Population articles
Just the Facts about the US population, demographics, and geography
Household size, racial demographics, the average age of an American: these stats are always changing. And who has a college degree? How many people are registered to vote? Here’s America by the numbers.
AAPI Demographics: Data on Asian American ethnicities, geography, income, and education
There are 25.8 million Asian Americans living in the US, making up 7.7% of the population. Among them, 3.6 million identify as Asian in combination with another race.Asian Americans are sometimes grouped with Pacific Islanders under the “AAPI” umbrella, and the joint Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month is celebrated annually in May. The AAPI population is the fastest growing racial group in the US, with a population that nearly doubled from 2000 to 2023.The demographics of Asian Americans vary drastically across ethnic groups. Taiwanese and Indian Americans have the highest educational and income outcomes, while Southeast Asian Americans have lower incomes and educational attainment.
How many people are in the US military? A demographic overview
As of March 2025, the US military consisted of 2.86 million people worldwide. Data from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) indicates that, in 2024, the US has the world’s third-largest active military by size, surpassed by China and India, respectively.These forces are spread across six main service branches: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Space Force – all tasked to protect and serve the US.How many people are in the military?The US military includes approximately 2.07 military personnel and 788,470 civilians as of March 2025. With 2.86 million troops and civilians combined, the military is slightly greater than the population of Chicago, the country's third-largest city.Of those military members, the Department of Defense (DOD) listed nearly 1.31 million people as active-duty troops, and 765,495 as National Guard/reserves.
What are the demographics of Hispanic voters?
Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the US, and greater attention has been placed on the Hispanic vote over the past few election cycles. In 2020, around 13% of citizens over 18 were Hispanic, and Hispanic voters cast around 11% of ballots, according to Census data.Hispanic voters are younger on average, turn out at lower rates, and are most concentrated among states near the American Southwest.Where are most Hispanic voters located?Hispanic Americans hold the highest shares of the voting-age citizen population in states along the US-Mexico border. New Mexico had the highest, with 36% of this demographic identifying as Hispanic, followed by California, Texas, and Arizona. In 2020, these four states, in addition to Nevada and Florida, had at least 20% of eligible voters identify as Hispanic.These states also had the greatest Hispanic vote share in 2020. In four states (New Mexico, California, Texas, and Arizona), more than 20% of votes cast in 2020 were by Hispanic citizens. Maine had the least, with less than 1% of votes cast by Hispanic voters.
How many people die by suicide in the United States each year?
About 49,316 people in 2023. In other words, there were about 14 suicides for every 100,000 people in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says several factors cause suicide and they exist at individual, community, and societal levels.
What does the Census Bureau (CENSUS) do?
The Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) is a subdivision of the US Department of Commerce responsible for collecting and analyzing data about the population and economy of the United States. The agency conducts the decennial census, which provides data for government representation, allocation of federal funds, and policy making. It also conducts numerous other surveys on topics such as housing, business, and demographics. It was established in 1902.
What is the income of a US household?
About $81,600 in median income in 2024. Household income is the total money received in a year — wages, pensions, investments, public assistance, and more — by everyone in a household over 15.
US obesity rates have tripled over the last 60 years
According to National Institutes of Health surveys conducted since the early 1960s, US obesity rates have tripled over the last 60 years. The number of people classified with severe obesity has risen tenfold. How is obesity measured?A person’s weight class can range from underweight to obese and is calculated with a screening tool called the Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is calculated by dividing someone’s weight (in kilograms) by their height (in meters) and a common stand-in for body fat measurement in children and adults, although it doesn’t distinguish between fat, muscle, and bone mass. Severe obesity is a sub-class within the obesity category. How have obesity rates changed over time?In the early 1960s, roughly 13% of people were considered obese under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Recent figures suggest that the current national obesity rate is closer to 40%. Almost 10% of Americans were categorized as severely obese during the 2021–2023 survey, compared to fewer than 1% in 1960–1962. Childhood obesity rates also rose, tripling from 5% in the early 1970s to over 21% by 2021–2023.
