2010 census results: Why did US population growth slow?
The United States population has crashed through the 300 million mark, according to just-released 2010 census data. The total number of people living in the US as of April 1 this year was 308,745,538. That means the country has added about 27 million residents over the past 10 years.
That sounds like a lot of people, and it is. Only two other decades in US history have seen a larger number of people added to the census rolls. But since the US population is already quite large, even a big number of new additions can result in relatively slow growth, percentage-wise. And that’s just what the new census numbers reveal.
It’s one of the 2010 census’ most intriguing results: The US population has grown at only a 9.7 percent pace since 2000. In the context of US history, that’s quite slow. Only one other decade has seen slower growth, in fact. That was 1930 to 1940, when total population gain was 7.3 percent, according to Census Bureau records.