Between the years 2027 and 2038 immigration will be the primary driver of population growth in the United States, according to the US Census Bureau, which believes that immigration will overcome the rate of natural population growth (the number of births minus deaths).
“This projected milestone reflects the mix of our nation’s declining fertility rates, the aging of the baby boomer population and continued immigration,” the Census Bureau’s former senior adviser Thomas Mesenbourg noted back in 2013 when the prediction was originally made. Last week a new report was released by the Census Bureau showing that a significant amount of counties within the United States are already changing demographically and experiencing more deaths than births.
Business Insider analyzed the data and came to the conclusion that around two-thirds of the nation’s counties have seen births outpacing deaths, which means that one-third of all counties in the US have seen natural population growth remain static or decline. Steven Camorota, the director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, is less concerned about immigrants replacing the deceased than he is about Americans of working age being replaced by foreign workers.
“At least in the last 14 years, what we’re seeing is a massive growth of non-work in the native-born population,” Camorota says. “In other words the people are here, they’re not over 65, they’re just not working. That has nothing to do with aging.”