A new immigrant - legal or illegal - is expected to enter the United States every 30 seconds by January, the U.S. Census Bureau says. The agency estimates this foreign influx will increase the total U.S. population by one person every 13 seconds. The U.S. also is expected to register one birth every eight seconds and one death every 11 seconds by next month. The Census Bureau is projecting the nation's Jan. 1 total population will be 303,146,284 - a 0.9 percent increase from New Year"s Day 2007. The estimate is similar to recent annual population increases of about 1 percent. "It's about what we expected," said Census Bureau demographer Greg Harper, referring to the Jan. 1, 2008, estimate. "Growth [for 2007] will be a little bit less than in the past, but it's right in line with what we've seen in growth in the past." Immigrants were responsible for more than one-third of an estimated nationwide population growth of almost 2.87 million between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, according to a census report released this week. About 667,000 immigrants moved to Southern and Western states in the 12-month period ending July 1 - almost double the amount who relocated to the Northeast and Midwest, the Census Bureau says. California remained the country's most populous state this year, with 36.6 million residents, followed by Texas with 23.9 million and New York with 19.3 million.
