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 Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA with comparisons to Arizona and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA 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 traces the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's population rose from 24,600 in 1969 to 220,816 in 2022, for a net gain of 196,216, or 797.63%.

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 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 portrays the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA'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.

The Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's overall population growth was 797.63% over 1969-2022 outpaced 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 the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA is to compare 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, the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's population comprised 1.42% of Arizona's population, while in 2022 it totaled 3.00% thereby yielding a +1.58% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA'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 Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's population grew at an annual rate of 4.27% over 1970-2022. The Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA recorded its highest growth in 1979 (12.53%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2013 (-0.23%). In 2022, the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's population grew by 1.78%

Over the past five decades some msas 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 the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA'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, the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's annual population growth rate averaged 7.76%. It averaged 5.35% throughout the 1980s, 5.64% during the 1990s, 2.89% in the 2000s, 0.55% during the 2010s, 1.55% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Arizona and the nation. As the chart reveals, the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA's average annual population growth exceeded Arizona's average throughout the 1970s (7.76% vs. 4.28%), recorded above Arizona's average during the 1980s (5.35% vs. 3.22%), registered above Arizona's average during the 1990s (5.64% vs. 3.33%), recorded above Arizona's average during the 2000s (2.89% vs. 2.36%), amounted to less than Arizona's average in the 2010s (0.55% vs. 1.09%), and recorded above Arizona's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (1.55% vs. 1.34%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, the Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA outperformed the nation during the 1970s (7.76% vs. 1.10%), recorded above the nation over the 1980s (5.35% vs. 0.95%), registered above the nation in the 1990s (5.64% vs. 1.23%), recorded above the nation throughout the 2000s (2.89% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation over the 2010s (0.55% vs. 0.74%), and exceeded the nation over 2020-2022 (1.55% vs. 0.31%).