The world’s population grew by 75 million people over the past year and will number more than 8 billion people on New Year’s Day, according to figures released by the US Census Bureau on Thursday.
The global growth rate over the past year was just under 1%. By early 2024, 4.3 births and two deaths per second are expected worldwide, according to Census Bureau figures.
The U.S. growth rate last year was 0.53%, about half the global figure. The United States added 1.7 million people and will have a New Year’s Day population of 335.8 million people.
If the current pace continues through the end of the decade, the 2020s could be the slowest decade of growth in U.S. history, yielding a growth rate of less than 4% over the 10-year period from 2020 to 2030, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.
The decade of currently slowest growth occurred after the Great Depression in the 1930s, when the growth rate was 7.3%.
“Of course, growth may pick up a little as we leave the pandemic years. But it would still be difficult to get to 7.3%,” Frey said.
By early 2024, the United States is expected to experience one birth every nine seconds and one death every 9.5 seconds. However, immigration will prevent the population from decreasing. Net international migration is expected to add one person to the US population every 28.3 seconds. This combination of births, deaths, and net international migration will increase the US population by one person every 24.2 seconds.
