U.S. grows by 5 people per minute

The nation will have a projected population of nearly 295.2 million on New Year's Day, according to a projection released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

That's up 1 percent since New Year's Day 2004, when the Census Bureau estimated the population at 292.3 million.

The nation's population is expected to grow by one person every 12 seconds in January, according to the census.

The census projects one birth every eight seconds and one death every 13 seconds; and net international migration is expected to add one person every 26 seconds.

Utah continues to have high birthrates, said Robert Spendlove, manager of demographic and economic analysis at the Governor's Office of Budget and Planning.

"Over two-thirds of all the population increase in Utah is due to natural population increase," Spendlove said. "The trend of natural increase being the majority of the population growth in Utah has been a long-term trend . . . Even when we do have high migration, that doesn't take away from the fact that we are a strong natural increase state."

In Utah, Spendlove said the population is forecast to surpass 2.5 million next year, a growth rate of 2.4 percent. A long-term projection predicts Utah's population will hit the 3 million mark by 2010, he said.

Census spokesman Robert Bernstein said the projection for national population growth in January 2005 is almost identical to January 2004, when the population was expected to grow by one person every 12 seconds.

Bernstein said the Census Bureau does monthly population estimates for the nation but highlights the January ones.

The census projections are more like snapshots of what the nation's population is now, Bernstein said.

"It's not meant to show what the trends are over the next year," he said.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com