9/12/2006

The 300 Millionth American is Coming

FRONT ROYAL, Va., Sept. 12 /Christian Newswire/ -- Next month, America’s population will hit 300 million. Contrary to what purveyors of the overpopulation myth will be saying, there is nothing to fear from America’s continued population growth, which averages about 0.9% annually. “With the population of the United States expected to continue aging for decades, threatening the impending bankruptcies of Social Security and Medicare among other crises, America needs more people,” said Steven Mosher, President of PRI.

The problems caused by the large wave of immigration into the United States in recent decades should be separated from issues of population growth per se, said Joseph A. D’Agostino, PRI’s Vice President for Communications. “America’s aging problem and low unemployment rate means she needs more workers for the future,” he said. “Whether massive immigration causes more problems than it solves is a separate issue. If Americans’ birthrate had not dropped so low since the 1960s, we wouldn’t be facing these problems in the first place. Government policies and cultural attitudes designed to increase Americans’ birthrates could solve all of these long-term issues.”

According to the United Nations, the United States’ population density is 31 people per square kilometer, well below the world average of 48 and far below those of most Western European nations. Different statistical bodies have somewhat different figures, but all show the same basic relationships: The United States is sparsely populated compared to the world as a whole, and much more sparsely populated than countries with comparable wealth, cultures, and environmental protections.

“America will not run out of room or resources any time soon,” said D’Agostino. “Continued movement of people out of small towns and rural areas into metropolitan conglomerations gives most city- and suburb-dwelling Americans the impression that overall population growth is out of control, but that is simply not true, although many metropolitan areas have managed their local growth unwisely.” For more details, go to: http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?r1=2.00&r2=1.00&ID=203&level=2