Expert: U.S. population to hit 1 billion by 2100

If the USA seems too crowded and its roads too congested now, imagine future generations: The nation’s population could more than triple to 1 billion as early as 2100.

That’s the eye-popping projection that urban and rural planners, gathered today for their annual meeting in Las Vegas, are hearing from a land-use expert.

“What do we do now to start preparing for that?” asks Arthur Nelson, co-director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, whose analysis projects that the USA will hit the 1 billion mark sometime between 2100 and 2120. “It’s a realistic long-term challenge.”

The nation currently has almost 304 million people and is the world’s third most populous, behind China (1.3 billion) and India (1.1 billion). China passed the 1 billion mark in the early 1980s.

Nelson’s projection assumes that current fertility rates remain constant but that longevity and immigration will continue to rise.

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Expert: U.S. population to hit 1 billion by 2100
USA Today