Watch and get the facts about the US population and how America lives. The more we know, the better voters we can be.
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00:00Hi, I'm Steve Ballmer.
00:02I spent 34 years growing Microsoft,
00:0510 years owning the LA Clippers basketball team.
00:08I love computers, data, and facts.
00:11That's why I started USA Facts,
00:13to help understand what our government is up to,
00:17and what's going on in America.
00:19I'll share with you the facts and data,
00:22all from our government,
00:24you make up your own mind.
00:25In this episode of Just the Facts,
00:28America by the numbers.
00:31But first, a quick disclaimer.
00:33As I talk, I do a lot of rounding of numbers,
00:37but the data you see on screen will be more exact.
00:40Things might've changed since I recorded this in mid-June.
00:44I can't predict the future,
00:46but I'll be reading about it when it happens.
00:49So now, let's roll.
00:52Ancient Greeks said, you must know thyself.
00:55So let's get to know this great country we call home.
01:00The United States of America is a vast country.
01:03At 3.8 million square miles,
01:06a square mile, by the way,
01:07is about 484 football fields all crammed together.
01:12We have the third largest country by area in the world.
01:16Behind whom?
01:18Russia.
01:19And guess who else?
01:20China.
01:22Brazil.
01:23No, the answer is actually our neighbors up north.
01:27Canada is the second largest country by area.
01:30Across our 3.8 million square miles,
01:33we have 4 million miles of roads, 63 national parks,
01:40and 37% of all land is owned by the government,
01:45federal, state, local.
01:47According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
01:49there were nearly 337 million people in the U.S.
01:53as of July 2024, which is 4% of the world's population,
01:59which is just over 8 billion.
02:03Now let's take a look at who we are.
02:0522% of our country's population was 17 years old or younger.
02:1136% were adults aged 18 to 44.
02:1625% were 45 to 64 years old.
02:21And 18% of us were over 65.
02:24And I can say us.
02:26And just think, in 1980,
02:29seniors were 11.3% of our population,
02:34and now account for 18%.
02:37Wow.
02:38And people under 18 were 28% back then,
02:43but now it's down to 22%.
02:45That's a huge change in the world of demographics.
02:50Kind of blows my mind.
02:52Meanwhile, the composition of U.S. households
02:55has also shifted.
02:57Married parent households have fallen
03:00from 31% of U.S. households in 1980
03:04to just 18% in 2023.
03:08Wow.
03:09That is so different than from my childhood.
03:13At the same time,
03:15the share of households comprised of adults living alone
03:19without children increased from 23% to 29%.
03:25That's also a big change in the world of demographics.
03:29The percentage of married people with no kids at home
03:33has stayed relatively stable between 28 and 29%.
03:38Now, single-parent households with kids under 18
03:44have also remained stable around 7.5%.
03:48There are now 10 million single-parent family households,
03:5175% of which are single mothers,
03:54and 25% are single fathers.
03:57However, in 1980, that dynamic was 90% single mothers
04:02and 10% single fathers.
04:05One fact that will likely ring true to many of you,
04:0858% of men and 55% of women aged 18 to 24
04:15lived in their parents' home in 2023.
04:20For men, that's actually a six percentage point increase
04:24since 1960, but the share of young women living at home
04:29is up 20 percentage points.
04:32Even more interesting is the 25 to 34-year-old age group,
04:36where 20% of men live with their parents
04:40up from 11% in 1960,
04:43and 12% of women live with their parents
04:47up from 7% in 1960.
04:50That's really interesting to me.
04:52Most of this growth has happened since 2008,
04:56and people are getting married later in life.
04:58The U.S. Census Bureau found that the median age
05:02for marriage in 1980 was 22 for women
05:06and close to 25 for men.
05:08In 2023, it was 28 years old for women
05:13and 30 years old for men, another big demographic shift.
05:18Let's look at six different groups of people
05:21based upon Census Bureau data.
05:24First, let's look at people who identify as white
05:29but not Hispanic, about 195 million people.
05:34Then there are people who identify as white
05:37who also identify as Hispanic.
05:40That's over 56 million people.
05:43Black people who identify as non-Hispanic, 42 million people,
05:49and then black people who identify as Hispanic,
05:533.4 million people, Asians, 21 million people plus,
05:59and all other people in the U.S., close to 16 million.
06:04Here's a fun fact.
06:05To follow the overall trends of population changes
06:08between states, we can actually just look
06:11at the number of congresspeople assigned to each state
06:15and how that has changed over time.
06:17Currently, every congressional district
06:20includes approximately 760,000 people.
06:24Since 1980, the biggest winners or growers, if you will,
06:29have been states like Texas.
06:30With an increase of 11 members of Congress,
06:34the biggest losers relatively in population
06:37are states like New York, who lost eight congresspeople.
06:42Looks like a lot of people have decided
06:44they prefer warm weather and sunshine.
06:47Not me, I'll stick with Seattle.
06:51Now let's take a look at education.
06:53In 2022, among those 25 or older,
06:579% had less than a high school diploma equivalent.
07:0228% of people had high school graduate
07:06as their highest level of school completed.
