US passes 300 million people

The United States now has a population of more than 300 million people, the US Census Bureau said yesterday, although it will not designate the person who broke the historic barrier.

The Census Bureau keeps count of the estimated number of Americans, based on the birth rate, death rate and immigration rate, which means the United States adds another person to its population every 11 seconds.

It estimated that the population hit the 300 million mark at 7.46 a.m. EDT (1146 GMT) - 39 years after the US population reached 200 million.

"The Census Bureau will not make an effort to identify the 300 millionth person," said spokesman Robert Bernstein.

When the population counter topped 200 million in 1967, Life magazine dispatched reporters to various maternity wards and ultimately determined that Robert Woo, a Chinese-American born in the Atlanta area, was the person who passed the mark.

One demographer had said the 300 millionth person would be a Latino boy, since about half of the US population growth is due to Hispanics, more boys are born than girls and the population grows more from births than through immigration.

The US population has jumped in the past decade, after taking until 1915 to reach 100 million.