By Mike Schneider
The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year's Day, it was estimated to stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.
The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1%. At the start of 2024, 4.3 births and two deaths are expected worldwide every second, according to the Census Bureau figures.
The growth rate for the United States in the past year was 0.53%, about half the worldwide figure. The U.S. added 1.7 million people and will have a population on New Year's Day of 335.8 million people.
If the current pace continues through the end of the decade, the 2020s could be the slowest-growing decade in U.S. history, yielding a growth rate of less than 4% over the 10-year-period from 2020 to 2030, said William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution.
The slowest-growing decade currently was in the aftermath of the Great Depression in the 1930s, when the growth rate was 7.3%.
“Of course growth may tick up a bit as we leave the pandemic years. But it would still be difficult to get to 7.3%,” Frey said.
At the start of 2024, the United States is expected to experience one birth every nine seconds and one death every 9.5 seconds. However, immigration will keep the population from dropping. Net international migration is expected to add one person to the U.S. population every 28.3 seconds. This combination of births, deaths and net international migration will increase the U.S. population by one person every 24.2 seconds.
Former family YouTuber Ruby Franke is set to enter a plea agreement on child abuse charges in a Utah courtroom, according to her lawyers. Frank and her business partner, Jody Hildebrand were arrested in August after two of Franke's children were found with injuries and evidence of malnutrition in Hildebrandt's home.
Backers are far from gathering enough signatures, but if the measure makes the June 2024 ballot and voters pass it, North Dakota would have to replace ballot scanners with hundreds of workers.
It's part of the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military facilities.
The company is asking customers to throw out certain types of granola bars and granola cereals to avoid infection.
It could be a cold, grim New Year for thousands of migrant families living in New York City’s emergency shelter system. With winter setting in, they are being told they need to clear out, with no guarantee they’ll be given a bed elsewhere.
Vermont is often ranked as one of the nation's safest states. But since October, it has had 10 homicides and one suspicious death, including a double homicide in Burlington.
Officials in Mexico are trying to determine what's responsible for the death of a man and injuries to a woman at a Pacific coast resort.
The Virginia mother whose six-year-old son brought a gun to school and shot his teacher is expected to be sentenced.
The family of a 19-year-old woman who died in a hotel's freezer six years ago has settled a lawsuit against the hotel for $10 million.
Prince Harry has won his lawsuit against the publisher of UK tabloid, The Daily Mirror.
