300 million and counting...

[Figrin D'an]

There have been several new articles written about this recently, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone is aware of it, and it's an interesting topic, so here we go...


The Census Bureau, using population growth estimates, says that around 7:46 AM ET on Tuesday morning (October 17th), the United States will surpass a population of 300 million people. The US, already the 3rd most populous nation, will join China and India as the only nations with a 300 million+ population. (For comparison, China's population is estimated at 1.31 billion, India's at 1.11 billion.) The rate of change of the population is, quite clearly, increasing as well. It's estimated that the US will top 400 million in 2043.

Rising population is clearly a concern in other nations, particulatly China and India (for pretty obvious reasons). So, what about in the US? Do we have reason to be concerned? Are we growing too fast for our own good? Or are we robust enough economically and socially to handle a more rapidly growing population?


(some <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States">stats and figures</A>, courtesy of Wikipedia)

[Lion El' Jonson]

Having lived in China, and then Japan, I don't think that overcrowding is a problem that America has to worry about coping with yet. Although many people emphasize the extreme population density of cities such as Tokyo, the Japanese have learned culturally to cope with such extreme closeness, and the need to share many natural resources. This is largely an effect of the size of the nation relative to the size of its population.

China and India are both far larger than one would think. They both cope with the problem of having such a large population in different ways. China has a huge number of cities that host more than a million people. Lax laws regarding city zoning have encouraged suburbs to grow until they become part of the city proper; the Beijing area will soon grow so large that it will actually spill outside of the Beijing Capital administrative region. Despite the fact that China has over 1.3 billion people in its nation, there was never a real feeling of overcrowding, although this may be due to the fact that self-sufficiency is encouraged given the limited GDP/per-capita of China's population. As China's people become more prosperous, however, competition for various consumer goods and resources will begin to rise, which could spark problems. Having not lived in India, I can't really comment on that nation. ^_^;

The United States has a tremendous amount of excess, in terms of everything from housing plots to the size of our roads and parking spots. America has a ton of room to grow, and as long as our economy can support a growing population, we shouldn't really face the problem of overcrowding for a while. The problem will likely lie in our economy, which is not configured (to the extent of India or China) to exploit a large population. With vast numbers of America companies outsourcing jobs, what are we going to do when we have a large number of excess working-age citizens?

As an aside: Congratulations, America. It's been a long, hard road. :lol