USA basic facts

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Last Updated: Monday, 08 May 2023 23:23
Published: Monday, 01 October 2018 22:59
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Population:

Population in USA is about 310 Million as per 2010 census. ( https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/households.html ) There are 113 Million households (house, apartment, or any separate living quarter in which any number of people can live). 230M people are white (of these 50M people are of hispanic origin), 42M are black/african, 15M Asian (Chinese=3.5M, Indians=2.9M, Filipino=2.6M, Vietnamese=1.7M, Korean=1.5M) and 3M American Indians. Note that these refer to origin or race, not citizenship. So, a baby born to chinese citizens here will be a considered of chinese race, even though he and his parents are citizens here. About 60M are households with married couples, while 20M are other family households. About 40M are non-family households (people from different families sharing an apartment, or a person living by himself in a dorm, apt etc but who doesn't consider himself a family. Ex: kids in dorms, unmarried people with new jobs sharing apt, etc). Number of households increase by nearly 1M per year.

Population wise, California, Texas and Florida have been top 3 states (all with relatively warmer weather than rest of the country, so they have also been top states for retirement). 25% of US population lives in these 3 states.

Population growth:

world population is growing by 1.2% yearly as of 2010 (2.2% is birth rate, while 1% is death rate, resulting in net growth rate of 1.2%). India=1.4%, USA=0.8%, China=0.5% population growth. In year 2016 in USA, there were 4M births a year (40% to unmarried women) and 2.7M deaths (0.6M due to heart disease, 0.6M due to cancer, 0.2M accidents, life expectancy=79 years) resulting in net birth rate of 1.3M or 0.4% per year. Net immigration is 1.2M or 0.4% per year (green card=0.5M, other visas/illegal=0.7M), which causes US population to grow by 0.8% (2.5M people per year). By 2058, US population is expected to cross 400M. Population growth is expected to slow down to 1.5M people per year (0.4M will be natural increase, while 1.1M would be due to net immigration). So, net immigration is going to be the driving force for population growth in USA. If not for population growth from immigration, GDP growth would be less than half of what it is. So, USA does need people from other countries to keep on coming in for it's own good.

One noteworthy data from deaths based on age shows that 80% of the deaths occurred due to age age. For 2017, 0.9M deaths occurred at age of 85+. Other 0.3M for ages 80-84. In fact, 2.1M or 75% of the deaths occurred for people aged 65+, Since 60M people are age > 60 yrs in US, this implies that 5% of the people in this age group die every year. Deaths in age groups < 60 years is less than 0.2%.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf

Population growth via immigration based on country of birth.

This link gives important stats for year 2009: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states-1/. US immigrant (foreign born irrespective of current citizenship) population as of 2009 was 39M (mexicans=10M, Phillipines=1.8M, India=1.7M, China=1.6M, Vietnam=1.2M). It increases by 0.5M or 1.5% every year (In 2016, it was 44M). In 2016, 1.5M new immigrants came to USA (Indians=180K, Chinese=160K, Mexicans=150K, Filipino=50K). Till 1970, there were only 10M immigrants, but started increasing rapidly since then, because immigration related strict laws (immigration and nationality act) were amended to more favorable laws in 1965 (immigration capped to 0.3M per year), particularly for immigration from Asia. Of the 39M immigrants, 17M became US citizens, 13M permanent residents, 11M unauthorized immigrants (not sure?) and remainder on various visas. Of these 39M, 90% of them came to USA on business/tourist visa, while 2M came on work-visa, while 1M on student visa.  Nearly 6M visa were issued in 2009, of which 4M were business/tourist visa, 0.4M were student visa(F-1, F-2, F-3) and their family, and 0.4M were exchange visitors (J-1, J-2) and their families. As can be seen that most of the people who came to USA on visa went back, since immigrant population on average goes up by 1M every year. About 0.5M new immigrants come thru green card and others thru illegal immigration, so only very few of these 6M people actually stay in US permananetly. These 39M immigrants make up 26M households. In 2009, nearly 1.2M immigrants become permananet residents of which 0.7M are existing immigrants, while 0.5M are new arrivals to USA. Also, 0.8M immigrants became US citizens (Mexico=112K, India=52K, Phillipines=39K, China=37K, Vietnam=31K)

Asian Indians in USA:

basically 1 out of 100 people is USA is an Asian Indian (defined as one of Indian origin => He could either be one who is born here, but has ancestors from India, or one who has been born in Indian, but is currently in USA).

Following wikipedia link gives useful info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_American#Statistics_on_Indians_in_the_U.S.

Of these 2.9 million indians in USA, 1.7M are India born who either became naturalized citizens, permanent residents (0.5M) or just temporary residents on various student or work visas. Remaining 1.2M are USA born, who are USA citizens by birth.

