The Clock Keeps Ticking

Dear U.S. Census Bureau,

First off, LOVE the Census Bureau in a way that only a former librarian can!  You guys rock!

Secondly, I had a question about your population clocks.  When I dialed up your website yesterday to see what the world's population was, I was floored.  We're really up to 6.86 billion?  When did the population explosion happen?  My brain's still stuck in the 4 billions.  Who's having all the kids?

I did wonder if that clock only ever goes up.  Do you ever dial it down when disaster strikes?  Like, did you take off a couple hundred thousand to account for the victims of the Haiti earthquake?  Will you account for all the Baby Boomers when they die off--will that affect the U.S. population?  How about that Chinese one-child population?  Or the negative population growth in Europe?  Are the other parts of the world making up for this and keeping that clock rolling onward?

Let me know--I'm really curious about this.

Thanks for your time.
Your pal,
Jill