Worse than anemic? Japan's population is decreasing at the rate of 0.2% annually, thus its projected "anemic" 2.6% growth rate translates into a projected per capita growth rate of 3.1%. Most forecasts put U.S. GDP growth in the 2%-3% range, but since the U.S. population is increasing at a rate of 0.9% annually, the U.S. per capita GDP growth rate is a mere 1.1%-2.1%.