Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 American Macroeconomic Growth in the Era of Knowledge-Based Progress: The Long-Run Perspective
- 2 Structural Changes: Regional and Urban
- 3 Twentieth-Century Canadian Economic History
- 4 The Twentieth-Century Record of Inequality and Poverty in the United States
- 5 The Great Depression
- 6 War and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century
- 7 U.S. Foreign Trade and Trade Policy in the Twentieth Century
- 8 U.S. Foreign Financial Relations in the Twentieth Century
- 9 Twentieth-Century American Population Growth
- 10 Labor Markets in the Twentieth Century
- 11 Labor Law
- 12 The Transformation of Northern Agriculture, 1910–1990
- 13 Banking and Finance in the Twentieth Century
- 14 Twentieth-Century Technological Change
- 15 The U.S. Corporate Economy in the Twentieth Century
- 16 Government Regulation of Business
- 17 The Public Sector
- Bibliographic Essays
- Index
- References
9 - Twentieth-Century American Population Growth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 American Macroeconomic Growth in the Era of Knowledge-Based Progress: The Long-Run Perspective
- 2 Structural Changes: Regional and Urban
- 3 Twentieth-Century Canadian Economic History
- 4 The Twentieth-Century Record of Inequality and Poverty in the United States
- 5 The Great Depression
- 6 War and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century
- 7 U.S. Foreign Trade and Trade Policy in the Twentieth Century
- 8 U.S. Foreign Financial Relations in the Twentieth Century
- 9 Twentieth-Century American Population Growth
- 10 Labor Markets in the Twentieth Century
- 11 Labor Law
- 12 The Transformation of Northern Agriculture, 1910–1990
- 13 Banking and Finance in the Twentieth Century
- 14 Twentieth-Century Technological Change
- 15 The U.S. Corporate Economy in the Twentieth Century
- 16 Government Regulation of Business
- 17 The Public Sector
- Bibliographic Essays
- Index
- References
Summary
Twentieth-century American population growth has been remarkable in many respects. Mortality has been reduced at a rate never before seen. There has been a gigantic boom and bust in childbearing. With fertility currently low and life expectancy high, population aging has emerged as a new concern. The trend in the spatial distribution of population has departed sharply from that in the nineteenth century, as new directions of internal migration have appeared, and the origins of international migration have shifted from Europe to Latin America and Asia. These developments are due partly to economic conditions, but public policy and other factors have also been at work. This chapter takes up, in turn, fertility, mortality, internal migration, and international migration. It concludes with an analysis of the implications of population aging for future economic growth.
FERTILITY
Before World War II it was confidently assumed that American population growth was grinding to a halt. This assumption was subsequently belied by the huge upsurge in population growth following World War II, described by one scholar of the postwar period as “perhaps the most unexpected and remarkable feature of the time” (see Figure 9.1, top panel). This population boom, which peaked in the late fifties, was followed by an equally surprising population “bust.” Although few scholars in the late 1950s expected the undiminished continuation of the high growth rates prevailing at that time, no one foresaw the rapidity and depth of the subsequent decline. This boom and bust pattern of population growth is one of the most dramatic and unanticipated developments of the post—World War II period.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Economic History of the United States , pp. 505 - 548Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
References
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