Just the Facts About the US Population, Geography, and Demographics

[@steven4315]

Student loan debt is the most effective form of birth control ever invented.

[@enhancedutility266]

Right student loans is what a house was in the '90s

[@Karbon_Based_Life_Form]

Very well said, and sad. I guess I will say the following since I am anonymous, but it would be good for college educated married people to procreate more.

[@enhancedutility266]

@Karbon_Based_Life_Form sometimes they do sometimes they don't but college educated couples have less children overall or none at all that's where the whole dink phenomenon is even though they have the required resources to have children if they wanted to

[@swank8508]

then why are birth rates low in scandinavia? debt is NOT the reason people are childless

[@Ryan-wx1bi]

Or you could just not go to college. Woah

[@bonifacejsjacobs6149]

This is a real service to our country, Mr. Balmer. I use them in my classroom and send them on to friends and colleagues. Keep up the good work!

[@riumudamc4686]

the problem is that the government data isn't accurate. For example, there was much more immigration in 2023 than reported in this video.

[@KeepsIReele]

@@riumudamc4686 Where does one find the accurate numbers?

[@martinthemillwright]

@@riumudamc4686prove it.

[@alexbui0609]

@@riumudamc4686there is always someone like you isn’t it. Sometimes people need a ray of fing sunshine so please curb your enthusiasm in the future

[@ImpossibleSolution-k6w]

@@riumudamc4686 so where do you get your facts and statistics then?

[@pauldacus4590]

Congrats to the graphics people on this. So clean, so clear. Just *Bravo!*

[@ChrisVink-b5b]

The Wall Street Journal has done a podcast showing U.S. Treasury debt held by foreign countries. The United Kingdom holds about $700 billion, but maybe that number is off. The U.S. Treasury should tell the American public how much UK debt the federal government or Americans hold. How much debt of the governments of other countries does the American government or Americans hold?

[@TJDuffy-ip3ue]

Wrong. The graphics people failed. Every time they show a map of the U.S., they leave off my state -- Alaska. FAIL.

[@d4mdcykey]

Excellent presentation! This should be the gold standard for graphics. I do wish the background music was a bit lower but beyond that this was impressive, user-friendly, and a joy to follow along with.

[@twistedmetal_]

As a Canadian, I thank you for you and your teams work on this. We need more channels and people like this. The whole world should.

[@briankelly1240]

I really enjoy this visual presentation style, keep it up!

[@andyphillips7435]

Perhaps not with the ‘ jangle Muzak’ background?

[@adamt5986]

I thought I had seen this video a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for enabling comments Steve. Great content. Questions on my mind currently are access to internet and ease of voting, distance to travel etc.

[@TSteel34]

I really enjoy this series of videos. One minor request - whenever possible, if you present a quantity of people in a given category, also provide that data point's percentage of the population, such as at timestamps 13:50 and 18:46 (lightning round). Having percentages of the population really helps identify trends and context vs just absolute numbers. Thanks for all of the work on these. People's attention spans continue to get shorter, so the easily digestible fact-based presentation format is great.

[@mikeerickson287]

I appreciate what you are doing. Very interesting and informative. I don't mind the background music but for the sake of others the volume may need to be lowered (I'm sure you were already considering that). I'm greatly disappointed in the low math and reading scores. I know that this has been an issue for several decades. While it the percentages have gone up we are far behind what other nations are doing. You simply present the facts. How you interpret them is a different story. It's sorta like the saying, "there are statistics, and there are ..." Thank you again for making these facts available to us!

[@martypoll]

You can’t talk about yearly earnings by educational development, high school vs 4-year degree, unless you consider the yearly payment for college debt.

[@briseboy]

There also appears to be a presumption by Ballmer that those not college educated are poorer, when in fact some highly skilled and even tech skilled are numbered among them. Further analysis is necessary to avoid unwarranted conclusions from not only that data gap, but from other excluded material.

[@BageTalks]

It also depends on the type of job. A teacher will make less than an engineer, doctor, or lawyer.

