It's Getting Crowded In Here

U.S. Population Hits 300 Million, But It's Not Quite A Celebration

(CBS/AP) 
"I would hate to think that we are going to be low key about this," said Gutierrez, whose department oversees the Census Bureau. "I would hope that we make a big deal about it."

Gutierrez said America's growing population is good for the economy. He noted that Japan and some European countries expect to lose population in the next few decades, raising concerns that there won't be enough young people entering the work force to support aging populations.

"This is one more area where we seem to have an advantage," Gutierrez said. "We should all feel good about reaching this milestone."

Maybe. The U.S. is only 48th in the world for longevity.

But Daniel Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research, told WebMD that older people in the 21st Century are "able to remain functionally independent much longer than in the past."

"Some people have lived as long as 120 years, so we know that this is possible for our species," Perry said. "There is no obvious barrier to living well beyond 100."

"Someone born in the U.S. right now can expect to live on average 77 years, 10 months. When you compare us to developed countries, we're still not doing so well," said CBS News Early Show health correspondent Dr. Emily Senay. "We spend more than any other country on the planet, about $6,000 per person per year, yet we have the lowest life expectancy of any developed country."

The U.S. adds about 2.8 million people a year, for a growth rate of less than 1 percent. About 40 percent of the growth comes from immigration. The rest comes from births outnumbering deaths.

The Census Bureau counts the population every 10 years. In between, it uses administrative records and surveys to estimate monthly averages for births, deaths and net immigration. The bureau has a "population clock" that estimates a birth every seven seconds, a death every 13 seconds and a new immigrant every 31 seconds. Add it together and you get one new American every 11 seconds.

The 300 millionth American — born months ago or on Tuesday — is probably Hispanic because they are the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S., Frey said.

"Population shifts, of course, impact electoral votes," said Linda Jacobson of the Population Reference Bureau.

The old ways of apportioning power and wealth "are not going to work, as you diversify the country, as you grow disparately across the country," Rodolfo de la Garza of Columbia University told CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv.

Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, said the Census Bureau has improved its population estimates in the past few years, but it still undercounts illegal immigrants.

There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Experts differ on the specifics, but many estimate that more than 1 million of them don't show up in census figures.

"The census clearly misses people," said Passel, a former Census Bureau employee who used to help estimate the undercount. "Having said that, when they crossed 200 million, they were missing about 5 million people. We think the 2000 census missed a lot less than 5 million people."

As for Woo, CBS News correspondent Barry Bagnato (audio) reports he hardly turned out to be a true representation of 1967 America that Life intended: Chinese immigrant mother, U.S.-born father, Irish-Chinese wife with children named Kayly, Erin and Megan. He went to Harvard, and became an award-winning attorney in Atlanta.

"It's kind of funny to be contrarian in that way," Woo said. "The average American doesn't actually exist."

[cantshutup]

from the article:
This year, there's a good chance the 300 millionth American has already come across the border from Mexico.

This is a mistatement since coming across the border illegally doesn't make one an American, it makes one a criminal according to our laws...when is that fence going to be completed?????????