The population of the US will rise to 438 million in 2050, and the majority of the increase will be due to immigrants and their descendants, according to new projections developed by the Pew Research Center. The projections are published in a report, U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050.

The Department of Homeland Security has released a report estimating the legal permanent resident (”green card” holders) population in the US (PDF).

Living Arrangements of Children: 2004 (PDF) is the latest report in the Household Economic Studies series of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Reports (P70-114). It uses SIPP data to examine the variety of living arrangements of US children.

The over-85 group is the fastest-growing population in the US, and even those with chronic conditions have a good chance at living to 100, according to an NPR story.

See also: Dellara F. Terry, Paola Sebastiani, Stacy L. Andersen, & Thomas T. Perls (2008). Disentangling the Roles of Disability and Morbidity in Survival to Exceptional Old Age. Archives of Internal Medicine, 168(3):277-283. (Available online to the Penn State community)

The number of abortions performed in the US has fallen to the lowest number since 1976, according to statistics from the Guttmacher Institute (Washington Post). A report by Rachel K. Jones of the Guttmacher Institute is scheduled to appear in the March issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, and a news release with a link to the study is available on the Guttmacher Web site.

Tomorrow the Population Reference Bureau will host an online discussion: “Beyond 300 Million: Regional and State Population Trends in the United States”. The discussion, led by Mark Mather, deputy director of Domestic Programs at PRB, will be Wed., Dec. 19, 2007, from 11 a.m. to noon (EST).

To submit questions before or during the discussion, or to see a full transcript after the discussion, go to http://discuss.prb.org. You may submit questions in advance and during the discussion. A full transcript of the questions and answers will be posted after the discussion.

The US prison population continued to grow in 2006, increasing 2.8% over the 2005 population, according to statistics released by the US Department of Justice (New York Times). The statistics are included in the report Prisoners in 2006.

After 14 years of decline, the teen birth rate increased significantly between 2005 and 2006, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (Washington Post).  The statistics are included in a new NCHS report, Births: Preliminary Data for 2006.

Most Hispanic adults born to immigrants in the US report they are fluent in English, but only a small minority of their parents say they speak English well, according to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

The American Community Survey’s Interstate Migration Data: Strategies for Smoothing Irregular Age Patterns by James Raymer & Andrei Rogers (POP2007-08, Population Program, University of Colorado at Boulder)

Emigration and Schooling among Second-Generation Mexican-American Children by Michael S. Rendall & Berna M. Torr (RAND Working Paper WR-529)