Today’s headline is the long-awaited result of the 2010 US Census. Much of the establishment media has been obsessed with which states will gain or lose representatives, and indeed that is the Constitutional purpose of the decennial count.

To un-PC environmentalists like me, the important number is the total residents of this country. They are additional users of water and other natural resources, while we have no new sources of water and farmland is being paved over for subdivisions.

The big headline is this: America’s population as of April 1, 2010 was 308,745,538. This represents a 9.7 increase over the 2000 number. California grew by an even 10 percent, to more than 37 million.

The national rate of growth (9.7 percent) has slowed from 1990-2000’s 13.2 percent, but that has to do partially with the large base number, namely the 2000 population of 281,421,906. More important than the rate of growth is the numerical increase of one decade, i.e. 27,323,632. That’s a lot of consumers for resources that are estimated to be sustainable at an American population of 150 million.

More important to the well being of the nation is the growth of income and wealth per American, not the big total of additional residents. Average Americans are falling behind financially because of immigration and outsourcing, so the media doesn’t discuss that topic much.

See various charts of interest: 2010 Census Data.

Also, more details from AP: Census shows slowing U.S. growth, brings GOP gains, USA Today, December 21, 2010