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July 7 to 13
World Population
July 11 was World Population Day, an annual event since 1990 when world population issues take center stage. The Census Bureau’s world population clock this year shows 8.1 billion people, with 60% of them living in Asia. More than one third of world population is located in the two nations of India and China.
The United States population estimated by the bureau for July 11, 2025, is 342,092,585. U.S. population estimates show the country gained more than 10 million individuals in the five years since July 11, 2020.
The U.S. is a distant third in world population by nations, with a total number of people less than one-quarter that of India or China. The nearest non-Asian country in the population hierarchy is number seven Brazil at 221 million.
The Northeast has the smallest segment of the country’s total population with 17%, and the South, the largest, at 38%. The three most populous states remain California, Texas and Florida in that order, with the most densely populated state still New Jersey, which manages an overall population density of 1,292 every square mile.
Cape May County by comparison is projected at 389 individuals per each of its 251 square miles of territory. When the summer population hits 800,000, as county tourism officials tell us it does, the county surpasses that state density average with a summer time peak of 3,187 people per square mile.
It took a long while to get to 8 billion people.
World population was first estimated at 1 billion people at the start of the nineteenth century, when Napoleon’s armies strode across Europe and the general declared himself emperor.
It is said to have hit 3 billion in 1960, when John Kennedy was elected president and later public perception linked the Kennedy White House with Camelot and King Arthur’s court.
It is estimated to have hit 6 billion just 40 years later, in 1999, as HBO debuted a groundbreaking TV show called “The Sopranos” starring James Gandolfini as the mobster whose exploits millions tuned in to watch. It was also the year Vladimir Putin became acting president of Russia.
The world went from 6 billion to 8 billion less than 25 years later, in 2023.
The world population is projected to hit 9 billion in 2038, 10 billion in 2057, and to peak at 10.9 billion in 2098 before starting to decline due to falling fertility rates.
Field of B.A.s
The Census Bureau again made a splash this week with the July 9 release of a new report that shows the demographic, social and geographic characteristics of bachelor’s degree holders by field of study. This report breaks out the 30 most common individual fields of degree and aggregates all others. It deals with Americans ages 25 and older who have bachelor’s degrees, linking the field of the degree to an array of demographic, social, geographic and economic data.
According to the report, 37% of all adults had a bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2022. Those 25 and older with a degree number just shy of 82 million individuals.
The five most common fields of degree were business management and administration (4.8 million), psychology (3.7 million), general business (3.7 million), nursing (3.6 million) and general education (3.1 million).
The fields of engineering, economics and computer science were populated mostly by men. Women disproportionately were in fields like psychology, nursing, social work and education. Fields of study percentages also varied noticeably by states and metropolitan areas.
The field of degree with the highest median annual earnings was electrical engineering ($121,600) and the lowest was family and consumer sciences ($52,850). Roughly 40% of bachelor’s degree holders in 2022 went on to earn a graduate or professional degree.
The number of individuals with advanced degrees varied by field of bachelor’s degree. Those in sciences like chemistry or biology had high rates of advanced degree attainment. Those in fields like commercial art and graphic design had considerably lower rates.
Fields also varied in the return on investment in earnings for those who pursued advanced degrees. Median earnings for a bachelor’s degree only in biology ($60,390) were very different from those who pursued an advanced degree ($102,800).
By contrast the returns were not as great in fields like marketing, where a first degree holder ($73,440) earned 82% of the median earnings of an advanced degree holder ($88,750).
Women earned 71% to 91% less than men in the same field of degree. Median annual earnings in the same field also varied by race and Hispanic origin. Same-field earning were also impacted by geography.
Economic returns on any degree also varied by state. In New Jersey the median earnings of those with bachelor’s degrees in each of the broad field categories like science, business, education and humanities outpaced the median earnings of those with degrees in the fields nationally.
Grid Misalignment
There is a misalignment in grid interconnection and transmission planning, according to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Judy Chang. Chang delivered her remarks at a meeting held in Vermont by a transmission-focused trade group.
