This article was created by USAFacts with Insider Studios.

Watch and get facts about the American population and how America lives. The more we know, the better our voters will be.

Transcription:

Steve Ballmer:

Hi. My name is Steve Ballmer, I spent 34 years developing Microsoft, 10 years owning the LA Clippers basketball team. I like computers, data and facts. That’s why I started USAFacts to help understand what our government is doing and what’s happening in America. I will share with you the facts and data from our government. You decide.

In this episode of Just the Facts, “America by the Numbers.” But first, a quick warning. As I speak, I round the numbers a lot, but the data you see on screen will be more accurate. Things may have changed since I recorded this in mid-June. I can’t predict the future, but I will read about it when it happens. So now here we go.

The ancient Greek said: “You must know yourself”, so let’s get to know this great country in which we live. The United States of America is a large country. At 3.8 million square miles, one square mile, by the way, is about 484 football fields all crammed together, we have the third largest country in the world in terms of land area. Behind who? Russia, and guess who else? China, Brazil. No, the answer actually lies with our northern neighbors. Canada is the second largest country in terms of land area. On our 3.8 million square miles, we have 4 million miles of roads, 63 national parks and 37% of all land is owned by the government, federal, state and local. According to the United States Census Bureau, there were nearly 337 million people in the United States as of July 2024, or 4% of the world’s population, or just over 8 billion.

Now let’s look at who we are. 22% of our country’s population was aged 17 or younger. 36% were adults aged 18-44, 25% were 45-64, and 18% of us were over 65. And I can say we. And think about it: In 1980, seniors made up 11.3% of our population and today make up 18%. Wow. And people under 18 made up 28% back then, but today that figure has dropped to 22%. This is a huge change in the world of demographics. It amazes me a little.

At the same time, the composition of American households has also changed. Married parent households have gone from 31% of American households in 1980 to just 18% in 2023. Wow, this is so different from my childhood. At the same time, the share of households composed of adults living alone without children increased from 23% to 29%. This is also a big change in the world of demographics. The percentage of married people without children at home has remained relatively stable between 28 and 29%.

Now, single-parent households with children under 18 have also remained stable at around 7.5%. There are now 10 million single-parent family households. Of which 75% are single mothers and 25% are single fathers. However, in 1980, this dynamic was 90% single mothers and 10% single fathers. A fact that will probably ring true for many of you: 58% of men and 55% of women aged 18 to 24 lived in their parents’ home in 2023.

For men, this actually represents an increase of six percentage points since 1960, but the proportion of young women living at home has increased by 20 percentage points. Even more interesting is the 25 to 34 age group where 20% of men live with their parents, compared to 11% in 1960 and 12% of women live with their parents, compared to 7% in 1960. This really interests me . . Most of this growth has occurred since 2008 and people are getting married later in life. The United States Census Bureau found that in 1980, the median age of marriage was 22 for women and almost 25 for men. In 2023, it was 28 years for women and 30 years for men. Another big demographic shift.

Let’s look at six different groups of people based on Census Bureau data. First, let’s look at people who identify as white, but not Hispanic. About 195 million people. Then there are people who identify as white and also identify as Hispanic, more than 56 million people. Black people who identify as non-Hispanic, 42 million people. And then black people who identify as Hispanic, 3.4 million people. Asians, more than 21 million people, and the rest of the population in the United States, almost 16 million.

Here’s a fun fact. To track overall trends in demographic changes between states, we can simply look at the number of members of Congress assigned to each state and how that has changed over time. Currently, each congressional district has about 760,000 people. Since 1980, the biggest gainers or producers, if you will, have been states like Texas, with an increase of 11 members of Congress. The biggest losers in terms of population are states like New York, which lost eight members of Congress. Seems like a lot of people have decided they prefer warm weather and sunshine. Not me, I’ll stay in Seattle.

