A major demographic trend.

The Hispanic population growth is a major demographic trend. In 17 states, Hispanic and Latino Americans form the largest minority. Between 2000 and 2007 Hispanic population increased 27%, while non-Hispanic – just 3,6%.

It is estimated that very soon Hispanics (a term including all Spanish-speaking Americans, such as Mexican-Americans or "Chicanos", Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc.) will be the largest "minority" in the United States. In a number of cities Hispanics will represent the majority of citizens.

In Texas about one in every five Americans (21%) is "of Spanish origin" and in New Mexico more than one in three (36.6%).

However, in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., Hispanic Americans, for instance, represent only 6.4% of the national population, while blacks form a majority, with around 70% of the population.

The American Indian population in the United States increased about 70% from 1970.

A highly mobile society

Where Americans live and where they are moving also reveals how America has changed and is changing.

From America’s very beginnings as a nation, its borders - "the population center of gravity" or “the frontier” have been moving westwards. In bad times and good, Americans tend to move easily from one part of the country to another. They seem to settle in and feel quickly at home wherever they go.

America still is a highly mobile society. Between 1975 and 1980, for example, 45% of the nation's families changed their residence. There is no doubt that the balance of population has shifted away from the North and East to the South and West.

Among the "top ten" cities, seven are in the South and West of the US, namely Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, San Jose, Phoenix, and San Antonio. Their increases in population range from 10% (Los Angeles) to 46% (Phoenix). With the three northern and eastern cities (New York, Chicago and Philadelphia), the opposite is true: each of them has lost in population, between 9 and 28% of its 1970 total.

Another development that has continued since the founding of the United States is the gradual but definite movement from rural to urban areas, from farms and small towns to the cities and the suburbs. In 1880, about three quarters of all Americans still lived in rural areas. A century later, almost three quarters lived in or around urban areas. Now about 80% of all Americans live in urban (including suburban) areas. These urban areas are, of course, not only huge cities or metropolitan areas with millions of people, but places with 100,000 or fewer inhabitants.

In the past ten years or so, there has also been a noticeable movement out of the central cities to the suburbs. In 1980, in fact, it was estimated that over 40 percent of all Americans lived in suburban areas. In many of these cities (Boston is a well-known example), downtown areas are being renovated, made attractive, and are thus regaining middle-class inhabitants.

There is also a notable trend toward so-called "urban villages /model suburbs." These areas are often found outside the central cities, among the suburbs. Suburbanization, , inner cities.

1947 - Lewittowns (Abraham Levit)

They act as small city centers, with businesses grouped around a large shopping mall, and usually include offices, entertainment facilities, public services, parks, and health-care centers as well. In some ways, these "mini-cities" represent a change in direction: businesses are now going to where their customers and employees would rather live.

Over 70% of all American households (some 84 million) in 1982 were "families". Households with only one or two members increased from 46 to 55% of all households between 1970 and 1982, while households with five or more members dropped from 21 to 12 percent.

Today's Americans marry later, have fewer children, and divorce more readily. However, almost three-fourths of those divorced later remarry. More Americans are also raising children alone.

Between 1960 and 1983, the number of "single-parent" households increased by 175 percent, one-person households by 173 percent, and households composed of unmarried couples by 331 percent.

The most striking change contained in these figures is the increase in families with a female head and no husband present. The number of unwed mothers, too, jumped from half a million in 1970 to almost 3 million in 1982.

These changes have caused concern among many Americans. Some feel that traditional values are eroding and that the center of American life, the nuclear family, is in danger. Others, however, believe that such developments reflect liberalization in American life.

For example, they point out that changes in divorce laws in many states have made it easier to be divorced. They also claim that the once strong social taboos against unmarried couples living together, or against "illegitimate" children, have broken down and are things of the past.

There are several other significant forces which are transforming American society today. For example, the "baby boom" generation (the some 27 million Americans born between about 1946 and 1964) is becoming aged. For the first time in American history, there are now more people who are 65 and over than teenagers. By the year 2030, one in five Americans will be over 65, compared with slightly more than one in eight today.

Other basic information is concerned with economic factors.

Approximately 100 years ago, the United States overtook Great Britain to become the richest nation in the world. Since then, whether measured by average income or by gross national product (GNP), the US has remained among the wealthiest nations.

The American people are a very prosperous nation. Nonetheless, Americans are very concerned with that the percentage of their countrymen who fall below what they consider "a decent standard of living" is rather substantial. This is not starvation: it is being poor in relation to the rest of the nation.

Among the areas with many people below the poverty level is Appalachia, that mountain region which includes parts of such states as West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Thousands of people there need better housing, medical treatment, and other services. Much poverty also exists among minority groups. The average incomes of American Indians, blacks and Hispanics continue, as a whole, to be lower than those of whites.