United States Population

With 332 million people calling it home, the United States of America is the third most populous country in the world. The relatively young country has the equivalent of 4.25% of the world’s population. Founded in 1776, the country has blossomed from a scrappy upstart into the world superpower it’s known as today. The United States grew rapidly from the time it was founded.

However, like many post-industrialized, first world countries, its growth rate has begun to slow. From 2018 to 2019, the United States experienced its slowest growth rate ever – only 0.5%. This is the slowest growth rate the US has seen since 1917 to 1918, when the country was involved in the First World War. This decrease in population growth is largely attributed to declining births, increasing deaths, and the slow of immigration.

A massive growth during the 20th century

During the 20th century, the American population almost quadrupled in size from 76 million in 1900 to 281 million by the year 2000. This was a growth rate of 1.3% per year. It’s estimated that the US population grew to 200 million by 1967, and hit 300 million by 2006. The country saw the largest growth amongst minorities. In 2012, it was estimated that 50.4% of American children under one were part of a racial or ethnic minority group.

A superstitious population

The American populace is a very superstitious bunch. In 2013, a Harris Interactive poll found that 42% of Americans believe that ghosts exist, 26 percent believe in witches, and 24% believe in reincarnation. These beliefs haven’t wavered since 2005 when the last poll was taken, though there are 5% less Americans who now believe in witches.

Large states, large populations

The United States is made up of 50 states that span over 9.8 million miles of North America. While some of the these states are sparsely populated—like Wyoming which has less than 1 million people—there are some states whose population take up a very large percentage of the country’s population. Its three most populated states are California, Texas, and Florida. California alone has more people living in it than the entire of country. The three states combined have over 86 million people living in them. California and Texas are also two of the largest states per land area in the country, though Florida packs its over 20 million people into only 170,000 square kilometres.

Packing on the weight

The United States’ population suffers from being the most overweight country on Earth. Compared with 38 percent and 36 percent of women worldwide who are overweight, over 70% of men and 61% of women in the United States are considered overweight in the United States. It was found that about 35% of men and 37% of women had a body mass index greater than 30 or higher. This weight problem may also account for why the US—though it’s one of the wealthiest countries in the world—is 40th in life expectancy. The average life expectancy in the US is around 78-years-old.

A gun happy country

The United States faces some unfortunate statistics when it comes to guns. It leads the world in the most mass shootings and Americans own almost half of the world’s 857 million guns. 66% of gun owners in the US have more than one gun and 48% of Americans say they grew up in a house with a gun. Unfortunately, this gun-focused culture leads to many gun-related deaths. There are 66 gun-related deaths per 1 million people in the US, which is double the amount of the next closest country, Finland, with 33 deaths per million people.