A half-century from now, Americans will be a more varied lot, with more minorities and elderly in a population growing more slowly than at any time since the Great Depression.

Today's 264 million people will grow to 400 million by 2050, the Census Bureau reports in a new study released Wednesday.But the current annual growth rate of 0.88 percent will fall to just 0.63 percent, the slowest rate since the troubled times of the 1930s, the bureau forecast.

"The projected fall of the rate of natural increase is predominantly due to aging of the population and, consequently, a regular increase in the crude death rate," the report says. It assumes immigration will be unchanged.

The nation's median age of 34.1 in 1995 was a record high. But it is expected to climb to 35.7 by 2000 and 38.7 by 2035, according to the report "Population Projections of the United States." Half the people are older than the median age and half are younger.

The study reports that the nation's white population has a slower growth rate than other groups and thus is expected to decline as a share of Americans.

Currently 83 percent of Americans are white, 12.6 percent black, 3.6 percent Asian and 0.9 percent American Indian. By 2050 this is expected to shift to 74.8 percent white, 15.4 percent black, 8.7 percent Asian and 1.1 percent American Indian.

Hispanics, who can be of any race, are expected to grow from 10.2 percent to 24.5 percent of the population in that time.

According to figures in the report, Latinos and Asians will account for more than half the growth in the U.S. population each year for the next 50 years.

The report, latest in an annual series, chronicles the continued aging of the population as the massive post-World War II baby boom generation nears 50, leaving a smaller generation of young people in its wake.

With the baby boomers aging and fewer people in the prime childbearing years, the country's growth rate will slow, it says.

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As the next century progresses, baby boomers will be retiring in growing numbers, increasing what is known as the dependency ratio - the number of people under age 18 and over 65 compared with the number in the working ages.

In 1995 there were 63.7 people in the dependent ages for every 100 of working ages. This is projected to increase to 68.2 in 2020 and 79.9 by 2050.

However, the report adds, "at no time would the dependency ratio be as high as that which existed in the 1960s because of the large number of children" from the baby boom. In 1960 the ratio was 82.2.

But the elderly dependency ratio, at an all-time high of 20.9 in 1995, will grow to 35.7 by 2030.

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