EarthX 2019: Having Necessary Conversations about Population Growth, Sprawl, and Vanishing Open Spaces

By Christy Shaw

It was my first year joining the NumbersUSA team at Fair Park in Dallas, TX for the annual EarthX event! In general, it was fun and rewarding to be able to share important information with our booth visitors about the impacts of urban sprawl and population growth, both locally and nationally. Most passersby agreed that … Continued

Breaking the population-environment taboo at EarthX

By Jeremy Beck

Last month, we did our small part to break what David Attenborough calls the “bizarre taboo” that prevents an open discussion about the connection between population size and the environment from taking place. Obviously, the number of people in any given space has an impact on the environment of that space. When the first Earth … Continued

La La Land

By Andrew Good

Last week, Bloomberg’s Matthew Winkler wrote warmly of an “Economic Boom” happening in Los Angeles, California. The Big Orange should be thrilled: Measured by the growth of personal income, gross domestic product per capita, jobs, home prices, global trade and transportation, corporate equity and municipal debt, Los Angeles has become the most productive of the … Continued

Is the U.S. full? Ecological Footprint Reveals an Inconvenient Truth

By Rob Harding

President Trump’s hyperbolic comments about the country being “full” were followed by numerous media responses, like The New York Times article by The Upshot’s Neil Irwin and Emily Badger, as if it needed to be explained to anyone that the country isn’t actually “bursting at the seams” with people. Regardless of the scope or intent … Continued

Immigration, Human Thriving and a ‘decent life for all [life]’

By Jeremy Beck

Last week, the American physicist Steven Chu spoke at the University of Chicago about the need to develop new economic systems that don’t rely on perpetual population growth. “The world needs a new model of how to generate a rising standard of living that’s not dependent on a pyramid scheme.” – Steven Chu at a … Continued

‘Too Damn High’ (population growth driving rent & housing out of reach)

By Andrew Good

America has a population growth policy. Immigration laws are responsible for between 88% and 95% of U.S. population growth. America has a housing appreciation policy. Population growth results in higher housing costs. “The more populated a city is, the more expensive homes will be, which generally reserves homeownership to those with high incomes,” NerdWallet home … Continued

New projections warn of a much-more-congested future if immigration policies aren’t changed.

By Roy Beck

The Census Bureau’s projections of where U.S. population size is headed are dire. But a new chart (see below) we have produced from the projections also contains a much brighter prospect if the country makes just moderate immigration reductions. This chart is the most recent update of many NumbersUSA has produced since 1996. The bottom … Continued