Demographics of the United States

With about 4% of the world's population, the United States is the third most populous country (after India and China), and the most populous in the Americas and the Western Hemisphere. Its estimated population was 341,784,857 on July 1, 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The country's population grew by 1.8 million, or 0.5%, between 2024 and 2025, due to a decline in net international migration. The previous year, the Census Bureau had reported a population increase of 0.98% between 2023 and 2024, slightly below the global population growth rate of 1.03%. These figures include the 50 states and the federal capital, Washington, D.C., but exclude the 3.6 million residents of five unincorporated U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands) as well as several minor uninhabited island possessions. By several metrics, including racial and ethnic background, religious affiliation, and percentage of rural and urban divide, the state of Illinois is the most representative of the larger demography of the United States.

The United States population almost quadrupled during the 20th century, with an average growth rate of about 1.3% a year, from about 76 million in 1900 to 281 million in 2000. It is estimated to have reached the 200 million mark in 1967, and the 300 million mark on October 17, 2006. Foreign-born immigration caused the U.S. population to continue its rapid increase, with this population doubling from almost 20 million in 1990 to over 45 million in 2015, representing one-third of the population increase. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in late 2024 that recent immigration to the United States had more than offset the country's lower birth rates: "Net international migration's influence on population trends has increased over the last few years. Since 2021, it accounted for the majority of the nation's growth—a departure from the last two decades, when natural increase was the main factor." This in turn led to an increase in the U.S. population in each of the years 2022, 2023, and 2024 (+0.58%, +0.83%, and +0.98% respectively). Net international migration slowed to a record low in 2025, however, and so did U.S. population growth during that year (+0.5%).

Population growth is fastest among minorities as a whole, and according to a 2020 U.S. Census Bureau analysis, 50% of U.S. children under the age of 18 are members of ethnic minority groups. As of 2020, white Americans numbered 235,411,507 or 71% of the population, including people who identified as white in combination with another race. People who identified as white alone (including Hispanic whites) numbered 204,277,273 or 61.6% of the population, while non-Latino whites made up 57.8% of the country's population.

Latino Americans accounted for 51.1% of the country's total population growth between 2010 and 2020. The Hispanic or Latino population increased from 50.5 million in 2010 to 62.1 million in 2020, a 23% increase and a numerical increase of more than 11.6 million. Immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants are expected to provide most of the U.S. population gains in the decades ahead.

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, with a growth rate of 35%. However, multiracial Asian Americans make up the fastest-growing subgroup, with a growth rate of 55%, reflecting the increase of mixed-race marriages in the United States.

As of 2022[update], births to White American mothers remain around 50% of the U.S. total, a decline of 3% compared to 2021. In the same time period, births to Asian American and Hispanic women increased by 2% and 6%, respectively.

Population

In 1900, when the U.S. population was 76 million, there were 66.8 million white Americans in the United States, representing 88% of the total population, 8.8 million Black Americans, with about 90% of them still living in Southern states, and slightly more than 500,000 Hispanics.

Under federal law, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has increased, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007. Around a million people legally immigrated to the United States per year in the 1990s, up from 250,000 per year in the 1950s.

In 1900, non-Hispanic whites comprised almost 97% of the population of the 10 largest U.S. cities. The Census Bureau reported that minorities (including Hispanic whites) made up 50.4% of the children born in the U.S. between July 2010 and July 2011, compared to 37% in 1990.

In 2014, the state with the lowest fertility rate was Rhode Island, with a rate of 1.56, while Utah had the greatest rate with a rate of 2.33. This correlates with the ages of the states' populations: Rhode Island has the ninth-oldest median age in the US – 39.2 – while Utah has the youngest – 29.0.

