United States: Encyclopedia II - United States - Demographics

United States - Demographics

United States - Population

The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the West, followed by the South. Growth in some parts of the nation have been particularly extreme such as the fastest growing metropolitan area, Las Vegas, Nevada, which went from 273,288 people in 1970 to about 1,650,671 in 2004. Between 1990 and 2000, 19 of the 20 fastest-growing states were in these two regions.[4]

Major demographic trends include the mass immigration of Hispanics from Latin America into the Southwest, which is home to 60 percent (21 of the 35 million) of the nation's Hispanics (their numbers increased 57.9% nationally in the 1990s). The West Coast has been the residence of choice for immigrating Asians, particularly from China. The West Coast is now home to approximately half of all American citizens of Asian ancestry (5 of the 10 million; increasing 52.4% in number during the 1990s).

The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts.

The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived after the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada.

Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are second only to the German-American population. Hispanics comprise 13% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades.

Approximately 12.9% (2000 census) of the American people designated themselves as Black alone or in combination with some other race(African American). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their proportional population is largest in the South.

Asian Americans, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, are a third significant minority (4% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan.

Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 1% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

For the first time ever, American citizens were able to list all of the racial, ethnic, or ancestry groups which they felt was appropriate for them. For example, a dual ancestry person was counted in the Italian and the Irish ancestry group or a biracial person was counted in the White and Black groups.

Polls estimate that 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. While Christianity is growing in America, it is not growing as fast as the general population resulting in a 10 per cent decline from 90 percent as recently as 1990. About 2 percent of Americans follow Judaism. The other 18 percent is comprised of people of no religion and other religions, such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism.

The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

According to census figures and related polls, neo-paganism is the fastest growing organized religion in the United States though its numbers of adherents are rated below 800,000 in the United States as of 2000. This reflects a growing diversification of religious belief in the United States over the last few decades.

The United States has several public health problems: severe overweight, unhealthy diets and habits, progressing HIV-AIDS epidemic and cigarette smoking among over quarter of the population.

Unlike in most western countries, the government does not guarantee health care for citizens. Medical bills are the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States and the poor part of the population has more health problems than in similarly rich countries.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Demographics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki