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 Baldwin County with comparisons to Alabama and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Baldwin County vs. Alabama'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 Baldwin County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Baldwin County's population rose from 56,951 in 1969 to 246,435 in 2022, for a net gain of 189,484, or 332.71%.

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 Alabama's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Alabama's population rose from 3,440,000 in 1969 to 5,074,296 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,634,296, or 47.51%.

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

Baldwin County's overall population growth was 332.71% over 1969-2022 outpaced Alabama's increase of 47.51%, and topped the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Baldwin County's population totaled 1.66% of Alabama's population, while in 2022 it totaled 4.86% thereby yielding a +3.20% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Baldwin 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, Baldwin County's population grew at an annual rate of 2.81% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1994 (4.62%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1971 (1.12%). In 2022, Baldwin County's population grew by 2.96%

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 illustrates the annual percent change in Baldwin 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, Baldwin County's annual population growth rate averaged 3.01%. It averaged 2.31% in the 1980s, 3.64% throughout the 1990s, 2.69% during the 2000s, 2.38% during the 2010s, 2.76% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Baldwin County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Alabama and the nation. As the chart reveals, Baldwin County's average annual population growth exceeded Alabama's average in the 1970s (3.01% vs. 1.18%), surpassed Alabama's average during the 1980s (2.31% vs. 0.41%), led Alabama's average during the 1990s (3.64% vs. 0.95%), exceeded Alabama's average in the 2000s (2.69% vs. 0.72%), surpassed Alabama's average in the 2010s (2.38% vs. 0.50%), and topped Alabama's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (2.76% vs. 0.47%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Baldwin County recorded above the nation in the 1970s (3.01% vs. 1.10%), outperformed the nation during the 1980s (2.31% vs. 0.95%), outperformed the nation over the 1990s (3.64% vs. 1.23%), led the nation throughout the 2000s (2.69% vs. 0.95%), outgained the nation throughout the 2010s (2.38% vs. 0.74%), and led the nation over 2020-2022 (2.76% vs. 0.31%).