In 2017, the U.S. birth rate remains well below the replacement level needed – at least 2.1 children per woman so as not to experience population decreases – as white American births fell in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Among non-Hispanic white women, no states had a fertility rate above the replacement level. Among non-Hispanic Black women, 12 states reached above the replacement level needed. Among Hispanic women, 29 states did. For non-Hispanic white women, the highest total fertility rate was in Utah, at 2.099, and the lowest in the District of Columbia, at 1.012. Among non-Hispanic Black women, the highest total fertility rate was in Maine, at 4.003, and the lowest in Wyoming, at 1.146. For Hispanic women, the highest total fertility rate was in Alabama, at 3.085, and the lowest in Vermont, at 1.200, and Maine, at 1.281. As of 2016, due to aging, low birth rates and rising mortality driven partly by drug overdoses, deaths outnumber births among non-Hispanic whites in more than half the states in the country.

Growth rate

• U.S. population growth rates: 0.98% (2024), 0.83% (2023), 0.58% (2022), 0.16% (2021), 0.41% (2020)

Age and sex distribution

Sex distribution

The 2020 U.S. Census reported there were more females than males with females making up 50.9% (or 168,763,470 people) of the population and males making up 49.1% (or 162,685,811 people). The previous census in 2010 also reported that there were more females than males; but females made up slightly less of the population at 50.8% and males made slightly more at 49.2%.

The first U.S. Census to report more females than males was the 1950 Census.

Note that this table shows some people in more than one group: for example someone aged 90 is included three times: in "65+", "75+" and "85+".

Percent distribution of the total population by age: 1900 to 2015

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, United Nations medium variant projections

Dependency ratio

The dependency ratio is the age-population ratio of people who are normally not in the labor force (the dependent population, which includes those aged 0 to 14 and 65 and older) to those who are (the productive part, ages 15 to 64). It is used to gauge the strain on the populace that is productive. The support ratio is the ratio of the working-age population to the elderly population, that is, the reciprocal of the aged dependency ratio.

Density

The most densely populated state is New Jersey (1,263/mi2 or 488/km2).

The population is highly urbanized, with 83.3% of the population residing in cities and suburbs. Large urban clusters are spread throughout the eastern half of the United States (particularly the Great Lakes area, northeast, east, and southeast) and the western tier states; mountainous areas, principally the Rocky Mountains and Appalachian chain, deserts in the southwest, the dense boreal forests in the extreme north, and the central prairie states are less densely populated; Alaska's population is concentrated along its southern coast – with particular emphasis on the city of Anchorage – and Hawaii's is centered on the island of Oahu. California and Texas are the most populous states, as the mean center of U.S. population has consistently shifted westward and southward. New York City is the most populous city in the United States and has been since at least 1790.

In the U.S. territories, population centers include the San Juan metro area in Puerto Rico, Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, and the island of Tutuila in American Samoa.

Median age of the population

The median age of the total population as of 2021 is 38.8 years; the male median age is 37.7 years; the female median age is 39.8 years.

Median age of the U.S. population through history. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of Census, United States Census Bureau and The World Factbook.

Population centers

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 31 "global cities" of all types, with 10 in the "alpha" group of global cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Atlanta. As of 2021[update], the United States had 56 metropolitan areas with 1 million or more inhabitants. (The U.S. Census Bureau ranked Urban Honolulu as the 56th most populous area, with just over 1 million residents.)

As of 2011[update], about 250 million Americans live in or around urban areas. That means more than three-quarters of the U.S. population shares just about three percent of the U.S. land area.

Population by year (includes estimates)

This table includes the official United States population by year from the U.S. Census Bureau, and includes the Bureau's intercensal estimates. Such estimates are taken on July 1 of each year but are not included for the years of the decennial census (2000, 2010, 2020, etc.). Whether the figure is a decennial census or an intercensal estimate is noted.

National population

Vital statistics

U.S. demographic table

Sources:

Notable events in American demographics:

• 1917–1918: World War I and Spanish flu pandemic
• 1929–1939: Great Depression
• 1941–1945: World War II
• 1946–1964: mid-20th-century baby boom
• 2008: 2008 financial crisis
• 2020–2021: COVID-19 pandemic

Current vital statistics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2021, the population of the United States grew at a slower rate than in any other year since the country's founding. The U.S. population grew only 0.1% from the previous year before. The U.S. population has grown by less than one million people for the first time since 1937, with the lowest numeric growth since at least 1900, when the Census Bureau began yearly population estimates. Apart from the previous few years, when population growth plummeted to historically low levels, the slowest pace of increase in the twentieth century occurred between 1918 and 1919, when the influenza epidemic and World War I were both in full swing. Slower population growth has been the norm in the United States for some years, owing to lower fertility and net international migration, as well as rising mortality from an aging population.

