Working with long historical series we have stressed per capita measures, as US population growth has fallen from percent per annum in the late 1800s to less than one percent in more recent times. Put differently, in the early 1900s a year with 2 percent real GDP growth left the average person’s income unchanged; in the modern context, 2 percent annual GDP growth means slightly more than one percent increase in real income per person. Population growth changes over time are even more pronounced in other countries. The impact of cumulative population growth even within an individual crisis.
