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 Tippah County with comparisons to Mississippi and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Tippah 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 Tippah County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Tippah County's population rose from 15,810 in 1969 to 21,431 in 2022, for a net gain of 5,621, or 35.55%.

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 Tippah 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.

Tippah County's overall population growth was 35.55% over 1969-2022 outpaced Mississippi's increase of 32.44%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of highlighting the population growth of Tippah County is to trace 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, Tippah County's population totaled 0.71% of Mississippi's population, while in 2022 it comprised 0.73% thereby yielding a +0.02% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Tippah 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, Tippah County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.58% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1971 (3.71%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2020 (-1.24%). In 2022, Tippah County's population declined by -0.85%

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 depicts the annual percent change in Tippah 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, Tippah County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.79%. It averaged 0.29% throughout the 1980s, 0.70% in the 1990s, 0.65% in the 2000s, -0.07% during the 2010s, -0.88% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Tippah County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Mississippi and the nation. As the chart reveals, Tippah County's average annual population growth registered above Mississippi's average during the 1970s (1.79% vs. 1.23%), outperformed Mississippi's average in the 1980s (0.29% vs. 0.26%), fell below Mississippi's average during the 1990s (0.70% vs. 0.95%), outpaced Mississippi's average during the 2000s (0.65% vs. 0.45%), fell below Mississippi's average in the 2010s (-0.07% vs. 0.03%), and amounted to less than Mississippi's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.88% vs. -0.33%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Tippah County outperformed the nation over the 1970s (1.79% vs. 1.10%), trailed the nation over the 1980s (0.29% vs. 0.95%), posted below the nation during the 1990s (0.70% vs. 1.23%), trailed the nation over the 2000s (0.65% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation in the 2010s (-0.07% vs. 0.74%), and fell below the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.88% vs. 0.31%).