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 Pueblo County with comparisons to Colorado and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Pueblo 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 tracks Pueblo County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Pueblo County's population rose from 117,657 in 1969 to 169,544 in 2022, for a net gain of 51,887, or 44.10%.

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 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 shows Pueblo 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.

Pueblo County's overall population growth was 44.10% over 1969-2022 trailed Colorado's increase of 169.62%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of contrasting the population growth of Pueblo 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, Pueblo County's population totaled 5.43% of Colorado's population, while in 2022 it comprised 2.90% thereby yielding a -2.53% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Pueblo 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, Pueblo County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.70% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1973 (2.17%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1984 (-1.24%). In 2022, Pueblo County's population grew by 0.13%

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 Pueblo County's population since 1970, but this time they are displayed with average growth rates for the decade of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020-2022.

During the 1970s, Pueblo County's annual population growth rate averaged 0.68%. It averaged -0.18% during the 1980s, 1.27% throughout the 1990s, 1.19% in the 2000s, 0.57% in the 2010s, 0.48% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Pueblo County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Colorado and the nation. As the chart reveals, Pueblo County's average annual population growth recorded under Colorado's average throughout the 1970s (0.68% vs. 2.78%), fell below Colorado's average during the 1980s (-0.18% vs. 1.41%), lagged Colorado's average in the 1990s (1.27% vs. 2.58%), posted below Colorado's average during the 2000s (1.19% vs. 1.64%), recorded under Colorado's average in the 2010s (0.57% vs. 1.44%), and posted below Colorado's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.48% vs. 0.60%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Pueblo County fell below the nation during the 1970s (0.68% vs. 1.10%), recorded underneath the nation over the 1980s (-0.18% vs. 0.95%), recorded above the nation in the 1990s (1.27% vs. 1.23%), recorded above the nation throughout the 2000s (1.19% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 2010s (0.57% vs. 0.74%), and recorded above the nation over 2020-2022 (0.48% vs. 0.31%).