Dan Walters: California leads U.S. in growth - sacbee.com

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Dan Walters: California leads U.S. in growth
By Dan Walters - Bee Columnist
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, October 17, 2006

It could have been someone crossing the border from Mexico or a newborn baby, but sometime this morning, according to Census Bureau demographers, the United States reached a significant demographic milestone when its population surpassed 300 million.

Anticipating the event, the media have been paying unusual attention to effects of population growth -- and pointing out that while it took nearly 150 years for the nation to hit 100 million (in 1915) and 52 more years for it to reach 200 million (in 1967), getting to 300 million took fewer than 40 years, and it's likely that we'll get to 400 million by 2043.

It means that the United States is the globe's third-most-populous nation, behind China at 1.3 billion and India at 1.1 billion, but given our substantial land mass, it also means that we do not rank anywhere near the top in terms of population density. Even when the United States reaches 400 million, its density will be less than that of present-day Germany.

That said, demographers also project that half of near-term U.S. population growth will be within 50 miles of"