demographics of the united states

The following is an overview of the demographics of the United States. Demographic topics include basic statistics, most populous cites, and religious affiliation. A separate article on demographic history of the United States is also available. The U.S. population for July 2002 was estimated by the Census Bureau to be 288,368,698, a 2.47% increase over the July 2000 estimate of 281,421,906. The U.S. population more than tripled during the 20th century, a growth rate of about 1.3% a year, having been about 76 million in 1900. As of April 2005, the population has been estimated by the Census Bureau to be 295,786,000http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html.

Most populous cities

The following is a list of the ten most populous cities in the country, with their estimates for 2002 and 2000. The trend column indicates whether the city is growing (+) or shrinking (-), based on the two estimates.

Trend	City	July 2002 estimate	July 2000 estimate	2003 estimate
align="right" \| 1.	align="center" \| `+`	New York City, New York	align="right" \| 8,084,316	align="right" \| 8,008,278
align="right" \| 2.	align="center" \| `+`	Los Angeles, California	align="right" \| 3,798,981	align="right" \| 3,694,820
align="right" \| 3.	align="center" \| `-`	Chicago, Illinois	align="right" \| 2,886,251	align="right" \| 2,896,016
align="right" \| 4.	align="center" \| `+`	Houston, Texas	align="right" \| 2,009,834	align="right" \| 1,953,631
align="right" \| 5.	align="center" \| `-`	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	align="right" \| 1,492,231	align="right" \| 1,517,550	align="right" \| 1,479,339
align="right" \| 6.	align="center" \| `+`	Phoenix, Arizona	align="right" \| 1,371,960	align="right" \| 1,321,045
align="right" \| 7.	align="center" \| `+`	San Diego, California	align="right" \| 1,259,532	align="right" \| 1,223,400
align="right" \| 8.	align="center" \| `+`	Dallas, Texas	align="right" \| 1,211,467	align="right" \| 1,118,580
align="right" \| 9.	align="center" \| `-`	Detroit, Michigan	align="right" \| 925,051	align="right" \| 951,270
align="right" \| 10.	align="center" \| `+`	San Jose, California	align="right" \| 900,443	align="right" \| 894,943

City rankings by metropolitan area are also available. The most densely populated state is New Jersey (372/sq.km).

Race

white 77.11%,
black 12.3%,
Asian 3.6%,
Amerindian 0.9%,
Two or more races 2.4%,
other 5.5% (2000)
Hispanics, which are defined as an ethnic group, are included in all 6 races.

A separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American descent (especially of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin) who may be of any race or ethnic group. The Census Bureau's definition of "white" is not the definition most widely used by the US people as a whole. Most Americans define "white" to exclude all Hispanics, even those of European descent. Using that definition, the white proportion of the US population is 69.1%.

Religious affiliation

Religious beliefs: (2001 American Religious Identification Survey)

Protestant	52%
Catholic	24.5%
None	13.2%
Jewish	1.3%
Muslim	0.5%
Buddhist	0.5%
Agnostic	0.5%
Atheist	0.4%
Hindu	0.4%
Unitarian Universalist	0.3%
Pagan	0.07%
Wiccan	0.06%
Spiritualist	0.06%
Native American	0.05%

Others less than 100,000 adherents or unclassified. 5.4% refused to respond to the question. Of the religious groups, an average of 54% reported being member of a church, temple, synagogue or mosque, with widely varying percentages, from 83% for evangelical to 19% for those of no religion.

Miscellanous statistics

Age structure: (2000 est.)

0-14 years: 21.25% (male 29,956,875; female 28,597,880)
15-64 years: 66.11% (male 90,345,154; female 91,827,471)
65 years and over: 12.64% (male 14,472,865; female 20,362,428)

Population growth rate: 0.91% (2000 est.) Birth rate: 14.2 births/1,000 population (2000 est.) Death rate: 8.7 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.) Net migration rate: 3.5 migrants/1,000 population (2000 est.) Sex ratios: (2000 est.)

at birth: 1.05 males/female
under 15 years: 1.05 males/female
15-64 years: 0.98 male/female
65 years and over: 0.71 male/female
total population: 0.96 male/female

Infant mortality rate: 6.82 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.) Life expectancy (source: Centers for Disease Control, 2005):

total population: 77.6 years
male: 74.8 years
female: 80.1 years

Total fertility rate: 2.06 children born/woman (2000 est.) Literacy: (age 15 and over can read and write, 1979 est.)

total population: 97%
male: 97%
female: 97%

Unemployment rate: 4.2% nation-wide as of 2000 census (See List of U.S. states by unemployment rate)