Population pyramids of every state
There’s more to measuring a state’s population than its big total.The age, sex, race, ethnicity, and other characteristics of each resident provides context about who lives in the state. Knowing the demographics of a place informs governments not only about the current residents within certain borders but can help prepare for the challenges they might face in the future.We’ve made population pyramids for the nation, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia. These pyramids use Census data from 2010 to 2017 and can be filtered by various races and ethnicities.What is a "population pyramid"?A population pyramid is a data visualization tool showing the age makeup of a certain area. Demographers, or social scientists that study population trends over time, use population pyramids extensively because it’s a quick way to gather lots of insights about how a population is aging over time. Usually, the “pyramid” places older populations at the top, youngest at the bottom and splits the left and right sides by sex. There’s no strict requirement for how groups of the population are arranged by age.See how the shape of the population differs in each state. Scroll below for our analysis or if you need more insight on how to interpret population pyramids.
How many people are on Medicaid in the US?
On average, 88.8 million or 26.2% of the US population during FY 2024. Enrolling about 1 in 4 people in the US, Medicaid is one of the largest single health insurers in the country. Medicaid is a government-funded health insurance program that provides free or low-cost coverage to eligible low-income individuals and families, including children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities.
What is the homeownership rate in the US?
About 65.6% in 2024. That means about 2 in 3 households owned their home while the remainder rented.
How many children experience abuse or neglect in the US?
In 2023, 4.4 million children were involved in maltreatment referrals, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).Out of those referrals, 546,159 children were found to be victims of abuse or neglect. More than 75% of the perpetrators of the abuse are parents of the victims.More than two-thirds of the cases in 2023 were reported by professionals that have contact with the victims through their job, such as teachers, lawyers, police, and social services personnel. The highest percentage of reports in 2023 came from legal and law enforcement personnel (21.4%).
Does access to healthcare differ by race and ethnicity?
Across several measures of health and access to healthcare, American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic adults often fare worse than other racial or ethnic identities. In 2024, about 14.8% of Americans were in fair or poor health. Zooming in on demographics reveals disparities between racial and ethnic groups. Adults in four groups — American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and Hispanic — report higher rates of fair or poor health than the national average.
How many kids are in foster care?
An estimated 527,180 children passed through the foster care system in 2023. This number represents the number of children who were already in the system at the beginning of the federal fiscal year, and the children who entered or exited foster care as of September 30, 2022. On the last day of the fiscal year, 343,077 children remained in foster care.Foster care is intended to provide a temporary stable home for children who cannot safely remain in their current situations due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. The federal foster care program, known as title IV-E, funds services that are managed locally — in 50 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and tribes with approved title IV-E plans.How has the number of children in foster care changed?Over the last two decades, the number of children in foster care has declined each year, with the exception of a five-year span between 2013–2018.
Native Americans and the US Census: How the count has changed
Between 2000 and 2018, the number of American residents who were at least partially Native American increased 39%, according to the US Census Bureau.The estimated 5.7 million Americans in 2018 – 1.6 million more than 2000 – identifying with “American Indian or Alaska Native” racial backgrounds represent less than 2% of the total national population. That share was double the Native American group’s share in 2000.It’s unclear if that increase is entirely due to population growth or because more people are identifying as Native American racially. The Census Bureau has historically counted the Native American population in varying ways. The agency is making counting Native Americans a priority for the 2020 Census, after an estimated 4.88% of Native Americans living on reservations went undercounted. (Nationally, there was a total overcount of 0.01%.)In addition to the official decennial census conducted at the beginning of each decade, the Census Bureau also conducts the American Community Survey each year to learn more about the American population. Here’s a look at the Census’s history with Native Americans and what the agency’s most recent surveys say about that demographic group today.Who makes up the Native American population?In 2018, there were an estimated 2.8 million people identifying racially as Native American alone and 2.9 million more identifying as multiple races, including Native American.
What is the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program?