[@tarekmoustafa2126]

The average monthly college debt is estimated to be $502 per month. This means on average a 4-year degree gets you $1500 a month more than a high school. The key word here is the "average". Some do better and some do worse. Not all college degrees are created equal and not all college graduate are the same. If you want to know what is the best option for a college degree, the answer is 2 year at a community college followed by 2-3 years at an In-state college for an engineering degree. which makes more money, the math is hard because you need to choose a time point to measure differences. At 30 years old, trade schools (something not found in most statistics) are your best option. At 40 years, engineers have it the best. At 50+ years, physicians have it the best but becoming a physician is extremely competitive and limited. On the other hand, being a blue collar worker is very taxing on the body at older age.

[@fishingangler4315]

You also have to wait 20-30 years to get the entire career. A 10 year window isn't long enough.

[@krtt5837]

Exactly my thought!

[@902Boots]

I'm Canadian but these are awesome. You're doing a service putting out legitimate, well delivered facts. More people need to start demanding the facts, more now than ever.

[@SladeBling]

Here's the most important statistic in the United States of America: 1990: 10% of American were obese. 2024: 40%-60% are obese..and it gets worse every single day. People now regularly die in their 30's and I've been in grocery stores where I counted 32 out of 33 adults that are either obese or morbidly obese.

[@KiingM]

40 to 60 is such a wide range… that’s over 50 million range. We can’t get a little more specific?

[@SladeBling]

@@KiingMThe official stats are in the low 40's but when I go to the store imy eyeballs tell me it's way higher. I've counted 95% obesity in adults at the store..and by the way 40% does not qualify to be an "obesity epidemic" it's truly an "obesity apocalypse" and the fact that very few people think it's important is disturbing.

[@RobertMJohnson]

@@KiingM that's a pretty good range for 330,000,000 total

[@Aires457]

@@SladeBlingsounds like you live in the south. For where I live it’s more like 2 in 10 adults are obese

[@SladeBling]

@Aires457 the state with the lowest obesity rate is Colorado at 25%, which is still a NIGHTMARE.

[@pva.bcp101]

YOU are an absolute legend Steve! Can't thank you enough for this channel. So refreshing to get black and white facts when the meta is to blur and manipulate. Everyone i recommend this channel to is blown away, please keep'em coming! Go CLIPS !!

[@timothykiggins1601]

Thank you Steve, you are doing a great service for the people!!!!

[@SofaMuncher]

I got four words for you: I. LOVE. THIS. CHANNEL!! YEEEEEEAHHH!!

[@GoGoggansGo]

Great videos keep it going

[@connortraynor2408]

Good video. One thing to note is math proficiency increased because the level of standards decreased (aka that is an extremely misleading statistic to mention.) Non-Department of Education organization investigations have shown that the average middle school student is fairing worse in math and science now than they were before common core.

[@Allen2]

Some people are faring poorly in spelling too.

[@connortraynor2408]

@@Allen2 Okay? Spelling is inconsequential to the point I was making, especially in a youtube comment format. English is also not my native language, and so it is difficult to differentiate the spelling of words that are pronounced the same way.

[@hardheadjarhead]

These are just wonderful presentations.

[@bitesalad]

Hey Steve what a pleasure to meet you again! I just subscribed to your channel ans surely will consume lot of your videos! Hopefully I'll be able to dome something similar for Italy as well. Thanks for always inspiring me throughout my career!

[@alvarokurtemis]

These videos are great but the background music is very disturbing and makes it difficult to follow what Steve is saying.

[@vg7985]

Exactly. Thanks. I couldn’t finish just because background music was so annoying.

[@VM-jc5bl]

Didn’t notice.

[@Nasdaballer]

I like it

[@ChrisBeaman]

Interesting. I like the music. I didn’t even notice it until I read your comment and was 10 mins into the video.

