Population projections of the United States (1960 - 2050)

The population of the United States, by racial and ethnic groups.

YEAR	WHITE	HISPANICS	BLACK	ASIAN
1960	85%	3.5%	11%	0.6%
2005	67%	14%	13%	5%
2050 (projected)	47%	29%	13%	9%

Population projections of the United States: 1960 - 2050.

YEAR	THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES
1960	180 million
1970	205 million
1980	227 million
1990	249 million
2000	274 million
2005	296 million
2010	307 million
2050	438 million

If current trends continue, the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005, and 82% of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their U.S.-born descendants.

Of the 117 million people added to the population during this period due to the effect of new immigration, 67 million will be the immigrants themselves and 50 million will be their U.S.-born children or grandchildren.

Other key population projections

• Nearly one in five Americans (19%) will be an immigrant in 2050, compared with one in eight (12%) in 2005. By 2025, the immigrant, or foreign-born, share of the population will surpass the peak during the last great wave of immigration a century ago.

• The major role of immigration in national growth builds on the pattern of recent decades, during which immigrants and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren accounted for most population increase. Immigration’s importance increased as the average number of births to U.S.-born women dropped sharply before leveling off. 

• The Latino population, already the nation’s largest minority group, will triple in size and will account for most of the nation’s population growth from 2005 through 2050. Hispanics will make up 29% of the U.S. population in 2050, compared with 14% in 2005. 

• Births in the United States will play a growing role in Hispanic and Asian population growth; as a result, a smaller proportion of both groups will be foreign-born in 2050 than is the case now.

• The white population will increase more slowly than other racial and ethnic groups; whites will become a minority (47%) by 2050.

• The nation’s elderly population will more than double in size from 2005 through 2050, as the baby boom generation enters the traditional retirement years. The number of working-age Americans and children will grow more slowly than the elderly population, and will shrink as a share of the total population.