Now let’s look at education. In 2022, among those 25 or older, 9% had less than a high school diploma. 28% of people had a high school diploma as their highest level of education completed. 15% of people had completed some college but not a degree, 10% had an associate’s degree, 23% had a bachelor’s degree, 14% had actually earned an advanced degree like a master’s degree, professional certification, or doctorate . In 1980, 17% of the population aged 25 or over had completed at least four years of college. In 2022, 38%. This is a big increase from my point of view. Since 1993, 24% of people who identify as white but not Hispanic have completed four or more years of college. By 2022, this figure had increased to 42%.

For blacks it increased from 12% to almost 28%, and for Hispanics, people who identified blacks or whites as Hispanic, it increased from 9% to 21%, and Asians are now at 59%. In 2023, more women than men had a college degree, 39.7 to 36.9 percent, so it’s close. But in 1980, men had a 7.3 percentage point advantage, or 20.9 percent to 13.6 percent. Let’s talk about how our children are doing in school. Between 1990 and 2022, math proficiency increased from 15% to 26% among eighth graders and from 13% to 36% among fourth graders.

I love improvement. I think the scores are overall lower than I expected as a citizen. Reading skills began to be measured in 1992 and barely increased, from just over 29% to 31% for eighth graders and 29% to 33% for fourth graders. All test scores peaked between 2013 and 2017 and have sometimes declined since. For example, fourth grade math skills peaked at 42% in 2013, but are now at 36%. For me, this is the wrong direction. Here is my point of view.

As a nation, the situation we find ourselves in is simply not acceptable, and many factors play into these outcomes, not just what happens in the classroom, but we need to do better. Let’s take a look at what Americans do for a living. First, reference, 161 million Americans work.

In 2022, 20.9 million people worked for our government, 79% worked for state and local governments, and 21% worked for the federal government. I’m sure it won’t surprise you that more Americans are working from home post-pandemic than before the pandemic.

In 2019, 6% of Americans worked from home. In 2022, this figure was 15%. For those who still commute to work, the average commute time is 26 minutes, 3% only use public transportation to get to work, while 69% of people drive alone. In the United States, 92% of households had at least one car in 2022. In fact, 37% had access to two cars and 22% had access to three or more.

Let’s talk technology. By 2023, 96% of American households owned at least one type of computer and 92% had a high-speed Internet subscription. Smartphones were the most common computing device in American homes. Oh, of course. 92% of households have at least one, followed by 80% of households with one or more desktop or laptop computers, and 64% with a tablet. Here’s a fun fact: Americans play. We spent about 98 billion on lottery tickets in 2022. I found this surprising. Residents of Massachusetts spend the most, at $970 per capita, while residents of North Dakota spend the least, at just $37.

How about a quick roundup of other interesting facts about America? One, 16 million veterans in the country. Two, 1.3 million troops on active duty. Three, 67 million people are on Medicare, while there are 75 million people on Medicaid. By 2023, 42 million people were dependent on food stamps. Unfortunately, 38 million people were below the poverty line in 2022. 70 million people benefit from social security. Our life expectancy is about 77.5 years for someone born today, but the average age of death is 73 years. 1.2 million people were in prison in 2022. This does not include people who were generally imprisoned for periods of less than a year.

America has 880 million acres of farmland. It’s the size of Texas times five. In 2022, corn was our main cash crop, followed by soybeans, fruits and nuts. After oil and gas, civil aircraft and their spare parts constitute the country’s main export. Our largest export specifically to China, soybeans. And finally, a word about our democracy. The 2020 presidential election saw the highest turnout of the 21st century, with 66.8% of citizens over the age of 18 voting in the election. It’s great.

As in previous elections, a higher proportion of women than men voted. 68.4% women, 65% men. Voter turnout also increased with age, education level and income. Voter turnout was highest among those aged 65 to 74, at 76%, while the percentage was lowest among those aged 18 to 24, at 51%. It will certainly be interesting to see what those numbers look like this election cycle.

I learned a lot from it. I hope you do too. I hope you agree. The more we know, the better our voters will be. We’re just giving you the facts. You decide what you believe.