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 the Capital Region with comparisons to Mississippi and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing the Capital Region 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 the Capital Region's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, the Capital Region's population rose from 404,118 in 1969 to 609,725 in 2022, for a net gain of 205,607, or 50.88%.

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 shows the Capital Region'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.

The Capital Region's overall population growth was 50.88% 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 the Capital Region 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, the Capital Region's population comprised 18.20% of Mississippi's population, while in 2022 it equated to 20.74% thereby yielding a +2.54% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of the Capital Region'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, the Capital Region's population grew at an annual rate of 0.78% over 1970-2022. The Capital Region posted its highest growth in 1974 (2.91%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2020 (-0.96%). In 2022, the Capital Region's population declined by -0.71%

Over the past five decades some momentum mississippi regions have experienced extreme swings in growth, and often such swings have tended to coincide with the decades themselves. Figure 6 again illustrates the annual percent change in the Capital Region'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, the Capital Region's annual population growth rate averaged 1.85%. It averaged 0.67% in the 1980s, 0.98% in the 1990s, 0.71% throughout the 2000s, 0.19% during the 2010s, -0.80% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for the Capital Region noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Mississippi and the nation. As the chart reveals, the Capital Region's average annual population growth outgained Mississippi's average during the 1970s (1.85% vs. 1.23%), surpassed Mississippi's average throughout the 1980s (0.67% vs. 0.26%), outgained Mississippi's average during the 1990s (0.98% vs. 0.95%), topped Mississippi's average in the 2000s (0.71% vs. 0.45%), registered above Mississippi's average during the 2010s (0.19% vs. 0.03%), and lagged Mississippi's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.80% vs. -0.33%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, the Capital Region outperformed the nation in the 1970s (1.85% vs. 1.10%), lagged the nation over the 1980s (0.67% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation during the 1990s (0.98% vs. 1.23%), posted below the nation during the 2000s (0.71% vs. 0.95%), recorded underneath the nation during the 2010s (0.19% vs. 0.74%), and trailed the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.80% vs. 0.31%).