[@kurtcpi5670]

If we take nothing else away from these stats, it's that 36% math proficiency and 31% reading proficiency are unacceptable levels. It's too bad the stats aren't available going back 75 years. But anecdotally, when Mr. Ballmer and I were in public school, I can't remember anyone who couldn't read coming out of first grade. I'm aware that one or two kids were "held back", but I'd put the figure at maybe 1.5%. Having just retired from working at a school district, I can tell you there are many high schoolers who can't read with a basic level of comprehension, if at all (how did they get to high school?). And forget about writing. Many of even the brightest students have a lot of difficulty putting thoughts into written words. And it's a fully systemic language incompetency issue. Spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and basic compositional practices (like using the same words over and over, then/than, to/too/two, there/their/they're, and my favorite, "literally") are all compromised. Whatever we're doing (or not doing), it ain't workin'.

[@scottyoung1489]

Fascinating Information.

[@marlongreen8567]

This is absolutely necessary

[@RK-um9tu]

You mean (un)necessary, correct.

[@mumlee4807]

@@RK-um9tu To gain a little intelligence about America, this video is necessary. To remain in the dark or misinformed, it is unnecessary.

[@generallyhelpfulsoftware646]

Maybe an episode about regulations. I appreciate the neutrality. Thanks Steve.

[@RK-um9tu]

Billionaires don't do anything that is netural...

[@generallyhelpfulsoftware646]

@ neutrality is unnatural for us tribal humans. But we can choose to have the discipline of neutrality and follow pre-existing rules wherever they may lead. Do you not think NFL referees have favorite players that they’d want to succeed? Yet a good and disciplined referee will call pass interference against a player they like if the rule calls for it. In this case, I’m congratulating Mr. Balmer for just presenting the numbers, with occasional, and well defined expressions of personal preference.

[@FuzzySW]

Keep it up. Can you put source references in the description?

[@kmjansen]

This is gold. Thank you Mr. Balmer. Might I suggest chapter markers, though. If ever there was content that would benefit from them, this is it.

[@TSLApilot]

5:25 the 18-24 year old living at home data includes kids in college (including dorms). The increase in young women “living at home” is attributable to the increase in women attending college vs 1960

[@nikilragav]

4:34 feels like we're missing - single but with roommates - couples non married without kids - couples non married with kids

[@Arindrew]

That data isn't collected by the Census Bureau

[@jhgolf25]

That's the OTHER category. There's no need to break it out to that level of detail bc it represents a very small percentage of the population.

[@jubroney]

Interesting one stat he seemed to forget is the wealth distribution in the United States

[@MrNathanShow]

Actually could be a really cool video on its own. Wealth distribution, people's break down(savings, stocks, income), company break down, banking and savings, federal government. Probably some gray areas esp people that hide their wealth.

[@4beerzdeep954]

there is another video on that topic

[@kangaroomax8198]

How about you spend 5 seconds looking at the other videos from this channel?

[@Steven-kl6lh]

Okay...here we go .. Mr negative, the chief critic has arrived...👎👎👎

[@gg80108]

Rich guys have no clue or care about the little guy.

[@rayliu8401]

Did you use Microsoft Office Power point? Nice presentation and contents 👍

[@automaticprojects]

Wow. This is an incredible resource, Steve. One of my co-workers 30-years-ago had been friends with you at Stanford in the 70s. She remembers when you left after one year to go work for Microsoft. Pretty amazing bet back then and very glad to see you still innovating.

[@georgehugh3455]

Ha! Neither Ballmer nor Microsoft did much "innovating." But the presentation of these facts is a useful service.

[@felipeschneider1978]

Defining what the poverty line means is very important. An image of homeless people was displayed when this figure was mentioned. Especially for us, people from other countries, it is informative to understand what "poverty" means in America.

[@st.joanne]

A major number of homeless are addicts unwilling to get clean even though they are offered it.

[@bambiwurscht]

Ahh reposted now with comments! Good move, drives engagement. Much needed for high-quality, non-biased content like this. Let’s like, comment and share.

