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 Pierce County with comparisons to Washington and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Pierce County vs. Washington'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 Pierce County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Pierce County's population rose from 405,452 in 1969 to 927,380 in 2022, for a net gain of 521,928, or 128.73%.

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 traces Washington's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Washington's population rose from 3,343,000 in 1969 to 7,785,786 in 2022, for a net gain of 4,442,786, or 132.90%.

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 Pierce County's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with Washington, 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.

Pierce County's overall population growth was 128.73% over 1969-2022 trailed Washington's increase of 132.90%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Pierce County's population totaled 12.13% of Washington's population, while in 2022 it comprised 11.91% thereby yielding a -0.22% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Pierce 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, Pierce County's population grew at an annual rate of 1.58% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1974 (4.83%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1972 (-3.13%). In 2022, Pierce County's population grew by 0.02%

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 Pierce 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, Pierce County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.59%. It averaged 1.89% throughout the 1980s, 1.96% in the 1990s, 1.41% throughout the 2000s, 1.39% throughout the 2010s, 0.49% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Pierce County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Washington and the nation. As the chart reveals, Pierce County's average annual population growth lagged Washington's average throughout the 1970s (1.59% vs. 1.85%), recorded above Washington's average throughout the 1980s (1.89% vs. 1.70%), lagged Washington's average in the 1990s (1.96% vs. 2.10%), outpaced Washington's average in the 2000s (1.41% vs. 1.33%), outgained Washington's average in the 2010s (1.39% vs. 1.37%), and recorded under Washington's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.49% vs. 0.64%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Pierce County outpaced the nation throughout the 1970s (1.59% vs. 1.10%), outpaced the nation throughout the 1980s (1.89% vs. 0.95%), outpaced the nation over the 1990s (1.96% vs. 1.23%), led the nation over the 2000s (1.41% vs. 0.95%), led the nation over the 2010s (1.39% vs. 0.74%), and outpaced the nation over 2020-2022 (0.49% vs. 0.31%).