As of 2012, There were total 13.3M permanent residents in USA, of which 0.5M were Indians (Mexico=3.3M, China=0.6M, Phillipines=0.6M). Also, there were 0.4M H1B Visa holders in USA of which 0.3M were Indians (China=50K, no ther country more than 5K)

Cities:

There are only 10 cities in USA with population > 1M (i.e 10 lakh people). In contrast, there are 50 cities in India with population > 1M

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

1M + : 10 cities

400K+ : 50 cities

200K+: 100 cities

100K+: 300 cities (of these about 70 are from california, 40 from texas and 20 from Florida. None of other states have more than 10 cities in top 300 cities)

About 50M lived in top 50 cities. Cities by themselves do not give an idea of size of that area, as any city area is fixed, so as people start moving into the city, the city expands, but the expanded areas become new cities. As the original city itself doesn't grow in area, it's population kind of maxes out after a while, and adjoining cities keep on taking extra influx of people. A better stat is MSA (metropolitan statistical area). It gives better picture how the city population and area is growing. Link below shows that just 5 MSA comprised of 50M people. Top 15 MSA comprised of over 100M people, while more than half of US population is in top 35 MSA. About 70% of population is in top 100 MSA, and 85% in all 383 MSA.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas

Historically, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago has always been the top 3 most populated cities as well as MSA in USA. These MSA comprise about 15% of USA population (while these top 3 cities comprise only about 5% of population, so we can see that MSA are more relevant). Area wise also these are huge MSA. Since top 100 MSA are where most of the high paying jobs and industries are, these are essentially where people mostly live. These are the MSA where housing prices matter, since these area are restricted by available space to build housing which is close by to work (within 30 min of commute time). Outside of these 100 MSA, house prices should pretty much be same as the cost to build house, since there's abundant land. Land as a percentage of house sale price is less than 10% for MSA which are not in top 100.

Employment:

Population and employment figures from year 2010: (taken from www.census.gov, and www.bls.gov)

USA population is 310M, out of which 155M are in the civilian non-farm workforce (1.5M are in military workforce, while 3M farm for a living. If we include total workforce is 160M). About 10M out of this civilian workforce is unemployed, so 145M people are employed. Simple calculation for population is that there are roughly 20M people in each age group of 5 year increment, starting from 0yrs upto the age of 60 yrs. So, population in 0-60yrs is 20M*60/5=240M ppl (In reality, it's 250M). Remaining 60M are over the age of 60 yrs. Population breakup by age is:

< 5yrs: 20M. Out of these, 6M goto some form of preschool.

5-17yrs: 54M. Out of these 55M are enrolled in kindergarten, elementary or high school (50M in public and 5M in private). So, all of the population is getting primary education. That is reflected in the workforce number, where 87% of the workforce has a high school degree. That implies, about 10% of these 55M kids drop out of high school or even before, without getting a high school degree. More details here: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_105.20.asp?current=yes . Total student enrollment is 76M, of which 55M are in schools (38M in elementary/middle school, 16M in high school), 21M are in colleges (18M undergrads, and 3M grads). 14M high school kids are in this age group, while none of college kids are in this age group.

18-24yrs: 30M. Out of these, 14M are enrolled in high school or college (school=1.5M, undergrad/grad college=12.5M). So, more than half of this age group people are not getting any college education. Of the ones that are enrolled, half of them drop out without geting a 4 year degree. So, only 25% of the workforce has a 4 year college degree or higher, which comes close with the workforce numbers of 30% workforce having a 4 yr college degree . Note, many of the people in higher age group, also get a 4 yr college degree later in their life, so the workforce has a slightly higher number for people with 4 yr college degree. Also, out of the remaining 75%, about 2/3rd of them enter the workforce. So, out of 22M who don't complete college, about 15M get into workforce and start earning money.

25-59yrs: 145M. 8M of people here are still students in colleges. Most of the people in this group comprise the workforce of 155M. BLS figures show a partcipation rate of 85%, so about 115M of the workforce is comprised of this group. Looking at this number, only 20M (145M-8M-115M) of this age group is not employed. Some of them are stay at home mom/dad, some may be involved in farming, while some may be out of labor force all together because of disabilities, etc, while some are simply unemployed because no one is hiring them.

> 60yrs: 60M. about 25% of the people in this age group still work, implying about 15M of the workforce comes from this age group. Note that full retirement benefits (social security benefits) don't start until the age of 67yrs, so many people keep on working till age 65. In fact, in the age group of 60-65yrs, of a population of 17M, 11M keep on working. Remaining 4M of the workforce comes from people over age 65.

So, based on this, we see that abou 80% of the workforce of 155M comes from age group 25-60yrs, and only 30% of the workforce has a 4 yr college degree. Kids+students are about 100M, while old retired people are about 45M. Out of remaining 165M people who are eligible to work, 150M people are working (including military and farm jobs). Only 15M are not working (5M due to choice or disability, while 10M due to not able to find a job). One interesting fact is that females in colleges outnumber males (12M vs 9M).

Salary:

Now, lets see at the occupation of this workforce and their median salary. This is a good link at bls website: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm (NOTE: this only shows earnings for people making more than certain threshold/year, since for lower earnings, data may get unreliable). Unemployment rate for people with bachelor's or higher degree is very low (2.5% in 2017), while those who didn't complete high school was much higher at 13%.

