Send Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Hungry …

The population of the U. S. recently topped 300 million. The big news—immigration is responsible. The birth rate in the U. S. reached 2.1 per couple some time ago, which means we stopped having population growth as a result of new births and reached a balance in terms of reproduction. But immigration increased in the U. S. throughout the 1990s, and it has continued to increase during the first decade of the new millennium.

Immigrants now make up 12.4 percent of the total population in the U. S., as opposed to 11.2 percent just six years ago. The total immigrant population is now 35.7 million, a number larger than the population of California, the largest state by population in the U. S.

Even bigger news is that the states showing surprising increases in new immigrants are not the traditional ones, like California, but places like Georgia and Indiana.

Another very interesting census factoid has to do with education. In 1940 only 4.6 percent of the American population held a bachelor’s degree. As of this year 27.2 percent of the population hold's a bachelor's degree. We have become a significantly more educated population (at least in terms of certification, if not in terms of actual literacy).