[DM] "A fresh look at US population trends"

[rfmcdonald]

My Demography Matters co-blogger Scott Peterson reports on the United States Census Bureau's analysis of the changing dynamics and distribution of the American population, and the consequences of said.

The decade ending in 2010 saw the US population increase by 9.7 percent, the lowest rate of increase since the Depression decade of the 1930's. It seems quite possible that the current decade may see even slower growth. Another US government agency, the National Center for Health Statistics reported in Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths: Provisional Data for 2009, that births in the US declined in 2008 and 2009 (the most recent data available). Well known analyst Calculated Risk noted here that "it is common for births to slow or decline during tough economic times in the U.S. - and that appears to be happening now." Combining this trend with the fact that a large segment of the "baby boom" population will reach 65 years of age by 2020 (with the associated higher mortality due to age-associated factors) provides grounds for a prediction of slower population growth.

The Census divides the US into four regions for comparison purposes: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. By 2010 the population of the West region (at 71.9 million) surpassed that of the Midwest region (at 66.9 million), of course for the first time. Political power will shift due to the transfer of House seats out of states in the Midwest; and in economic terms the Midwest has weakened significantly.

Go, read the whole thing.