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 Mobile County with comparisons to Alabama and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Mobile 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 Mobile County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Mobile County's population rose from 317,958 in 1969 to 411,411 in 2022, for a net gain of 93,453, or 29.39%.

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 Mobile 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.

Mobile County's overall population growth was 29.39% over 1969-2022 trailed Alabama's increase of 47.51%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of comparing the population growth of Mobile 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, Mobile County's population totaled 9.24% of Alabama's population, while in 2022 it comprised 8.11% thereby yielding a -1.14% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Mobile 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, Mobile County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.49% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1976 (2.88%) and posted its lowest growth in 1989 (-0.69%). In 2022, Mobile County's population declined by -0.39%

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 Mobile 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, Mobile County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.30%. It averaged 0.47% during the 1980s, 0.53% in the 1990s, 0.31% throughout the 2000s, 0.08% during the 2010s, -0.30% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Mobile County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Alabama and the nation. As the chart reveals, Mobile County's average annual population growth outgained Alabama's average in the 1970s (1.30% vs. 1.18%), surpassed Alabama's average during the 1980s (0.47% vs. 0.41%), trailed Alabama's average during the 1990s (0.53% vs. 0.95%), fell below Alabama's average during the 2000s (0.31% vs. 0.72%), amounted to less than Alabama's average throughout the 2010s (0.08% vs. 0.50%), and recorded under Alabama's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.30% vs. 0.47%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Mobile County surpassed the nation during the 1970s (1.30% vs. 1.10%), fell under the nation throughout the 1980s (0.47% vs. 0.95%), recorded underneath the nation during the 1990s (0.53% vs. 1.23%), recorded underneath the nation during the 2000s (0.31% vs. 0.95%), lagged the nation during the 2010s (0.08% vs. 0.74%), and fell under the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.30% vs. 0.31%).