Portrait of a Nation

Portrait of a Nation

America’s population is growing, graying, and moving West

Americans love statistics about themselves. Hardly a day passes without a poll being released. Here, gleaned from the pages of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, the national data book published annually by the Department of Commerce, are some other facts and figures that describe how we lived and how the country is changing.

Headcount: When the first estimate of the population was made in 1790, some 3.9 million people were living in the continental United States. According to the 1990 census, the U.S. Was almost 249 million, an increase of nearly 10 percent from the 1980 figure. The United States is the third most populous country in the world; only China and India have more people.

The Melting Pot: During the 20th century, the greatest number of legal immigrations flooded our shores between 1901 and 1910 – 8.8 million people came to call America home. The second greatest were 7.3 million – arrived during the ’80s. Figures are available, and the immigration rate doesn’t seem to be dropping off. The greatest number of new immigrants are coming from Mexico, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Manhattan. Heart of New York City. Photo by Elena

Who we are: 1992, women accounted for 51 percent of the population. The male-female ration isn’t projected to change much for the next 50 years. The median age of the entire population was 33.4 years. Just shy of 83 percent of Americans are white, 12.6 percent black, and 4.5 percent “other”. People of Hispanic origin account for 9.5 percent of the population.

Where we live: Almost 80 percent of the population live in metropolitan areas (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are the country’s three largest cities). The fastest-growing areas of the country are the Rocky Mountain states and the Southeast. New England, the Middle Atlantic states, and the Midwest either are losing population or growing at a much slower pace.

What we earn: The median income for a white family in 1993 was $28,909; for a black family $21,161. Almost a third of black families are below the poverty level, only 9 percent of white families. Nationwide, 12 percent of American families are living below the poverty level.