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Population Mark Underscores Change, Diversity

NPR | By Robert Smith

Published October 16, 2006 at 4:00 PM EDT

Closing In: Yailin Melissa Turcios, just 20 minutes old, is in the arms of midwife, Joni McCann, as mother Rosa Turcios talks to relatives on the phone in South Florida Monday.

On Tuesday morning, America's population is predicted to hit 300 million. Who are we?

Increasingly we are: a single mom; a centenarian; an immigrant from Mexico; an Asian business owner; a baby boomer; someone named Jacob or Emily. Decreasingly, we are a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant; a Northeasterner; someone from a large family; someone surrounded by waving wheat and open space.