To put it another way, since the mid-2010s, births and net international migration have been dropping while deaths have risen. These trends have a cumulative effect of reduced population increase.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend, resulting in a historically slow population increase in 2021.

The growth rate is 0.1% as estimated for 2021.

The birth rate is 11.0 births/1,000 population, as of 2020. This was the lowest birth rate since records began. There were 3,613,647 births in 2020, this was the lowest number of births since 1980.

• 11.0 births/1,000 population per year (final data for 2020).
• 11.4 births/1,000 population per year (final data for 2019).

In 2020, the CDC reported that there were 1,676,911 marriages in 2020, compared to 2019, there were 2,015,603 marriages. Marriage rates varied significantly by state, ranging from 3.2 marriages/1,000 population in California to 21.0 marriages/1,000 population in Nevada.*

• 5.1 marriages/1,000 population per year (provisional data for 2020).
• 6.1 marriages/1,000 population per year (provisional data for 2019).

*Rates are based on provisional counts of marriages by state of occurrence

In 2009, Time magazine reported that 40% of births in the United States were to unmarried women. The following is a breakdown by race for unwed births: 17% Asian, 29% White, 53% Hispanics (of any race), 66% Native Americans, and 72% Black American.

According to the CDC, in 2020, there were at least 1,461,121 births to unmarried women, or 40.5% of all births in the United States. The following is a breakdown by race for unwed births: 28.4% Non-Hispanic White, 70.4% Non-Hispanic Black, and 52.8% Hispanic (of any race).

The drop in the U.S. birth rate from 2007 to 2009 is believed to be associated with the Great Recession.

A study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that more than half (51 percent) of live hospital births in 2008 and 2011 were male.

Per U.S. federal government data released in March 2011, births fell 4% from 2007 to 2009, the largest drop in the U.S. for any two-year period since the 1970s. Births have declined for three consecutive years, and are now 7% below the peak in 2007. This drop has continued through 2010, according to data released by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics in June 2011. Numerous experts have suggested that this decline is largely a reflection of unfavorable economic conditions. This connection between birth rates and economic downturns partly stems from the fact that American birth rates have now fallen to levels that are comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Teen birth rates in the U.S. are at their lowest level in U.S. history. In fact, teen birth rates in the U.S. have consistently decreased since 1991 through 2011, except for a brief increase between 2005 and 2007. The other aberration from this otherwise steady decline in teen birth rates is the 6% decrease in birth rates for 15- to 19-year-olds between 2008 and 2009. Despite these years of decrease, U.S. teen birth rates still remain higher than in other developed nations. Racial differences prevail with teen birth and pregnancy rates as well. American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Black teen pregnancy rates are more than double the non-Hispanic white teen birth rate.

Total fertility rate (TFR)

In 1800 the average U.S. woman had 7.04 children; by the first decade of the 1900s, this number had already decreased to 3.56. Since 1971, the birth rate has generally been below the replacement rate of 2.1. Since the Great Recession of 2007, the rate has consistently been below replacement. The drop in the TFR from 2.08 per woman in 2007 to 1.76 in 2017 was mostly due to the declining birth rate of ethnic minorities, teenagers and women in their 30s. During that period, the birthrate for women ages 35 to 44 has risen. The 12 month ending general fertility rate increased from 56.6 to 57.0 in 2022 Q1 compared to 2021 Q4.

Total fertility rates from 1800 to 2020

The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. Sources: Ansley J. Coale, Zelnik and National Center for Health Statistics.

