Kicking off the 2021-22 school year with a new round of Questions of the Day. Every Monday through Thursday, you will see both new and updated questions posted on the NGPF Blog (sign up here). These engaging and thought provoking questions are sure to get your class off to a great start. 

Answer: 

Questions: 

• Overall, the U.S. population grew 7.4% to 331 million people in the last decade. Visit this U.S. Census interactive to see how the growth in your state and county compares to the national growth rate. 
• What do you think are the factors that lead some states and counties to grow at faster rates than other states? 
• Do you think population growth impacts economic opportunity? How?

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (from US Census interactive AND Press Release)

Today’s release reveals changes in the size and distribution of the population across the United States. The population of U.S. metro areas grew by 9% from 2010 to 2020, resulting in 86% of the population living in U.S. metro areas in 2020, compared to 85% in 2010.

“Many counties within metro areas saw growth, especially those in the south and west. However, as we’ve been seeing in our annual population estimates, our nation is growing slower than it used to,” said Marc Perry, a senior demographer at the Census Bureau. “This decline is evident at the local level where around 52% of the counties in the United States saw their 2020 Census populations decrease from their 2010 Census populations.”

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Looking for more questions? We have 500+ in the Question of the Day Library. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.