THE NEXT 100 MILLION AMERICANS

BRAD KNICKERBOCKER, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - There will be 400
million Americans in 2043, climbing to 420 million by mid-century, the
US Census Bureau estimates. . . Between the last official census in 2000
and the one of 2050, non-Hispanic whites will have dwindled from 69
percent to a bare majority of 50.1 percent. The share who are Hispanic
will have doubled to 24 percent. Asians also will have doubled to 8
percent of the population. African-Americans will have edged up to 14
percent. . .

Today, the Top 10 fastest growing states, cities, and metropolitan areas
are all in those regions, mostly in the West. In general, the West and
South have been growing two to three times as fast as the Northeast and
Midwest. The great American midsection, meanwhile, will continue to
empty out. . .

At the same time, the population will become relatively older. A person
born in 1967, when the population turned 200 million, could be expected
to live 70.5 years. Life expectancy for those born today is 77.8 years.
. .

Annual US population growth of nearly 3 million contributes to the water
shortages that are a serious concern in the West and many areas in the
East, says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. Water
tables are now falling throughout most of the Great Plains and in the
Southwest, he warns. Some lakes are disappearing and rivers are running
dry.

"As water supplies tighten, the competition between farmers and cities
intensifies," says Mr. Brown. "Scarcely a day goes by in the western
United States without another farmer or an entire irrigation district
selling their water rights to cities like Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix,
Los Angeles, or San Diego."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1010/p01s02-ussc.html

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