Census report: US growth will slow as population ages

New projections by a Census Bureau researcher show the United States will add 79 million people in the next 40 years, but growth will slow as the U.S population gets older.

Projections presented Thursday at a Southern Demographic Association meeting in New Orleans show the U.S. is expected to cross the 400 million-person threshold in 2058.

The U.S. has about 326 million people today.

Population growth is expected to slow down in the next four decades, going from about an additional 2.3 million per year currently to about an additional 1.6 million people a year by 2060.

Growth comes from immigration and when births outpace deaths, but that natural increase will decline. By 2034, the number of people over 65 will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.