ABSTRACT
As of April 1, 1963, the population of the United States was estimated at 188,643,000 people-a far cry from the 3,929,000 population reported in the first census, taken in 1790. This represents an increase of 4,700 per cent in the population in 173 years. An electric population chart on display in the main lobby of the Department of Commerce in the nation's capital shows what this means in terms of population growth. In the United States the idea of population has had all of the dynamic implications of its verb to populate–the process of peopling a new country. Fertility is, and has been, the crux of American population growth. In the dangerous period of early settlement, high birth rates compensated for the high death rates of a newly settled country. America is still seeking, in its over-all population policy, the stabilization of agricultural production at a level high enough to retain a stable proportion of the people on the land.
