robotic
10-16-2006, 08:35 PM
read more! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6057004.stm)
The United States' population will hit 300 million on Tuesday morning, just 39 years after it reached 200 million, the US Census Bureau estimates.
A "population clock" will record the milestone at 0746 (1146 GMT) - a timing based on calculations that factor birth and death rates and migration.
The bureau's maths suggests that the US gains one person every 11 seconds.
But it is not possible to say if the 300-millionth American will be born, or cross one of the country's borders.
There is expected to be little of the hullabaloo that greeted the figure of 100 million in 1915, or the double century in 1967 when President Johnson gave a speech and newborn Robert Ken Woo Jr was hailed the 200-millionth American by Life magazine, correspondents say.
Today the population figure is mired in the divisive politics of immigration - a hot-button issue ahead of the 7 November mid-term elections, they say.
The US is the third largest country in the world, behind China and India.
According to the Census Bureau, 14% of the current US population is Hispanic, compared to 4% in 1966, and it is projected that a quarter of the population will be Hispanic in 2050.
It is also expected that in the next 50 years there will be more Hispanic births in the US than immigrants.
The United States' population will hit 300 million on Tuesday morning, just 39 years after it reached 200 million, the US Census Bureau estimates.
A "population clock" will record the milestone at 0746 (1146 GMT) - a timing based on calculations that factor birth and death rates and migration.
The bureau's maths suggests that the US gains one person every 11 seconds.
But it is not possible to say if the 300-millionth American will be born, or cross one of the country's borders.
There is expected to be little of the hullabaloo that greeted the figure of 100 million in 1915, or the double century in 1967 when President Johnson gave a speech and newborn Robert Ken Woo Jr was hailed the 200-millionth American by Life magazine, correspondents say.
Today the population figure is mired in the divisive politics of immigration - a hot-button issue ahead of the 7 November mid-term elections, they say.
The US is the third largest country in the world, behind China and India.
According to the Census Bureau, 14% of the current US population is Hispanic, compared to 4% in 1966, and it is projected that a quarter of the population will be Hispanic in 2050.
It is also expected that in the next 50 years there will be more Hispanic births in the US than immigrants.