A Growing Population
	1900	2000
Population	76 Million	281 Million
Population per sq. mile	25.6	79.6

Questions to Think About

1. During the 20th century, the American population nearly quadrupled in size. What differences do you think that the growth of the population has made?

An Aging Population
	1900	2000
Median Age	23 years	35 years
Life expectancy	49 years	77 years
Over 65	4.1 percent	12.4 percent
Over 75	1 percent	4.4 percent

Questions to Think About

1. During the 20th century the U.S. population grew much older, with much of the increase taking place among those older than 65. What impact has the aging of the population had on American politics and society?

A Shifting Population Distribution Geographical Distribution
	1900	2000
Northeast	27	19
Midwest	35	23
South	32	36
West	6	22
Number of Farms	5.7 million	2 million

Questions to Think About

1. What did the shift in population to the South and the West mean for the distribution of political power in the United States?
2. How could a much smaller number of farms feed a rapidly growing population?

An Increasingly Diverse Population
	1990	2000
White	76.1 percent	75.1 percent
African American	12.1 percent	12.3 percent
Hispanics	9.0 percent	12.5 percent
Asian	2.8 percent	4.2 percent

	1970	1980	1990	2000
Foreign-born	4.7 percent	6.2 percent	7.9 percent	8.8 percent

Questions to Think About

1. During the last decades of the twentieth century, the American population became much more diverse, with a sharp increase in immigration. Which groups have grown most rapidly? How did the increasing diversity of American society influence the country's politics and culture?

Changing Family Arrangements
	1970	2000
Children living with 2 parents	85 percent	69 percent
Children living with 1 parent	12 percent	27 percent
Living Alone	17.1 percent	25.8 percent
Median age at 1st marriage	23.2 (men)	26.8 (men)
	20.8 (women)	25.1 (women)

Questions to Think About

1. What factors contributed to changes in family arrangements?

Educational Attainment Increased
	1900	2000
High school graduate	6.4 percent	80.4 percent

Questions to Think About

1. By 2000, 15.5 percent of American adults had received a bachelor's degree and 8.9 percent had received a graduate or professional degree. Why did the length of education increase during the 20th century? How did this alter the lives of the young?

Increasing Affluence
	1900	2000
Average Weekly Earnings	$9.70	$435
Home ownership	46 percent (for whites only)	66.2 percent
Automobiles	13,824	131,839,000

• In 1900, 1 in 7 homes had a bathtub; by 2000, only about 0.6 percent of American homes lacked complete plumbing
• In 1900, 1 in 13 homes had a telephone; in 2000, 98 percent of American households had telephone service

Questions to Think About

1. What factors contributed to the increase in home ownership, improvements in the quality of housing, and in the number of automobiles?