Was in class today (Theories of Inter. Relations) and was wondering how the U.S. pop. is so much larger than Great Britain, France, or Russia, considering as how all three of the countries were established well before the U.S. was. I understand population growth, but how did the U.S. catch up so fast and then exceed other countries and why have the others seem to have stagnated (i.e. Russia)?
Some thoughts I had on it-
-A country's population expands to it's territorial size (but then this doesn't explain Russia)
-Immigration (however, it seems too large of a population difference to be just immigration)
-China lost around 5.6 million people during the Second Sino-Japanese war, yet blossomed into the most heavily populated country
I don't have a specific answer because this honestly isn't my strongest subject but I do have a few counterpoints:
Russia's land is not like the US's. A ton of it is incredibly difficult to live in whereas most of the land in the mainland US is incredibly easy to live on (nice for farming and doesn't get nearly as cold as Russia's). Even with the harsh climate, Russia still has a fairly large population.
Immigration did happen on a large scale from around the world to the US. Other countries received immigrants as well but most didn't receive nearly as many.
5.6 million people mattered far less to China than it did for people in most of the world. They had about 100 million people under the Song Dynasty (nearly one thousand years ago). 5.6 million much closer to modern times is a drop in the bucket for their numbers.
Immigration did make a difference.
Developed nations grow slower than developing nations. While New York and the east coast were developed, everything happening west of the coast was absolutely developing, with homesteaders having huge families. Contrast that to Britain which is small enough to have developed all at once.
Unfair to compare Russia with the US land wise. Russia's land is much less hospitable on average. Additionally, Russia did not follow the same industrialization path as the West. While western Russia in the 19th century tried to mimic western industrialization, much of the county not only was not developed, it was hardly developing. Gatherer-hunters are a huge part of their population even to this day. That's not just a lack of development, that's a lack of civilization.