Just the Facts – US Population: Steve Ballmer Talks Through the Numbers - video Dailymotion

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Watch and get the facts about the US population and how America lives. The more we know, the better voters we can be.

Transcript

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.

Just the Facts – US Population: Steve Ballmer Talks Through the Numbers

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