More than 90 Million People Have Been Added to the U.S. Since 1970

Is population growth the sole cause of the worsening traffic, urban sprawl, overcrowded schools, the destruction of eco-systems and farm land, and congested outdoor recreation?

No, Each of those problems has many contributors, such as consumption choices, zoning laws, tax distribution, transportation decisions, etc.

But population growth has been a great exacerbater of all of those problems -- making them worse and harder to solve.

If the U.S. still had the population of 203 million it contained in 1970, there is no question but that all of these problems would be substantially less severe.

Today, we must contend with more than 293 million residents. Just imagine if there were 90 million fewer people requiring housing, roads, schools, places to work, shop, park and recreate.

When one examines changes in individual behavior since 1970, there is very little to explain the vast new destruction of prime farmland, open spaces, animal habitats, wetlands and other eco-systems -- as well as increased congestion of roads, streets, schools and parks. Americans' environmental behavior has improved or stayed about the same in most categories.

But the addition of 90 million more individuals exercising the average behavior of the original 203 million clearly is one of the most important -- if not THE most important -- factors in the increased destruction of natural areas and in the increased congestion in Americans' lives.

Why do these charts start at 1970?

The era since 1970 has been a unique period of American history. It is the only time that the federal government and the American people have moved in opposite directions in creating the country's demographic future: The American people have chosen family sizes that allow for a stablized U.S. population; the federal government has chosen policies to force never-ending U.S. population growth.

The year 1970 is around the time of several great changes in America:

1. It was around 1970 -- the year of the first Earth Day -- when the American people made a collective commitment to stop squandering their environmental resources and to restore the natural world within their nation's borders to a healthy and sustainable quality. Major laws were passed and agencies established to see that the environmental goals were met. The American people and U.S. companies spent billions of dollars to meet the goals.

2. It was around 1970 that most environmental experts began to agree that it would be difficult for the nation to reach its environmental goals without stabilizing its population at a level not too much higher than the 203 million with which the country began the decade.

3. Although no official population goal was set, a bi-partisan presidential-congressional commission recommended moving toward a stable population to meet environmental, economic and social goals that had been adopted during the Johnson and Nixon administrations.

4. In 1972, the American people -- fresh from a historic Baby Boom -- lowered their fertility to "replacement level." Ever since, American fertility has been low enough to allow the population size eventually to stabilize.

5. It was around 1970 that the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country began to rise rapidly as a result of a change in the law back in 1965.

Since 1970, there have been two contradictory blueprints for the nation's population future:

THE PEOPLE'S BLUEPRINT: The American people since just after 1970 have adopted behaviors and attitudes that -- on their own -- would move the nation toward a stabilized population size. Through millions of individual and highly personal choices, Americans have adopted on average a family size of two or fewer children while telling pollsters they want a stabilized national population.

WASHINGTON'S BLUEPRINT: Since just before 1970, each Congress and each President has adopted a policy allowing immigration far in excess of traditional levels and moving the nation toward constant population increases.

The charts on these pages show how these conflicting visions have affected the demographic direction of the United States. As a Census year, 1970 offers the most logical starting point for measurement.

By starting the charts at 1970, we measure what has happened since around the beginning of the era in which the majority of individual Americans in one way or another embraced population stabilization as a goal.

What is the source of the data?

The circled numbers represent the U.S. Population in millions. The top line of the chart represents the total population of the United States each year.

In 1970, the U.S. population was about 203 million.

Today it has surpassed 293 million.

These numbers come from the U.S. Bureau of the Census which counted the residents of the country in 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and a revised projection done by the Census in 2002. All other years are estimated by the Census Bureau based on what was learned in the previous Census, on targeted surveys done each year and on other projection devices.

What does the blue block on the chart mean?

The blue block in the chart represents U.S. population growth since 1970 -- more than 90 million!

This information comes from the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

To find similar population growth in foreign countries, we must look to the Third World.

Although its frontiers were declared closed a century ago, the United States today is adding population at a numerical level just under the phenomenal Baby Boom, which far exceeded all other periods of U.S. population growth.