[@bucnner]

This is a wonderful video!! 👏 Thanks Steve. So important.

[@Casheir]

These videos are awesome. Keep doing it Mr Balmer

[@asmrdesigned]

Thanks Steve- we sorely need this information more today than ever! Please keep up the good work!

[@RK-um9tu]

Try going to any government website...

[@cowmath77]

This is exactly the kind of content I love.

[@Frank-nh9fe]

For many statistics, in addition to the number, including the percentage of the population would help to put the number in perspective.

[@constantine2061]

One of my favorite channels

[@TOPDASHERAMERICA]

If some are trying to figure out where they saw this video. It's typically ran as a ad.

[@christopherprice3226]

Thanks Steve great job on this, and your tenure at MicroSoft.

[@jamesbarry1673]

GREAT SHOW

[@DarenKumar-v7x]

Great information. Subscribed

[@Sam-j6l9x]

Birthrate is inversely proportional to inflation and affordability. It is harder and harder to raise a family as governents over spend and print counterfeit paper.

[@TheCrispOne2025]

By design

[@יהוהיהושוע]

Or people are selfish and don’t want children.

[@jkoslosky1]

Thank you for doing this work and presenting it in a straightforward format.

[@svamandolin3546]

Keep them coming. This is great work.

[@ableone7855]

This is a great channel! Thank you 🎉

[@kestaskuliukas5296]

Good stuff, keep em coming, what the US needs is straight data and facts

[@tonysilva2654]

Steve, this is excellent!. Thank you. I just subscribed.

[@sig_7760]

These videos are great, much appreciated.

[@horus2369]

Could you do what a living wage might look like. Money isn't everything, but being consistently underpaid and overcharged for the basics is going to destroy our economy. Having a basic standard of a living wage might help employers and merchants more clearly understand how much we need to make to afford their goods and service. Thank you

[@gooe9561]

Once I read Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics I had a better understanding of where the greatest contributor to economic hardship comes from. Highly recommend book.

[@jonathanfraga3580]

Awesome video. Thanks for presenting the facts cleanly and clearly, and looking forward to more of these!

[@scottdavis3571]

I love this, thank you! Is there a video on Bureau of Labor Statistics data?

[@jaqueitch]

Great work here, Mr Ballmer. Thanks for your work on this

[@jpoil55]

Very well put together. Good information

[@everythingisfine9988]

This is very informative. Absolutely love it. But would love comparisons between other countries (Edit) How many people are using e-bikes as primary transportation? I see it everywhere now - cheap to charge, good range, quiet and low cost. Maybe it's just my neighborhood, but maybe not

[@VB-zx1yk]

You should read into whats going on in Japan. They will have a crisis soon regarding their population decline. Serious stuff there that seems to be ever so slowly taking place in the US.

[@nickdanger4795]

You need to mention the wages of those government "workers" compared to private industry. Years ago we passed the milestone of the average government worker making more than the average private industry worker. This was barely mentioned in the media. The tail wagging the dog and we're footing the bill. There should be outrage over this and government bloat everywhere.

[@donaldwhittaker7987]

I was a govt contractor in software development work for 20 years. My team and I always had great salaries and the agencies that hired us could have saved a bundle if they had just made us employees. They deliberately kept us on as contractors because congress was lobbied to do hiring that way. They paid federal employees a pittance. I was there. I talked to federal employees. Where they made $60k I got over $115 per year. Federal bloat is not federal workers. It's hiring practices.

[@concernedcitizen6572]

The largest federal employer is defense. Especially if you i clude VA. If yall want to meani gfully cut the budget then start there. But yall wont cuz America is so militaristic.

[@BastienChevalier-Héroux]

How about it's pretty cool that the government is taking good care of their workers and private industries could use some of the practices as exemple to follow in the treatment of their employees? Paid maternity/parental leave for everyone, who want to take care of their toddlers, maybe?

