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 McCracken County with comparisons to Kentucky and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing McCracken County vs. Kentucky'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 traces McCracken County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, McCracken County's population rose from 58,145 in 1969 to 67,490 in 2022, for a net gain of 9,345, or 16.07%.

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 Kentucky's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Kentucky's population rose from 3,198,000 in 1969 to 4,512,310 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,314,310, or 41.10%.

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

McCracken County's overall population growth was 16.07% over 1969-2022 trailed Kentucky's increase of 41.10%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, McCracken County's population totaled 1.82% of Kentucky's population, while in 2022 it equated to 1.50% thereby yielding a -0.32% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of McCracken 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, McCracken County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.28% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1971 (1.85%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1973 (-1.30%). In 2022, McCracken County's population declined by -0.18%

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 McCracken 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, McCracken County's annual population growth rate averaged 0.52%. It averaged 0.17% in the 1980s, 0.52% throughout the 1990s, 0.02% throughout the 2000s, 0.30% in the 2010s, -0.06% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for McCracken County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Kentucky and the nation. As the chart reveals, McCracken County's average annual population growth lagged Kentucky's average in the 1970s (0.52% vs. 1.31%), exceeded Kentucky's average in the 1980s (0.17% vs. 0.09%), recorded under Kentucky's average during the 1990s (0.52% vs. 0.89%), posted below Kentucky's average in the 2000s (0.02% vs. 0.72%), fell below Kentucky's average throughout the 2010s (0.30% vs. 0.41%), and fell below Kentucky's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.06% vs. 0.10%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, McCracken County trailed the nation in the 1970s (0.52% vs. 1.10%), recorded underneath the nation during the 1980s (0.17% vs. 0.95%), fell below the nation throughout the 1990s (0.52% vs. 1.23%), recorded underneath the nation during the 2000s (0.02% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 2010s (0.30% vs. 0.74%), and trailed the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.06% vs. 0.31%).