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 the Metropolitan U.S. with comparisons to Rhode Island and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing the Metropolitan U.S. vs. Rhode Island'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 the Metropolitan U.S.'s and Rhode Island's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, the Metropolitan U.S.'s population rose from 165,312,410 in 1969 to 287,840,612 in 2022, for a net gain of 122,528,202, or 74.12%. In comparison, Rhode Island's population increased from 932,000 in 1969 to 1,093,734 in 2022, for a net gain of 161,734, or 17.35%.

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 portrays the Metropolitan U.S.'s population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with Rhode Island, 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.

The Metropolitan U.S.'s overall population growth was 74.12% over 1969-2022 outpaced Rhode Island's increase of 17.35%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of contrasting the population growth of the Metropolitan U.S. and Rhode Island is to trace their individual percentage contributions to the United States' total population over time, as shown in Figure 3. A rising share means a region's population grew faster, or declined less, than the United States' population, while a declining share shows they grew more slowly.

In 1969, the Metropolitan U.S.'s population totaled 82.12% of the United States' population, while in 2022 it equated to 86.36% thereby yielding a +4.24% share-shift. Similarly, in 1969, Rhode Island's population made up 0.46% of the United States' population, while in 2022 it consisted of 0.33%, resulting in a -0.13% share-shift.

Figure 4 highlights the short-run pattern of the Metropolitan U.S.'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, the Metropolitan U.S.'s population grew at an annual rate of 1.05% over 1970-2022. The Metropolitan U.S. posted its highest growth in 1992 (1.49%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2021 (0.16%). In 2022, the Metropolitan U.S.'s population grew by 0.42%

Over the past five decades some metropolitan regions have experienced extreme swings in growth, and often such swings have tended to coincide with the decades themselves. Figure 5 again depicts the annual percent change in the Metropolitan U.S.'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, the Metropolitan U.S.'s annual population growth rate averaged 1.10%. It averaged 1.11% in the 1980s, 1.33% throughout the 1990s, 1.06% during the 2000s, 0.87% in the 2010s, 0.35% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 6 compares the decade average growth rates for the Metropolitan U.S. noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Rhode Island and the nation. As the chart reveals, the Metropolitan U.S.'s average annual population growth led Rhode Island's average during the 1970s (1.10% vs. 0.27%), led Rhode Island's average in the 1980s (1.11% vs. 0.45%), outpaced Rhode Island's average during the 1990s (1.33% vs. 0.39%), outpaced Rhode Island's average during the 2000s (1.06% vs. 0.13%), topped Rhode Island's average during the 2010s (0.87% vs. 0.38%), and topped Rhode Island's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.35% vs. -0.02%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, the Metropolitan U.S. surpassed the nation during the 1970s (1.10% vs. 1.10%), exceeded the nation over the 1980s (1.11% vs. 0.95%), led the nation over the 1990s (1.33% vs. 1.23%), registered above the nation in the 2000s (1.06% vs. 0.95%), recorded above the nation over the 2010s (0.87% vs. 0.74%), and recorded above the nation over 2020-2022 (0.35% vs. 0.31%).