[@georgehugh3455]

@@BastienChevalier-Héroux *"How about" the government workers are over-compensated?* It used to be that the exorbitant government worker benefits (they still get pensions!) _made up for the relatively lower pay for the SAME job/work._ Now they are mainly living off the contributions of the NON-GOVERNMENT workers' taxes...and still providing that DMV / Post Office / VA level of service we all endure and make fun of.

[@PatrickThreewit]

A man after my own heart. As an almost 80-year old, I have love this information all my life since I was in elementary school.

[@jonquindiagan7625]

Thank you for the information.

[@GeorgeGeorge-kt4mx]

Nice job Steve, great summary. Keep up the summary of important statistics.

[@steveg9744]

Super interesting!✅👍🙏🇺🇸

[@JBLadyUnleashed]

Really interesting and educational. Just subscribed. I appreciate seeing how trends have changed over time.

[@gavinmramsey]

These are great! Question: does the "Married No Kids" stat include those that have kids, but they are not currently in the home, or is it truly married with no kids? I guess it could also be married but haven't had kids yet + those that actually didn't have children. Trying to double click as it seemed a large number, even though I'm in the Married no Kids category myself.

[@simmonslucas]

I think a better picture than just inflation adjusted wages would be to have that curve and the cost of homes plotted out next to each other.

[@thomasjgallagher924]

Great job. You should have had the FRED (St Louis Fed) household income numbers from 2023 for this video, I believe. Their calculations on real (inflation adjusted) income shows it's level with the prepandemic peaks.

[@dng88]

I noted the fall in household income from 2019 onwards.

[@edheldude]

Household composition is different too. By itself the number doesn't mean much.

[@gooe9561]

There are fewer earners within each household, resulting in a decline in household income, even though per capita income is rising. Though, unemployment numbers and workforce participation would be a good statistic to include alongside these metrics.

[@Oof-DahReviews-bf4hv]

Thank you for the statistics and well-rounded graphical presentation. I also would like to thank you for the very distinct annunciation of the term "population growth RATE", when you spoke of decline. Because the population is not declining.

[@robertmorgan5467]

Thank you. This is most important data when it comes to us, making decisions about our future as Americans.

[@paulor9577]

Awesome 👏

[@ermin7169]

Very interesting thank you please reduce the background volume,

[@itisabouttime7472]

Interesting and informative. Tge background music is very annoying. Maybe turn down volume a bit or change to something less percussive

[@frenchieblep]

Wonderful update to the original version with added data!

[@SBha30]

Feel much more informed after watching this. Looking forward to the next episode.

[@1Skeptik1]

Well done! Thank you.

[@gomab1978]

amazing work--- now this is content the nation needs

[@jordancodes2943]

Excellent video!

[@chengalur]

In the beginning the background music was too loud and distracting. Thhen it seemed to get somewhat less loud. Very useful content.

[@kf6pfk]

When I look at your graphs, I see that no one speaks the truth politically. It would be so much easier to have a democracy if they did. Thank you for taking the time to do this work. It is so important, especially now.

[@John_Linn]

It's interesting that the number of TEACHERS has increase by over 46% since 1990 while school age kids under 17 has declined AND literacy rates have declined.

[@jorge6207]

Both math and reading proficiency have risen, the latter quite more than the former, yet both gone up, as well as people completing graduate and post graduate degrees. Perhaps teachers should be seen in relation with the "village" which is supposed to raise a child and we may find that the professional aren«t so prone for blame, while smallpox and flat earthers emerge at an alarming rate.

[@jackkisby]

Other factors which would be interesting to look at also include the use of screen time per day for children as opposed to reading, the increase of learning disabilities like dyslexia diagnosed today, and the change of familial structures which could also contribute/affect the literacy rate. Oh, and there is currently litigation I’ve heard about against 3-4 school publishers who incorporated a failed system of reading program into their curriculum and are now being sued by some states for the results coming out.

[@concernedcitizen6572]

John what is your source for your claim that "literacy rates have declined"?

[@lisaerdmann2100]

This is great. Would love data on those that went to trade schools.

