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 Douglas County with comparisons to Colorado and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Douglas County vs. Colorado'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 Douglas County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Douglas County's population rose from 7,918 in 1969 to 375,988 in 2022, for a net gain of 368,070, or 4,648.52%.

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 Colorado's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Colorado's population rose from 2,166,000 in 1969 to 5,839,926 in 2022, for a net gain of 3,673,926, or 169.62%.

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

Douglas County's overall population growth was 4,648.52% over 1969-2022 outpaced Colorado's increase of 169.62%, and topped the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Douglas County's population comprised 0.37% of Colorado's population, while in 2022 it equated to 6.44% thereby yielding a +6.07% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Douglas 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, Douglas County's population grew at an annual rate of 7.63% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1978 (17.13%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2022 (1.67%). In 2022, Douglas County's population grew by 1.67%

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 Douglas 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, Douglas County's annual population growth rate averaged 11.32%. It averaged 9.18% in the 1980s, 11.37% throughout the 1990s, 5.65% during the 2000s, 2.24% during the 2010s, 2.30% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Douglas County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Colorado and the nation. As the chart reveals, Douglas County's average annual population growth led Colorado's average throughout the 1970s (11.32% vs. 2.78%), recorded above Colorado's average in the 1980s (9.18% vs. 1.41%), registered above Colorado's average during the 1990s (11.37% vs. 2.58%), topped Colorado's average during the 2000s (5.65% vs. 1.64%), outpaced Colorado's average during the 2010s (2.24% vs. 1.44%), and exceeded Colorado's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (2.30% vs. 0.60%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Douglas County led the nation in the 1970s (11.32% vs. 1.10%), topped the nation in the 1980s (9.18% vs. 0.95%), outperformed the nation during the 1990s (11.37% vs. 1.23%), surpassed the nation in the 2000s (5.65% vs. 0.95%), outperformed the nation over the 2010s (2.24% vs. 0.74%), and outperformed the nation over 2020-2022 (2.30% vs. 0.31%).