U.S. Population Tops 300 Million

Published October 17, 2006 at 6:00 AM EDT

Census employees have their photo taken in front of the U.S. population clock showing 300 million on Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C.

The United States population officially reaches 300 million. According to government calculations, America reached the milestone at 7:46 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

The U.S. is only the third country in the world to reach 300 million people.

Steve Inskeep talks to Carl Haub, a senior demographer at the Population Reference Bureau, about the new number and where it comes from.