IV-253 



SECTION 1. NATIONAL POPULATION AND ECONOMIC TRENDS 



NATIONAL POPULATION GROWTH 



America has experienced a continually high rate of population growth. 

 Today there are six times as many Americans as there were one hun- 

 dred years ago, and more than twice as many as there were 50 years 

 ago. This growth is expected to continue 1n the future, though 

 likely at a slower rate. 



Figure IV. 4.1 provides clear evidence of the "population explosion" 

 which took place in the United States in the years following World 

 War II. In the decade 1950-1960, the total United States population 

 Increased by nearly 28 million persons, a growth rate of 15.6 percent 

 for the decade, or an annual population growth rate of nearly 1.6 

 percent. That growth is expected to continue at a rate of approxi- 

 mately 1.3 percent annually with the total population of the United 

 States Increasing from a little over 205 million persons in 1970 to 

 about 400 million 1n 2020. 



Figure IV. 4. 2 shows recent population Increases and decreases through- 

 out the Nation. Population decreases have occurred almost uniformly 

 1n the period 1940 to 1960 in the predominantly agricultural counties 

 of the Mid-West, the South, the Southwest, and Appalachia. In con- 

 trast, those counties in which metropolitan development has occurred 

 generally show steady increase during these years. Perhaps the most 

 striking growth record in this period appears in what may generally 