The U.S. total fertility rate as of 2020 is 1.641

• 1.55 for non-Hispanic whites
• 1.71 for non-Hispanic Blacks
• 1.65 for Native Americans (including Hispanics)
• 1.53 for Asian Americans (including Hispanics)

Other:

• 1.88 for Hispanics (of all racial groups)

(Note that ≈95% of Hispanics are included as "white Hispanics" by CDC, which does not recognize the Census's "Some other race" category and counts people in that category as white.)

Source: National Vital statistics report based on 2010 US Census data

Total fertility rates by state, federal district or territory

Births and fertility by race

A total of 3,659,289 babies were born in 2021, a 1% increase from 2020. Additionally, researchers also looked at births by race and found that White and Hispanic women each saw the number of births increase by about 2% from 2020 to 2021. Meanwhile, Black and Asian women saw the number of births decline by 2.4% and 2.5%, respectively, over the same period, while American Indian/Alaskan Native women saw their numbers fall by 3.2%. It also marks the first rise in births since 2014. Prior to this report, the total number of births had been decreasing by an average of 2% per year. However, the total fertility rate (the number of births that the average women have over their lifetimes) was 1.6635 births per every woman. This is still below the replacement level, the level a population needs to replace itself, which is, at least, 2.1 births per woman.

Number of births by state

Number of births by country of birth of the mother (2024)

1. United States (75.9%)
2. Foreign countries (24.1%)

In 2024, 24.1% (873,113) of all the newborns in the US had a foreign-born mother.

Number of births by race and origin

U.S.-born residents

Note: Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number. Also note that growth arrows indicate an increase or decrease in the number of births, not in the fertility rate.

Key:

• NH = Non-Hispanic.
• TFR = Total fertility rate (number of children born per woman).
• Growth arrows (/) indicate an increase or decrease in the number of births, not in the fertility rate, comparing to the previous year.

Percent of births to White Non-Hispanic women that were their 8th+ child, by U.S. state, in 2021

Mother's mean age at first birth

• 27.1 years (2020 est.)

Life expectancy

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), average American life expectancy at birth was 79.0 years in 2024, a record high. This was a gain of 0.6 years from 78.4 years in 2023. Average life expectancy was 76.4 years in 2021.

• Male: 76.5 (2024), 75.8 years (2023), 74.8 years (2022), 73.5 years (2021)
• Female: 81.4 years (2024), 81.1 years (2023), 80.2 years (2022), 79.3 years (2021)

Starting in 1998, life expectancy in the U.S. fell behind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since. Average U.S. life expectancy in the United States has actually declined in four of the years following 2014 (the year when average U.S. life expectancy reached 78.9 years, its historical peak). These declines were mostly reversed in 2022 (+1.1 years), 2023 (+0.9 years), and 2024 (+0.6 years). The CDC attributed the improvement in 2024 to a significant fall in the number of fatal drug overdoses, adding that "heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, followed by cancer and unintentional injuries." As of 2024, death rates among the youngest in the U.S. remain well higher than in peer nations. In 2023, there had already been lower death rates in each of the ten U.S. leading causes of death, with gains in life expectancy largely driven by "decreases in mortality due to COVID-19, heart disease, unintentional injuries, cancer and diabetes".

From 2019 to 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had contributed to approximately 61% of the decrease in life expectancy in the United States. While increases in mortality from unintentional injuries, heart disease, homicide, and diabetes contributed to 11.7%, 5.8%, 2.9%, and 2.8% of the decrease in life expectancy from 2019 to 2020, respectively. Life expectancy has also varied by racial and ethnic group, with Non-Hispanic Asians having the highest life expectancy and Non-Hispanic American Indians having the lowest. In 2021, life expectancy at birth in the United States fell for the second year in a row, the first two-year drop since 1961–1963.

NOTE: Data regarding life expectancy at birth for 2021 are provisional.*

• NH = Non-Hispanic.
• LEB = Life expectancy at birth
• Growth arrows (/) indicate an increase or decrease in total life expectancy compared to years before.

Life expectancy at birth from 1901 to 2015

Life expectancy in the United States from 1901 to 2015. Source: Our World In Data and the United Nations.

