Attracting and retaining people to live, work, raise a family, and retire underlies the economic vitality of any region. Population growth is both a cause--and a consequence--of economic growth. Patterns of population growth and change reflect differences among regions to attract and retain people both as producers and consumers in their economy.

The following graphs offer a broad overview of trends in the pattern of population growth and change of Perry County with comparisons to Pennsylvania and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Perry County vs. Pennsylvania's population growth over 1969-2022. The data used are those compiled by the Regional Income and Product Divisions of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Figure 1 traces Perry County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Perry County's population rose from 28,412 in 1969 to 46,114 in 2022, for a net gain of 17,702, or 62.30%.

NOTE: The county and state population totals reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) are from the Bureau of Census midyear (July 1) estimates. These estimates may differ from those prepared independently in some states by various agencies and/or universities.

Figure 2 tracks Pennsylvania's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Pennsylvania's population rose from 11,741,000 in 1969 to 12,972,008 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,231,008, or 10.48%.

NOTE: The county and state population totals reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) are from the Bureau of Census midyear (July 1) estimates. These estimates may differ from those prepared independently in some states by various agencies and/or universities.

Figure 3 portrays Perry County's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with Pennsylvania, the United States. The growth indices shown here express each region's population in 1969 as a base figure of 100, and the populations in later years as a percentage of the 1969 base figure. This method allows for more direct comparison of differences in population growth between regions that may differ vastly in size.

Perry County's overall population growth was 62.30% over 1969-2022 outpaced Pennsylvania's increase of 10.48%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of highlighting the population growth of Perry County is to compare its individual percentage contributions to Pennsylvania's statewide population over time, as shown in Figure 4. A rising share means a region's population grew faster, or declined less, than Pennsylvania's population, while a declining share shows it grew more slowly.

In 1969, Perry County's population comprised 0.24% of Pennsylvania's population, while in 2022 it equated to 0.36% thereby yielding a +0.11% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Perry County's population growth by tracking the year-to-year percent change over 1970-2022. The average annual percent change for the entire 53-year period is also traced on this chart to provide a benchmark for gauging periods of relative high--and relative low--growth against the backdrop of the long-term average.

On average, Perry County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.92% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1971 (3.60%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2013 (-0.42%). In 2022, Perry County's population grew by 0.38%

Over the past five decades some counties have experienced extreme swings in growth, and often such swings have tended to coincide with the decades themselves. Figure 6 again shows the annual percent change in Perry County's population since 1970, but this time they are overlayed with average growth rates for the decade of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020-2022.

During the 1970s, Perry County's annual population growth rate averaged 2.30%. It averaged 1.31% in the 1980s, 0.71% during the 1990s, 0.52% throughout the 2000s, 0.03% during the 2010s, 0.09% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Perry County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Pennsylvania and the nation. As the chart reveals, Perry County's average annual population growth recorded above Pennsylvania's average in the 1970s (2.30% vs. 0.11%), surpassed Pennsylvania's average throughout the 1980s (1.31% vs. -0.01%), exceeded Pennsylvania's average in the 1990s (0.71% vs. 0.33%), outperformed Pennsylvania's average in the 2000s (0.52% vs. 0.32%), lagged Pennsylvania's average throughout the 2010s (0.03% vs. 0.25%), and registered above Pennsylvania's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.09% vs. -0.05%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Perry County outperformed the nation over the 1970s (2.30% vs. 1.10%), exceeded the nation throughout the 1980s (1.31% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 1990s (0.71% vs. 1.23%), posted below the nation over the 2000s (0.52% vs. 0.95%), lagged the nation throughout the 2010s (0.03% vs. 0.74%), and trailed the nation over 2020-2022 (0.09% vs. 0.31%).