07:0915% of people had completed some college, but not a degree.
07:1410% had an associate degree.
07:1712% had a bachelor's degree.
07:2114% had actually completed an advanced degree,
07:24such as a master's, a professional certification,
07:27or a doctoral degree.
07:29In 1980, 17% of the population 25 years or older
07:34had completed at least four years of college.
07:37In 2022, 38%.
07:40That's a big increase from my perspective.
07:44Since 1993, 24% of people who identify as white,
07:49but not Hispanic, had four years of college or more.
07:54By 2022, that rose to 42%.
07:59For blacks, it went from 12% to nearly 28%.
08:05And for Hispanics, people identified black or white
08:08as Hispanics, it went from 9% to 21%.
08:12And Asians are now at 59%.
08:16In 2023, more women had a college degree than men,
08:2139.7 to 36.9%, so it's close.
08:26But in 1980, men had a 7.3 percentage point advantage,
08:3220.9% compared to 13.6%.
08:37Let's talk about how our kids are doing in school.
08:40Between 1990 and 2022, math proficiency increased
08:46from 15% to 26% among eighth graders,
08:50and from 13% to 36% among fourth graders.
08:56I love the improvement.
08:59I think the scores are overall lower
09:02than at least I would hope for as a citizen.
09:05Reading proficiency began being measured in 1992,
09:10and has barely increased at all,
09:12from just over 29% to 31% for eighth graders,
09:17and 29% to 33% among fourth graders.
09:23All test scores peaked between 2013 and 2017,
09:28and have declined some since.
09:31For example, fourth grade math proficiency peaked
09:34at 42% in 2013, but now we see it at 36%.
09:40To me, that's the wrong direction.
09:43Here's my view.
09:45As a nation, it just isn't acceptable where we are,
09:49and there are a lot of factors that go into these scores,
09:53not just what goes on in the classroom,
09:56but we need to do better.
09:59Let's take a bit of a look at what Americans do
10:01for a living.
10:02First of all, reference.
10:04161 million Americans are working.
10:08In 2022, there were 20.9 million people
10:12working for our government.
10:1379% worked for state and local government,
10:17and 21% worked for the federal government.
10:21I'm sure it won't surprise you that more Americans
10:24are working from home post-pandemic than pre-pandemic.
10:28In 2019, 6% of Americans worked from home.
10:33In 2022, that number was 15%.
10:37For those who still commute to work,
10:40the average commute time is 26 minutes.
10:433% only take public transportation to work,
10:47while 69% of people drove alone.
10:5192% of households in the U.S.
10:53had at least one car available to them in 2022.
10:57Actually, 37% had access to two cars,
11:02and 22% had access to three or more.
11:06Let's talk about technology.
11:08In 2023, 96% of U.S. households
11:11had at least one type of computer,
11:14and 92% had a broadband internet subscription.
11:18Smartphones were the most common computing device
11:21in U.S. households.
11:22Uh, of course.
11:2492% of households have at least one,
11:28followed by 80% of households who have one
11:31or more desktop or laptop computers,
11:34and 64% with tablet.
11:37Here's a fun fact.
11:38Americans gamble.
11:40We spent approximately 98 billion
11:43on lottery tickets in 2022.
11:46I found this surprising.
11:47Massachusetts residents spend the most
11:50at $970 per capita,
11:54while North Dakota residents spent the least, just $37.
12:00How about a little lightning round
12:02of other interesting facts about America?
12:05One, 16 million veterans in the country.
12:08Two, 1.3 million active duty soldiers.
12:12Three, 67 million people on Medicare,
12:16while there's 75 million people on Medicaid.
12:1942 million people relied on food stamps as of 2023.
12:2438 million people, unfortunately,
12:26were below the poverty line in 2022.
12:3070 million people received Social Security.
12:33Our life expectancy is about 77.5 years
12:37for someone born today,
12:39but the average age of death is 73 years.
12:441.2 million people were in prison in 2022.
12:48That doesn't include people who were in jail,
12:51typically for periods under a year.
12:54America has 880 million acres of farmland.
12:58That's the size of Texas times five.
13:02In 2022, corn was our number one cash crop,
13:07followed by soybeans, fruits, and nuts.
13:11After oil and gas, civilian aircrafts and parts
13:14are the country's biggest export.
13:16Our biggest export specifically to China?
13:19Soybeans.
13:21And finally, a word on our democracy.
13:24The 2020 presidential election
13:27had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century,
13:31with 66.8% of citizens over 18 voting in the election.
13:37That's great.
13:39As with past elections, a higher share of women
13:42than men turned out to vote.
13:4468.4% of women, 65% of men.
13:49Voter turnout also increased as age,
13:52educational attainment, and income increased.
13:56Voter turnout was highest among those ages 65 to 74 at 76%,
14:03while the percentage was lowest
14:06among those aged 18 to 24 at 51%.
14:11It's sure gonna be interesting to see
14:13what those numbers look like this election cycle.
14:16I've learned a lot from this.
14:18I hope you have too.
14:20I hope you agree.
14:22The more we know, the better voters we can be.
14:27We give you just the facts.
14:29You decide what you believe.