FERC was created in the aftermath of the 1970s oil crisis. Independent but also part of the Energy Department, FERC regulates the interstate transmission and wholesale market of electricity and natural gas. It is headed by five commissioners, of which Chang is one.
Chang noted in her remarks that surging demand for electricity has led regional transmission organizations like PJM Interconnection, Midcontinent Independent System Operator and the Southwest Power Pool to propose a one-time process to fast-track interconnection of planned generating projects. The goal is to deal with what everyone agrees is a national priority, getting energy generation online as quickly as possible.
She pointed to a variety of factors that are coming to a head at the same time, causing unprecedented problems with the supply of needed power. “We should plan, design and permit – all faster,” Chang said to her Vermont audience.
She spoke not only about generation capacity, but also of building the transmission infrastructure to handle it. She noted the financial investment needs of transmission developers. The question is not whether it will carry significant costs. The issue is who will pay and how, especially given the amount of consumer backlash already present.
Chang said she is not a fan of regulators mandating what utilities should do. What she knows is that the country needs more transmission and generating capacity. Adding to the problem is the fact that current political vulnerabilities with energy prices is leading some states, New Jersey among them, to consider withdrawing from regional transmission organizations like PJM.
If states start acting independently things could get messier than they already are. There are complex problems that need solutions without individuals seeking political advantage and without utilities seeking a pathway to greater profits.
“I worry about how much states might be willing to compromise the open access and competitive access to transmission and competitive markets by pulling back and finding interim solutions, or by complaining about competitive markets not meeting the challenge of the day,” Chang said.
What is at stake is the smooth functioning of our energy creation and delivery systems.
Week in Review
*VFW Post 3509, which was located at the corner of Pacific and Spicer avenues in Wildwood, was recently demolished to make room for condominiums.
*West Wildwood borough commissioners have approved a shared-services agreement with North Wildwood for temporary police services.
*A legal opinion sought by the county counsel says that Commissioner Will Morey has a conflict of interest that disqualifies him from voting when it comes to the issue of the future of the Cape May Airport.
*The Cape May County Zoo has welcomed a new addition to its Grant’s zebras herd – a female foal born June 12.
*Seven of the 13 law enforcement agencies in Cape May County reported at least one case of major disciplining of officers in 2024. A total of 15 officers faced discipline, according to the state Office of the Attorney General.
*The county commissioners have approved a lease agreement with a company planning to build a domed sports complex at Cape May Airport – an agreement recognizing the county as the new landlord.
*A 17-year-old boy was arrested and charged with firing a 9mm handgun on the boardwalk in Wildwood early Saturday morning, July 5, police said. There were no injuries.
*The county commissioners have awarded a contract for air-side services at Cape May Airport, to take effect when the current arrangement with the Delaware River and Bay Authority ends.
*In mid-2024, Jim Craft retired as Avalon’s chief financial officer. A little over a year later, Craft is again aiding the borough he served for 26 years.
*On July 7 Lower Township saluted its solicitor, Robert Belasco, for his service.
*Electricity grid operator PJM Interconnection has opened the auction for electricity capacity for the 2026-2027 delivery year, an auction that will determine a key component of ratepayers’ bills next year.
*A county panel has developed a two-phase proposal for addressing the needs of the homeless in Cape May County.
*A bill requiring the Board of Public Utilities to study how the electricity demands of data centers are influencing utility costs in New Jersey has been signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.
*The Lower Township Police Department recently gave a public presentation on e-bikes and how the department is addressing problems at the Clem Mulligan Sports Complex.
*The estimated cost of a project that includes replacement of the Middle Thorofare Bridge between Wildwood Crest and the Garden State Parkway has risen to $350 million, from an initial $220 million, but the bridge will not be replaced in this decade.
*The actuary that provides analysis for the state’s three state-administered health plans is recommending double-digit rate increases for all three.
Spout Off of the Week
A heads up to the Local service workers; we’re 1/2 way through this Season. Really, in essence there’s only 50ish days left. Make the most of it, hang in there. You got this…..
Cape May County
