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 Pike County with comparisons to Mississippi and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Pike County vs. Mississippi'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 tracks Pike County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Pike County's population rose from 32,133 in 1969 to 39,644 in 2022, for a net gain of 7,511, or 23.37%.

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 Mississippi's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Mississippi's population rose from 2,220,000 in 1969 to 2,940,057 in 2022, for a net gain of 720,057, or 32.44%.

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

Pike County's overall population growth was 23.37% over 1969-2022 trailed Mississippi's increase of 32.44%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Pike County's population comprised 1.45% of Mississippi's population, while in 2022 it comprised 1.35% thereby yielding a -0.10% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Pike 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 illustrated 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, Pike County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.40% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 2006 (3.43%) and posted its lowest growth in 1987 (-1.01%). In 2022, Pike County's population declined by -0.78%

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 traces the annual percent change in Pike County's population since 1970, but this time they are displayed with average growth rates for the decade of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020-2022.

During the 1970s, Pike County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.14%. It averaged 0.32% in the 1980s, 0.44% during the 1990s, 0.40% in the 2000s, 0.01% throughout the 2010s, -0.61% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Pike County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Mississippi and the nation. As the chart reveals, Pike County's average annual population growth lagged Mississippi's average in the 1970s (1.14% vs. 1.23%), outgained Mississippi's average throughout the 1980s (0.32% vs. 0.26%), posted below Mississippi's average in the 1990s (0.44% vs. 0.95%), fell below Mississippi's average during the 2000s (0.40% vs. 0.45%), amounted to less than Mississippi's average throughout the 2010s (0.01% vs. 0.03%), and trailed Mississippi's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.61% vs. -0.33%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Pike County outpaced the nation over the 1970s (1.14% vs. 1.10%), trailed the nation over the 1980s (0.32% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 1990s (0.44% vs. 1.23%), fell under the nation throughout the 2000s (0.40% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation in the 2010s (0.01% vs. 0.74%), and posted below the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.61% vs. 0.31%).