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, provides federal grants to states to support low-income women who are pregnant, postpartum, or breastfeeding, as well as infants and children under age 5 who are at nutritional risk. These grants fund state and local WIC agencies to provide participants with food benefits through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, along with nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and referrals to health and social services. WIC is a federal program run by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). It was created in 1972 as a pilot program to provide supplemental foods and nutrition education to low-income women, infants, and young children, and it was made permanent in 1975 in the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. How many people get WIC benefits?In FY 2024, 6.7 million women, infants, and children received WIC benefits. For comparison, 41.7 million people received SNAP benefits in FY 2024, more than six times as many as received WIC. WIC participation has changed over time: It grew steadily from 1975 by around 245,000 participants per year until its peak in 2010 at 9.2 million participants. After 2010, participation declined each year until 2021, but WIC participation increased again in 2022. The USDA attributes the drop in participation to declining unemployment and poverty rates, and falling birth rates. The agency also cites barriers such as eligibility confusion, transportation challenges, and stigma associated with participating in the program for the decline.
How are Americans doing financially?
More than a quarter of US adults say they’re struggling financially: 73% of Americans reported “living comfortably” or “doing okay,” according to October 2024 survey data from the Federal Reserve. Another 27% said they were either “just getting by” (19%) or “finding it difficult to get by” (8%). The share of people who say they’re doing okay or better is two percentage points lower than pre-pandemic levels, and the lowest since 2016.
Which jobs have the highest representation of Asian Americans?
Asian Americans’ contributions to the US workforce are as varied and diverse as the demographic group itself.Asian Americans make up a disproportionate share of high-paying occupations in computer science, math, engineering, health, and business. But they are also highly represented in lower-paying personal care and service work.The Asian Americans demographic is a complex group with people from a range of distinct nationalities and backgrounds. As a result, the occupations of Burmese or Vietnamese Americans, for example, tend to differ drastically from those of Chinese or Indian Americans.Asian Americans are highly represented in several high-paying occupations — but also lower-paying personal care services roles.Asians make up 6.6% of the US workforce. In computer and math occupations, though, they make up 23.3%, or a 16.7 percentage point overrepresentation, the highest of any field. This field includes software developers and computer systems analysts.Asian Americans are also more represented in relatively high-paying architecture, engineering, and life and social science occupations. They’re 36.4% of computer hardware engineers and 43.1% of medical scientists, where median weekly earnings are $2,277 and $1,544. respectively.At the same time, Asian Americans are a disproportionate share of personal care and services workers, including hairdressers, childcare workers, and nail stylists. Asian Americans make up 10.1% of employees in those roles and are 73.1% of manicurists and pedicurists specifically. The median weekly earnings for manicurists and pedicurists in 2022 was $677, 36% below the national average of $1,059.The demographic is least represented in the construction and extraction field, comprising 1.7% of the workforce. This is an underrepresentation of 4.9 percentage points.
W.E.B. Du Bois' hand-drawn charts from 1900 show the story of Black Americans through data
W.E.B. Du Bois was a pioneer in several ways, including being the first Black person to earn a doctorate from Harvard and founding what continues to be a prominent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP.He was also a pioneer in the field of data visualization.For the 1900 Paris Exposition (sometimes also called a world’s fair), Du Bois was the lead organizer of The Exhibit of American Negroes, which examined the status of Black Americans less than four decades after the end of slavery. In addition to displaying photographs related to Black lives, the exhibit also featured two series of data visualizations researched and designed by Du Bois and his students at Atlanta University, which is now Clark Atlanta University. Government sources, including the US Census and the then-Bureau of Labor, figured prominently in the dozens of hand-drawn charts that are now housed at the Library of Congress.The first series, “The Georgia Negro,” focused on the state with the highest population of Black people at the time. “This case is devoted to a series of charts, maps and other devices designed to illustrate the development of the American Negro in a single typical state in the United States,” Du Bois wrote in an accompaniment to the opening visualization of the exhibit: a map illustrating the African slave trade.
Is Congress representative of the American people?
The United States Congress consists of up to 541 individuals elected to represent a population of 335.9 million.The 118th Congress in US history convened on January 3, 2023. Here’s a look at how the demographics of this legislative body compare to those of the people it represents.What is the average age of Congress members?At the start of the 118th Congress, the average senator was 64.0 years old, and the average representative was 57.9. These averages are lower than those of the previous Congress: senators are younger by about four months and representatives by about five. This decrease is due to a relatively young class of new members — the newly elected class of both senators (50.4 years old) and representatives (47.8) were younger at the start of this session than any of the three incoming classes before them.