According to the Census Bureau, statistically speaking the U.S. population reached 300 million at 6:46 a.m. CDT today, Tuesday, October 17. As BBC News is reporting, the exact time of this milestone was marked by a "population clock... based on calculations that factor birth and death rates and migration."The last obvious benchmark of this kind was achieved when we reached 200 million on November 20, 1967. As of now, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there's one birth every seven seconds, one death every 13 seconds, and one net new immigrant every 31 seconds.
"The result is an increase in the total population of one person every 11 seconds," or nearly three million new Americans per year.
Not only that, but we're growing heftier, too. According to a "Fat Clock" based on data from the Center for Disease Control, on average Americans are gaining 1.15 pounds each and every year.
A loose extrapolation of that data suggests that back in 1967 the average American weighed only 136.2 lbs. but by the beginning of 2007 we will weigh in at 181 lbs., on average, for every man, woman and child in the U.S.A.
So, it seems the growing national population -- new and old, native and immigrant -- has put on a cumulative total of more than 27 billion pounds in the past 39 years. (300m x 181 - 200m x 136.2).
That's some butt on us, eh? Somebody needs to go on a diet.
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