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 Yuma County with comparisons to Arizona and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Yuma County vs. Arizona'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 Yuma County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Yuma County's population rose from 59,800 in 1969 to 207,842 in 2022, for a net gain of 148,042, or 247.56%.

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 tracks Arizona's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Arizona's population rose from 1,737,000 in 1969 to 7,359,197 in 2022, for a net gain of 5,622,197, or 323.67%.

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

Yuma County's overall population growth was 247.56% over 1969-2022 trailed Arizona's increase of 323.67%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Yuma County's population totaled 3.44% of Arizona's population, while in 2022 it totaled 2.82% thereby yielding a -0.62% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Yuma 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, Yuma County's population grew at an annual rate of 2.42% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1976 (10.14%) and posted its lowest growth in 1983 (-10.49%). In 2022, Yuma County's population grew by 0.78%

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 shows the annual percent change in Yuma 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, Yuma County's annual population growth rate averaged 3.44%. It averaged 2.28% throughout the 1980s, 4.18% during the 1990s, 2.21% in the 2000s, 0.43% in the 2010s, 0.94% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Yuma County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Arizona and the nation. As the chart reveals, Yuma County's average annual population growth fell below Arizona's average throughout the 1970s (3.44% vs. 4.28%), fell below Arizona's average throughout the 1980s (2.28% vs. 3.22%), registered above Arizona's average in the 1990s (4.18% vs. 3.33%), amounted to less than Arizona's average during the 2000s (2.21% vs. 2.36%), fell below Arizona's average in the 2010s (0.43% vs. 1.09%), and amounted to less than Arizona's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.94% vs. 1.34%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Yuma County exceeded the nation in the 1970s (3.44% vs. 1.10%), outgained the nation in the 1980s (2.28% vs. 0.95%), outgained the nation over the 1990s (4.18% vs. 1.23%), led the nation in the 2000s (2.21% vs. 0.95%), lagged the nation throughout the 2010s (0.43% vs. 0.74%), and led the nation over 2020-2022 (0.94% vs. 0.31%).