For those of you who don’t know I happened to have a Minor in Demography. When you think about it – Demography is sort of the opposite of individual ‘identity’ it does aggregate measures of people across whole populations.
This story peaked my interest not because it highlights the total US population count but the fact that the population is growing fast enough to mitigate the the forthcoming challenge Europe and Japan face of declining population and an enormous number of old folks relative to young people.
From the article:
The U.S. is the fastest-growing industrialized nation in the world, adding about 2.8 million people a year.
Paying women in Europe for children
Russian President Vladimir Putin is so concerned he recently proposed paying women money to have children. Last year, France increased monthly stipends to parents who take time off work to care for a third child.
When Japan announced in June that its population had shrunk in 2005 for the first time, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, “The data must be accepted gravely.”
On Friday, Japan announced that it is now the world’s most elderly nation, with more than a fifth of its people 65 or older. Italy is second.
On average, women must have 2.1 children in their lifetimes for a society to replenish itself, accounting for infant mortality and other factors. Only one country in Europe — Albania — has a fertility rate above 2, according to statistics gathered by the Central Intelligence Agency. Russia’s fertility rate is 1.28. In Japan, it’s 1.25.
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