home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=89TT0438>
- <title>
- Feb. 13, 1989: American Notes:Population
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Feb. 13, 1989 James Baker:The Velvet Hammer
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 41
- American Notes
- POPULATION
- Headed Downward
- </hdr><body>
- <p> In the 199 years since the first national census was taken,
- the population of the U.S. has grown from about 4 million in
- 1790 to nearly 247 million today. Last week the U.S. Census
- Bureau predicted the eventual end of that era of uninterrupted
- increase. In 50 years, the bureau forecast, America's
- population could peak at 302 million and then begin a slow
- decline before stabilizing at 292 million in 2080.
- </p>
- <p> With the baby-boom generation growing older, said the
- bureau, the number of women in their prime childbearing age has
- already begun to decline. But a smaller work force does not
- necessarily mean economic stagnation. "These changes don't come
- upon us overnight," says Thomas Espenshade, a population expert
- at Princeton University. "We should be able to accommodate
- them."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-