According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday, the world’s population has increased by 75 million people in the past year, reaching over 8 billion individuals as of New Year’s Day.
The global growth rate for the past year was just under 1%, with an anticipated rate of 4.3 births and two deaths occurring worldwide every second at the beginning of 2024.
In contrast, the growth rate for the United States in the past year was 0.53%, approximately half the worldwide figure. The U.S. added 1.7 million people, bringing its population on New Year’s Day to 335.8 million.
Demographer William Frey from The Brookings Institution noted that if the current pace persists, the 2020s could be the slowest-growing decade in U.S. history, with a growth rate of less than 4% over the 10-year period from 2020 to 2030. The slowest-growing decade prior to this was in the 1930s, following the Great Depression, with a growth rate of 7.3%.
Frey added that while growth may increase slightly as the world emerges from the pandemic years, reaching a growth rate of 7.3% would still be challenging.
At the start of 2024, the United States is projected to witness one birth every nine seconds and one death every 9.5 seconds. However, immigration is expected to offset population decline, with net international migration adding one person to the U.S. population every 28.3 seconds. The combination of births, deaths, and net international migration is projected to increase the U.S. population by one person every 24.2 seconds. Source: AP News
