U.S. population added 2.3 million since last New Year’s Day

Someone is born in the United States every 8 seconds.

But someone dies every 11 seconds.

However, immigration adds one person every 29 seconds, so overall the U.S. sees a net gain of one person every 14 seconds.

That’s why there are 2.3 million more of us now than last on New Year’s Day.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects the population of the country on Monday will be 326,971,407. That makes it the third — a distant third — most populous country in the world behind China and India. After the U.S. comes Indonesia and Brazil.

The projected world population on Monday will be 7,444,443,881, a growth of just over 1 percent since last year. A population clock lets you watch this growth in real time.

Within the U.S., California will remain the most populous state with 39,536,653 people and New York City will remain the most populous city with 8,537,673 people.

The fastest growing state? In 2017 it was Idaho, at the rate of 2.2 percent. In second and third place were Nevada and Utah. The west is now home to nearly 24 percent of the country’s population. But the South still leads with 38 percent.

The densest “state” is actually the District of Columbia, with more than 11,350 people per square mile.

The densest city is Guttenberg, N.J., on the Hudson River opposite Manhattan. Even though the 155-acre town only has about 12,000 people, that calculates to more than 60,192 people per square mile.

This story was originally published December 28, 2017 at 11:08 AM with the headline "U.S. population added 2.3 million since last New Year’s Day."