[@Crossi90]

What chart isn’t on here is wealth distribution chart. Imagine this guy pointing out that 50% of the population only holds onto ~2.5% of all wealth in the country😂

[@edheldude]

Well that's to be expected if 50% of population is aged 0-35ish.

[@thatsgoodpie]

This guy just made me a fan. This is really important stuff for everyone. Great analysis.

[@closeencountersoftheweirdkind]

Thank you for this edification

[@studiovue]

Thank you for providing this information!

[@ckq]

19:15 i just learned how life expectancy is calculated. Basically it's how long you expect to live if you were born this year then on your 1st birthday you go back in time a year and keep living in 2024 your entire life.

[@markalbert9390]

This is great. Here is one - in voting conversation and in viewing the red/blue congressional maps, the blue areas are the “coastal elites”. But in driving through, say, the tony San Fernando Vally part of LA, I don’t see them. In stopping for gas, I’ve never seen….you, for instance. So these terms and these areas are a lot more demographically complicated. The inner city communities are also here. Could you show the data on that? Thanks.

[@Puzekat2]

I’m glad you made this video about reading and writing because you’re gonna see it drop even more by 2026. You really should check it by state as a nation. It’s not good enough because the schools are controlled by the states so you have to do state-by-state.

[@bobbyb69]

love the graphics. they should teach this stuff in school

[@marciamartins1992]

They do in geography majors....sadly I couldn't make a go of it. I couldn't rely on nepotism.

[@jeffs4444]

Developers! Developers!

[@stevejones8711]

Steve, I really enjoy your channel. Great Stuff!

[@raymondknight2281]

Damn this is good stuff! Thanks Steve!

[@AshiStarshade]

In the academics, Steve said that the level of reading proficiency was unacceptable. That's not just the facts. It's a mainstream view to say we should all be well educated, but that's not just the facts.

[@edheldude]

Yup. Also what's presented and how is a choice too. It's really easy to mislead people with numbers. Or because they have been preprogrammed to believe certain things which are unsaid.

[@James-t6o6e]

Regarding the College vs HS statistics: Failed to take into account the payment/interests as well as the 4-12 years of loss wages for said schooling. So.. does it pay? Hmmm..

[@edheldude]

It doesn't if you do more specific analysis like separate STEM from other degree holders. The curriculum doesn't mostly give valuable skills (outside STEM), and also teaches bad lessons. It serves the institutions mainly, not the person.

[@JohnSmith-zk3kd]

@@edheldude When you separate system degrees, college-educated still earn more. This could be because employers value college degrees, because it shows a level of work ethic since you were able to complete a 4-year degree. If you don't get a degree, your only options are really the military or trade if you want to make good money or building a business, but a business isn't realistic for most.

[@jackgoldman1]

One thing I like about Jews like Mr. Ballmer is they like facts. Facts are critical. Facts are inconvenient for Utopians who like mandates, quotas, subsidies, and IOUs. This is why I love Jews who support facts like Mr. Ballmer.

[@robertodiaz1597]

This is great, thank you Mr. Balmer!

[@John-zh1ud]

The increase in the number of teachers was the most surprising thing to me. Part of that might be the delay between the baby boom and when teachers could be staffed for the population increase. Makes me wonder if slowing in population growth doesn't mean we end up with too many teachers.

[@LaurieAlexander-m4d]

What a blessing he is!! One thing, though--the background music is too LOUD. I miss some words besides being very uncomfortable. Also, his voice is kind of grating. Can something be done to soften it? Otherwise, very grateful for this being a regular podcast.

[@RBDawg]

Love the platform.

[@Suzanne291]

I would like to see a post election breakdown. I think you will find it interesting that the number of voters went right back to normal in 2024. Quite an unusual bump for 2020.

[@enhancedutility266]

The reason for the 2020 bump was that everybody could mail in their ballots and people had enough time to go to the polls so turn out was much higher than it is for 2024

[@Rbrke]

Great material. Keep it up.!