MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

United States population hits 300-million mark

The population of the United States officially hit the historic milestone of 300 million Tuesday morning, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

The 300 millionth resident clocked in at 7:46 a.m. ET, according to the Census Bureau's "population clock."

The Census Bureau estimates a birth every seven seconds, one death every 13 seconds, and a new immigrant every 31 seconds. The result is an increase of one person every 11 seconds.

The U.S. adds about 2.8 million people a year, for a growth rate of less than 1 per cent.

With that formula in mind, it is impossible to tell for sure if the 300-millionth person was a newborn, or one who crossed over one of the borders. But experts say they have an idea who that person is.

The 300-millionth resident is probably Hispanic because they are the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S., William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, told press agencies..

Twelve per cent of U.S. residents, or 34.3 million people, are foreign-born, with the largest number coming from Mexico, according to the Census Bureau. The U.S. ranks third in net immigration, behind Ireland and Australia, with a rate of 3.4 per 1,000 people in the population in 2005. It is projected that 25 per cent of the population will be Hispanic in 2050.

According to Census Bureau data, most immigrants initially live in the so-called gateway states California, Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Texas.

From there, they move on to areas such as Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas, the states with the highest rate of internal migration of foreign-born residents.

No celebrations are planned for the 300-million benchmark, which makes the United States the third most populous country in the world after China at 1.3 billion and India at 1.1 billion. The world population is 6.6 billion.

Many experts believe the population actually hit 300 million months ago.

"I don't think anybody believes it will be the precise moment when the population hits 300 million," Howard Hogan, the Census Bureau's associate director for demographic programs, told to the press. But, he added, "We're confident that we're somewhat close."

Not only is it difficult estimating the exact number of people in a country the size of the U.S., it gets even more complicated when you take into account illegal immigration -- another reason why the milestone is passing without much hullabaloo.

Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, told AP that the Census Bureau has improved its population estimates in the past few years, but it still undercounts illegal immigrants.

There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Experts disagree on the numbers, but many estimate that more than 1 million of illegal immigrants don't show up in census figures.

"The census clearly misses people," said Passel, a former Census Bureau employee who used to help estimate the undercount. "Having said that, when they crossed 200 million, they were missing about 5 million people. We think the 2000 census missed a lot less than 5 million people."

Tuesday's milestone comes nearly 39 years after the 200-million milestone was reached on November 20, 1967 when Lyndon B. Johnson was president and the country was preoccupied with the Vietnam War.

To mark that milestone, former president Johnson held a news conference to hail America's history and to talk about the challenges ahead. Life magazine sent off a team of photographers to find a baby born at the exact moment, anointing a boy born in Atlanta as the 200-millionth American.

This year, experts say, there's a good chance the 300-millionth American has already travelled across the border from Mexico.

"It's a couple of weeks before an election when illegal immigration is a high-profile issue and they don't want to make a big deal out of it," Frey said.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told the wire agency the Bush administration isn't downplaying the milestone, though he said he had no plans for Tuesday.

Census Bureau employees planned to mark the moment Tuesday afternoon with cake and punch.

"I would hate to think that we are going to be low key about this," said Gutierrez, whose department oversees the Census Bureau. "I would hope that we make a big deal about it."