Demographic Underpinnings of US Growth

From the WSJ:

The U.S. population will hit 300 million at 7:46 on Tuesday morning, says the Census Bureau. But it’s the 400 million milestone, which the U.S. will reach in about 35 years, that has demographers and economists really talking.

Those additional 100 million people, many of them immigrants, will replace aging baby boomers in the work force, fill the Social Security coffers and, in all likelihood, keep the economy vital…

The Census Bureau says the U.S. population will grow by a further 34% by midcentury, even as Europe’s population shrinks by 8% and Japan contracts by 9%. As Columbia’s Mr. Prewitt puts it: “It’s deep in our culture to grow.”