Population Growth Is Slowing to Great Depression Levels

Population growth is generally considered a prerequisite for economic growth: More people means more work, which means more economic value. As workers age and exit the workforce, they must be replaced by younger people or immigrants, to both provide for retirees and sustain the economy. But U.S. population growth is slowing. Between 2010 and 2020, the population grew just 7.4%, making it the decade with the slowest rate of expansion in U.S. history.

Unlike the temporary reduction in growth during the Depression, this slowdown is a result of fundamental transformations: Americans are having fewer children, and we have gradually narrowed the gateways of immigration. Population growth is a function of life span as well, and where we once experienced steadily lengthening lives, the so-called diseases of despair—drug overdoses, obesity, and suicide, which all accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic—are taking a greater and greater toll every year.

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U.S. Population Growth by Decade

Source: The Brookings Institution.