1901–1950

1901–2015

Source: UN World Population Prospects

Life tables

Future projections

The United States Census Bureau's 2017 projections were produced using the cohort-component method. In the cohort-component method, the components of population change (fertility, mortality, and net migration) are projected separately for each birth cohort (persons born in a given year). The base population is advanced each year by using projected survival rates and net international migration. Each year, a new birth cohort is added to the population by applying the projected fertility rates to the female population.

Race and ethnicity

1. Non-Hispanic Americans (81.3%)
2. Hispanic Americans (18.7%)

The following table shows the race and ethnicity of the United States per the 1930, 1970, 2000, and 2020 censuses. Data only covers states and the federal district, thus only covering the first 48 states and Washington, D.C. in 1930 and including Alaska and Hawaii as well in 1970, 2000, and 2020. The figures thus do not include various other territories that have been under the United States during this time period. Over this time period, the U.S. has evolved from being 89% White, 10% Black and 1% Hispanic in 1930 to 58% White, 12% Black, and 19% Hispanic ninety years later, reflecting a significant demographic shift.

1. Multiracial (32.7%)
2. White (20.3%)
3. Native (2.38%)
4. African (1.87%)
5. Asian (0.43%)
6. Islander (0.11%)
7. Others (42.2%)

1. White Americans (61.6%)
2. Black Americans (12.4%)
3. Two or more races (10.2%)
4. Some other race (8.40%)
5. Asian Americans (6.00%)
6. Native Americans (1.10%)
7. Pacific Islander Americans (0.20%)

1. White Americans* (57.8%)
2. Hispanic Americans** (18.7%)
3. Black Americans* (12.1%)
4. Asian Americans* (5.90%)
5. Two or more races* (4.10%)
6. Native Americans* (0.70%)
7. Some other race* (0.50%)
8. Pacific Islander Americans* (0.20%)

Race

The United States Census Bureau collects racial data in accordance with guidelines provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and these data are based on self-identification. Many other countries count multiple races based on origin while America compiles multiple dozens of ethnicity groups into skin color grouping them together. The racial classifications and definitions used by the U.S. Census Bureau are:

• White: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as English, Azerbaijani, Iranian (Kurd and Lur), Irish, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, Moroccan (Arab and Berber), or Caucasian.
• Black or African American: a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am." or report entries such as African American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian.
• American Indian or Alaska Native: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. This category includes people who indicate their race as "American Indian or Alaska Native" or report entries such as Navajo, Blackfeet, Inupiat, Yup'ik, Central American Indian groups, or South American Indian groups.
• Asian: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia, such as Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
• Some other race: includes all other responses not included in the "White", "Black or African American", "American Indian or Alaska Native", "Asian", and "Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander" racial categories described above includes Asians from West Asia or Russia (non-European Russia) and White Africans.
• Two or more races: people may choose to provide two or more races either by checking two or more race response check boxes, providing multiple responses, or some combination of check boxes and other responses.

Data about race and ethnicity are self-reported to the Census Bureau. Since the 2000 census, Congress has authorized people to identify themselves according to more than one racial classification by selecting more than one category. Only one ethnicity may be selected, however, because the Census Bureau recognizes only two ethnicities – "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino" – which are mutually exclusive since you can be one or the other, but not both. The singular term Hispanic has been supplanted as a federally-recognized ethnicity by the combined "Hispanic or Latino," defined by the Census Bureau as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

According to the Census Bureau website, the racial composition of the United States in 2021 was:

According to the 2022 American Community Survey, the racial composition of the United States in 2022 was:

• United States in racial groups (of one race)
• White Americans
• African Americans
• Asian Americans

• United States in ethnic groups
• Non-Hispanic White Americans
• Hispanic Americans

Distribution of Total Population by Race, 1900 to 2020 (in %)

Hispanic are shown like part of the races. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

*Data are shown for the White, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Some other race alone populations.

Median age by each race alone and ethnicity, 2021

Source: United States Census Bureau.

Median age by race alone or in combination and ethnicity, 2021

Source: United States Census Bureau.