US population continues to grow

If current trends and policy continue, the Social Security Trust fund will be exhausted in the early 2030s and payments will drop by about 22%. If Trump has his way and income taxes are lifted on SS payments, payments are projected to drop by about 30%. And if Trump’s dream of deporting 10 million undocumented immigrants comes true, it will be even worse, since undocumented workers subsidize the SS system with fake SS numbers. 

One way to delay the end of the Trust Fund and mitigate some of the reduction in benefits is to grow the population of workers in the US.

The US population grew nearly 1% between 2023 and 2024. 

“As the nation’s population surpasses 340 million, this is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001 — a notable increase from the record low growth rate of 0.2% in 2021. The growth was primarily driven by rising net international migration.

“Net international migration, which refers to any change of residence across U.S. borders (the 50 states and the District of Columbia), was the critical demographic component of change driving growth in the resident population. With a net increase of 2.8 million people, it accounted for 84% of the nation’s 3.3 million increase in population between 2023 and 2024. This reflects a continued trend of rising international migration, with a net increase of 1.7 million in 2022 and 2.3 million in 2023.”

This is potentially good news for Social Security, as more workers means more funds flowing into the program. Of course, increased unemployment due to a Trump recession driven by tariff wars and mass deportations could cancel that out.

 

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/population-estimates-international-migration.html

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