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Causes for the US Population Increase

It is a fact that the US population is growing faster than any population of the developed countries. It is estimated that within a decade, 1990-2000, about 33 million people were added to the US population. This is in contrast to the slow or even negative growth in other developed countries. The causes for population increases in the US include but are not limited to the following;

Immigrant fertility: immigrant fertility is said to remain substantially above the replacement level rate and as the number of immigrants each year soar above the replacement level, the US population continues to increase.

Immigration: this is the largest factor that contributes to population growth in the US contributing over 2.25 million people to the US population each year.

Higher fertility: US fertility is higher when compared to other developed countries (Kent & Mather, 2002).

US Population Demographics

It is estimated that the total population of the US stands at about 313,847,465, this is according to the July 2012 estimates. According to the population pyramid, people between 0-14 years make 20.1%, 15-64 years make 66.8% and above 65 years make 13.1% of the total population. This is composed of different groups with white making 79.96%, black 12.85% and Asian 4.43%. By 2030 the aged will hit 72.1 million. Some interesting statistics indicate that Hispanics outlives black people by 8 years and white people by 2.5 years. This means that Hispanics will be the largest aged group accounting for about 20% by year 2020 (Aging Statistics, n.d.).

 

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Older people have different needs and therefore should not be treated as if they were the same. This implies that we have to take into account differentiating factors for the aged. The factors include the type of lifestyle, the disease one is likely to suffer from (hereditary diseases) or is suffering from, sociological factors, previous medical check-ups or treatments, and type of diet (Aging Statistics, n.d.).