Now, we look at what profession are these people employed in.

Highest paying occupations: about 17M people are in this group making > $100K/year. These are top 10% of working population. Highest paid jobs are doctors, lawyers and CEOs most of whom are in top 1%.

  1. Medical Professions: These include anyone working in Medical field, as doctors, nurses, therapists, etc. NOTE that doctors are the only ones in this field who make salaries in top 1%. Others make much lower salaries.
    • Doctors: Total 1M physicians, surgeons, dentists, pharmicists, dietician or related occupation. Doctors are the highest paid of any profession in USA. Median salary=$200K for salaried doctors, while self employed or those working in speciality fields earn about $400K in median salary. In fact, 9 of top 10 of the highest paying jobs in the USA are all in the field of health care profession (i.e doctors).
    • Therapists: 0.5M therapists, as speech therapist, physical therapist, respiratory therapist, etc. Median salary=$100K.
    • Nurses: 2.5M. Salary=$100K
    • Technologists, technicians, vocational nurses: 2M. Decent salary > $70K.
  2. CEOs: 1M CEOs, including those who have their own business. median salary = $200K. If we only look at large public or private companies, there might be only 20K CEOs, and their median salary is >$500K.
  3. Legal Professions: This includes lawyers and paralegals, as well as people who have their own law firm. They are usually very highly paid, and lawyers in top companies as well in good legal firms usually end up in top 1% of the population earning wise.
    • Lawyers: 1.2M lawyers (according to American Bar Association). Median salary=$200K.
    • Paralegal, legal assistants and legal support workers: Total=0.5M.
  4. Technology Profession: Here, we include all tech field profession mostly Engineers and computer programmers, etc. Salaries for these people is also pretty high, and they usually start in the top 10%-20% of earners, and by mid career are usually in top 3%-5% of earners.
    • Computers: 3M in the field of software programming, IT, DB, Web developer, etc.
    • Engineering: Total = 2M. Electrical engineers, Mechanical engineers and civil engineers are 0.3M each, while other fields as aerospace, chemical, nuclear, materials, industrial, etc comprise remaining 2M. Engineering jobs are the highest paid jobs coming out of college across all disciplines.
    • Engineering Technicians/drafters: 0.5M
  5. Life, physical, and social science: 1M. Surprisingly salaries are at par with engineering jobs, at about $100K. These mostly include phychologist, scientists, economists, Miscellaneous life, physical, and social science technicians, etc.
  6. Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations: 1.5M. Mostly includes artists, actors, writers, directors, dancers, sportsman, entertainers, photographers, media workers, etc. avg salary is about $100K.

Lowest paying occupations: about 15M people are in this group making < $40K/year ($20/hr *40 hrs/week *50 weeks = $40K). When you hear headlines of people losing jobs, these are the people who lose their jobs. So, unempoyment rate is mostly affected by people in this category. They are bottom 10% of working population.

  1. Agricultural/farm workers: Total=1M. lowest pay of all occupations at < $10/hr. Doesn't require any education. They usually work on farms of other people.
  2. Food preparation and serving related occupations: Total=4M. Mostly employed in small businesses, as waiters, cooks, attendants, etc.
  3. Personal care and service occupations: Total=2M. Mostly includes hair dressers, child care, animal trainers, fitness workers, etc.
  4. Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations: Total=4M. Mostly includes janitors, maids, ground maintainence, etc. Very low pay at < $10/hr.
  5. Protective services: Total=1M (excludes govt employees as police, fire fighters, etc). Includes security guards, life guards, etc.
  6. Healthcare support occupations: Total=2M. Includes all support staff, assistants at hospitals, etc.

Middle paying occupations: remaining 120M people are in this group making $40K - $100K. These are the middle 80% of the working population and comprise everyone else. This is WIP? FIXME?

  1. Teachers: We include anyone in Teaching profession here. They are teaxhers in schools, 2 yr colleges, as well as professors in universities. Most of the professors in top universities get paid pretty well to be in the top 10% of population. Howver, they are still significantly under paid compared to their colleagues at private corporations.
    • Schools: 3.7M teachers in elementary/high schools (3.2M in public schools and 0.5M in private schools). Assuming 50M students in public schools, that's a ratio of 1:16 for teacher:student. For private schools, it's 0.5M teachers for 5M students implying a ratio of 1:10. About 100K public schools (there are about 14K public school district, meaning avg of 7 schools per ISD (independent school district) and 35K private schools. About $650B was spent in public schools in 2018, implying per student expenditure of $12K/year. If we add up private schools, about $1T is spent in schools every year.
    • Colleges: Assuming avg college fees of $25K/year, and 20M students, about $0.5T is spent in colleges every year.  There are about 3000 4 yr institutions, and 1700 2 year institutions. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372.
  2. Misc: Many more professions here. I'll list some more common ones here later