Census figures show that the rate of U.S. population growth has slowed down. Immigration advocates have seized on this fact to claim that we must have more immigration to keep population growing at a higher rate. Otherwise, they claim, our country will be come less wealthy. The Center for Immigration Studies has released a report refuting this viewpoint. The following excerpt summarizes its conclusions:
“To be sure, a larger population almost always results in a larger aggregate economy. More workers, more consumers, and more government spending will make for a larger GDP. But the standard of living in a country is determined by per capita (i.e., per person) GDP, not the overall size of the economy. If all that mattered were the aggregate size of the economy, then a country like India would be considered vastly richer than a country like Sweden because it has a much larger economy. In reality, per capita GDP determines a country’s standard of living.
“One might think that given all the voices calling for more population growth, there must be a large body of research showing that population growth increases per capita GDP. But that is not what the research shows.”
Read more at cis.org