By Moni Basu, CNN
(CNN) — The Census Bureau projects the population of the United States on New Year’s Day will be 315,091,138.
The number of people increased by 2,272,462 or 0.73% since the last time a population snapshot was taken — April 1, 2010.
In January, America can expect one birth every eight seconds and one death every 12 seconds.
America’s population is growing at a slower pace than was previously projected, the Census Bureau said. One reason is lower birth rates starting in 2008, when the economy soured. Lower immigration numbers have also affected the population.
The U.S. population is now projected to be around 399.8 million by 2050, far short of the 439 million that was projected four years ago.
“When we add up the numbers, 24.4 million fewer migrants plus 17.8 million fewer births minus 4.6 million fewer deaths plus 1.6 million difference in the estimates of the population for the population in 2011, we arrive at the total difference of 39.2 million,” the Census Bureau said.
That’s a whole lotta numbers. But we get the picture. We won’t be catching up with China anytime soon.
