美国人口状况的发展变化及其影响

The Demographic Changes in the United States and their Impact

美国是世界发达国家中唯一人口数量仍在以较快速度增长的国家,这使美国得以在较长的时期内保持生产和消费较快增长的势头,使美国国力的数量方面呈现持续发展和上升的趋势。但在美国人口数量较快增长的同时,美国人口结构也在发生根本性的变化。作为人口增长主力的大量拉美移民及后代的受教育程度较低,英语水平较低,使美国人口的总体质量呈现下降的长期趋势。人口质量和素质的下降,势必影响到美国产品和服务在全球的竞争力,从根本上导致美国的实力、国际地位和影响力在21世纪上半期及以后呈下降的趋势。

The United States is the only developed country in the world whose population witnesses a relatively high growth rate.This makes it possible for the United States to maintain the trend of a fairly rapid growth in production and consumption in a comparatively long period of time.However,the large number of Latino immigrants and their descendants,who are the mainstay of population growth,have a lower level of education and a poorer level of English,thus forming a long-term trend of degradation of overall population quality.The degradation will inevitably affect the global competitiveness of American products and services,thus leading to the downward trend of American national strength,international position and influence in the first half of the 21st century and even beyond.