U.S. population up 2.7 million this year

? My, how the country has grown.

The United States will enter 2009 with 305,529,237 residents, the Census Bureau estimated on Monday.

That’s an increase of 2,743,429 this year.

The bureau says that in January, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds.

In addition, international migration is expected to add one person every 36 seconds to the U.S. population in January.