U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050

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 according to new projections developed by the Pew Research Center. 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. Among the 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. Immigrations importance increased as the average number of births to U.S.-born women dropped sharply before leveling off. (excerpt)