It was an ordinary day. Reading a newspaper article titled "Global population up 75M in 2023." The sub-headline read "Set to top 8 billion by start of 2024; US may be in for a slow-growth decade." Seems the world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year's Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. And to think...you, as well as myself, are one of those 8 billion people who call earth our home. Seems like too many, but I guess there is still a place on earth for all of us. The worldwide growth rate this past year was just under 1%. Did you get that...I typed just under 1%. Sounds like very few, but the growth rate for the United States alone was 1.7 million people which means our new population figure on New Year's Day will be 335.8 million people. How can our country hold all those people...and where are all of them? And...if the current pace continues through the end of the decade, the 2020s could be the slowest growing decade in U.S. History. Now...I find that hard to believe! At the start of 2024, the United States is expected to experience one birth every 9 seconds and one death every 9.5 seconds. Sounds as if we will be balanced evenly, except immigration will keep the population from dropping. Therefore, net immigration will increase the U.S. population by one person every 24.2 seconds. Look around your neighborhood. Can you find any place for that one person? How about all the barren land that fills some of our less populated states. At least...I think it is safe to say that there will be plenty of room in the USA for all of us in the near future. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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