty constitute a quarter of the total population. Whites comprise of the highest percentage yet have negligible increase in the population in relation to non-whites and the minority groups (Beavers & Amico, 2005). The populations of non-whites have doubled with an increase of over 1.3% since two thousand. Hispanic and Latino Americans contributed to the highest total growth of over 69% since two thousand and five (Guzmán, 2001).