U.S. population: 300 million!

Not too many hours after I make this post, the U.S. population will cross over the 300 million mark. There is no fundamental cosmic significance for this milestone, but we get psychic satisfaction from hitting and surpassing big round numbers.

As I write, the U.S. Census Bureau web site reports that their estimate for the U.S. population is 299,997, 810. That means only 2,190 to go. A new person is born every 7 seconds, someone dies every 13 seconds, someone immigrates every 31 seconds, resulting in a net gain of one person every 11 seconds. Multiplied by 2,190, that is 24,090 seconds, which is 401.5 minutes or 6 hours, 41 minutes, and 30 seconds until we cross that magical 300 million mark.

The 299,997,810 number is as of 12:55 a.m. EDT, so the milestone will be reaches at roughly 6:36:30 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, October 17, 2006. The press release on the Census web site reports the milestone time as 7:46 a.m., the discrepancy is probably due to "rounding error" for that 11 second number.

The U.S. population is currently growing at a rate of about 0.96% a year.

-- Jack Krupansky