Fact Sheet - Zero Population Growth The Demographic Facts of Life in the
United States

The growth of U.S. population 

• The United States is the third most populous country in the world following China and India. The U.S. population, currently more than 265 million, is growing by about 2.5 million people each year, making the United States one of the world's fastest-growing industrialized nations.(1)
• In 1994, there were about 3.95 million births and 2.29 million deaths in the United States, resulting in a net natural increase of nearly 1.7 million more people. Net immigration added approximately 816,000 people.(2)
• The Census Bureau projects that in the year 2000, the U.S. population will exceed 275 million, more than double the 1940 population.(3)
• By 2050, the nation's population is projected to increase by nearly 130 million people -- the equivalent of adding another four states the size of California.(4)
• Sixty percent of pregnancies and 40 percent of births in the United States are unintended. Among industrialized countries, it has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy.(5)

The impacts of U.S. Population 

• Because Americans eat a diet heavy in beef and other animal products, U.S. per capita grain consumption is four times higher than that of developing countries.(6)
• Americans constitute five percent of the world's population but consume 25 percent of the world's energy. On average, one American consumes as much energy as 2 Japanese, 6 Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 307 Tanzanians, or 370 Ethiopians.(7)
• The United States is responsible for 22 percent of the world's industrial carbon dioxide emissions, a leading cause of global warming.(8)
• In the last 200 years, the United States has lost 50 percent of its wetlands, 90 percent of its northwestern old-growth forests, and 99 percent of its tall grass prairie.(9)
• Every day, an estimated nine square miles of U.S. rural land is lost to development.(10)

(1) 1996 World Population Data Sheet, Population Reference Bureau. (2) U.S. Census Bureau's Population Profile of the United States 1995, p. 6. (3) U.S. Census Bureau Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1994. pp. 8-9. (4) U.S. Population Profile 1995, p.8. (5) Contraceptive Use and Teenage Sexual and Reproductive Behavior, Facts in Brief, Alan Guttmacher Institute. (6) Full House, Lester Brown and Paul Kane, p. 63. (7) 1995 U.S. Statistical Abstract, p. 868. (8) Stabilizing the Atmosphere, Population Action International, p. 33. (9) The 1993 Information Please Environmental Almanac, World Resources Institute, p. 159. (10) How Much is Enough, Alan Durning, p. 148 

Revised June 1996