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 Huerfano County with comparisons to Colorado and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Huerfano 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 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.

Another interesting and insightful way of highlighting the population growth of Huerfano County is to compare its individual percentage contributions to Colorado's statewide population over time, as shown in Figure 2. 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, Huerfano County's population comprised 0.32% of Colorado's population, while in 2022 it equated to 0.12% thereby yielding a -0.19% share-shift.

Figure 3 shows the short-run pattern of Huerfano 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, Huerfano County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.10% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1996 (4.97%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1970 (-4.28%). In 2022, Huerfano County's population grew by 2.31%

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 4 again shows the annual percent change in Huerfano 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, Huerfano County's annual population growth rate averaged -0.38%. It averaged -0.59% during the 1980s, 2.51% in the 1990s, -1.42% during the 2000s, -0.02% during the 2010s, 1.37% thus far this decade (2020-2022).