The US population is about 343 million, and growth has slowed sharply

The United States had 342,993,418 residents on November 3, 2026, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's population clock. That is about 715,000 more people than on January 1, when the clock showed 342,278,051, and it keeps the country third in the world in population behind India and China.

The clock is a projection, not a count. It starts from the 2020 census and moves forward using the bureau's latest annual estimates of births, deaths, and migration. Right now it adds one birth every 9 seconds, one death every 10 seconds, and one net international migrant every 97 seconds, for a net gain of one person every 44 seconds. At that pace, the country would add roughly 717,000 people a year. That is much slower growth than the country saw recently. The bureau's most recent official estimate put the population at 341,784,857 on July 1, 2025, up 1,781,060, or 0.5 percent, from a year earlier. In the year before that, the population grew by 3,248,745.

Almost all of the slowdown came from immigration. Net international migration, the number of people moving into the country minus those leaving, fell from 2,734,468 in the year ending July 1, 2024, to 1,262,202 in the year ending July 1, 2025. Natural increase, births minus deaths, barely changed. The country recorded about 3.62 million births and 3.10 million deaths in the 2025 estimate year, a gap of 518,858.

Births have stayed near 3.6 million a year since 2021, and deaths have held near 3.1 million since 2023, so natural increase adds only about half a million people a year. When immigration drops, there is not much else pushing the total up.

The four largest states hold more than a third of the population. California had 39,355,309 residents in 2025, Texas 31,709,821, Florida 23,462,518, and New York 20,002,427. Together that is about 114.5 million people, 33.5 percent of the country.

The clock's figure for July 1, 2026, is 342,620,143, which the bureau uses to compare countries. The official estimate for that date will come in December, when the bureau releases its Vintage 2026 estimates and resets the clock to match them. If the new estimates show different migration than the clock assumes, the 2026 numbers will change.

For the long view, see our look at U.S. population since 1900. The Census Bureau's projections for the decades ahead are covered in what the U.S. population will be in 2050, and the latest numbers for the country as a whole are on our United States page.

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. and World Population Clock, accessed November 4, 2026, including the clock's values for January 1, July 1, and November 3, 2026. U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 national and state population estimates and components of change. The yearly pace is the clock's net gain of one person every 44 seconds multiplied over a 365-day year.