The Way I See It - 300 million and counting

300 Million and counting
By Doug Dickerson
Staff Writer
November 1, 2006

History never looks like history when you are living through it.
-John W. Gardner

America reached the 300-million population milestone last month. The increases from 200 million to 300 million took just 39 years to attain. Projections from the U.S. Census Bureau suggest that we will reach 400 million sometime between 2040 and 2050.

The cover story of the current edition of Time magazine, “America at 300 million,” contains a revealing look at who we are from the perspective of where we live, how we vote, how much we earn and what we believe. The findings are very interesting.

First, for every 1,000 Americans: 568 live in the state in which they were born; 455 are employed; 420 voted in the last presidential election; 405 are married; 341 drive to work alone; 173 speak a language other than English at home; 159 have no health insurance; 126 live in poverty; 122 are 65 and older; 115 claim Irish ancestry; 23 are in prison, jail, on parole or on probation; 8 are grandparents caring for grandchildren; 5 are in the active-duty military; and 1 is in kindergarten. The U.S. is the third most populous country on earth, but has fewer than 5 percent of the world’s people. Today, 53 percent of foreign-born come from Latin America, most from Mexico.

Second, while much is made of the red state/blue state coloring of the electoral map, we are really purple. Only 3 million votes separated Bush and Kerry in the last election, but the winner-take-all approach of the electoral outcome can be misleading as to how evenly divided the voting populace is; 35 percent of American adults are regular voters; 20 percent are intermittent voters; 23 percent are rare voters; and 22 percent are not registered to vote.

Third, the U.S. is overwhelmingly a nation of believers. We just don’t believe the same things. More than 85 percent follow a Christian faith, but that strong majority is built on dozens of denominations that diverge on the most basic questions; 66 percent believe that God exists; 14 percent believe in a higher power or cosmic force; 11 percent believe in God but with some doubts; and 5 percent don’t believe in anything beyond the physical world.

Finally, Americans daily buy: 34 Porsche 911s; 88,163 ipods; 20,826 Dell notebook computers; 125,000 Barbie dolls; 123,287 Trojan Ultra Thin condoms; 14,100 First Response pregnancy tests; 1,900,000 Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts; and 500,000 Hostess Twinkies.

I was one of the half-million who bought the Twinkies.

©Summerville Journal-Scene 2006