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 Harris County with comparisons to Texas and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Harris County vs. Texas' 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 Harris County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Harris County's population rose from 1,709,436 in 1969 to 4,781,337 in 2022, for a net gain of 3,071,901, or 179.70%.

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 Texas' annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Texas' population rose from 11,045,000 in 1969 to 30,029,848 in 2022, for a net gain of 18,984,848, or 171.89%.

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

Harris County's overall population growth was 179.70% over 1969-2022 outpaced Texas' increase of 171.89%, and topped the United States' increase of 65.56%.

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

In 1969, Harris County's population comprised 15.48% of Texas' population, while in 2022 it equated to 15.92% thereby yielding a +0.44% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Harris 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, Harris County's population grew at an annual rate of 1.97% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1982 (5.89%) and posted its lowest growth in 1987 (-1.30%). In 2022, Harris County's population grew by 0.97%

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 Harris 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, Harris County's annual population growth rate averaged 3.18%. It averaged 1.72% in the 1980s, 1.97% throughout the 1990s, 1.85% in the 2000s, 1.55% throughout the 2010s, 0.55% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Harris County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Texas and the nation. As the chart reveals, Harris County's average annual population growth outpaced Texas' average throughout the 1970s (3.18% vs. 2.32%), lagged Texas' average during the 1980s (1.72% vs. 1.93%), posted below Texas' average during the 1990s (1.97% vs. 2.04%), fell below Texas' average in the 2000s (1.85% vs. 1.89%), surpassed Texas' average during the 2010s (1.55% vs. 1.53%), and trailed Texas' average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.55% vs. 1.34%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Harris County surpassed the nation during the 1970s (3.18% vs. 1.10%), outperformed the nation during the 1980s (1.72% vs. 0.95%), outgained the nation in the 1990s (1.97% vs. 1.23%), registered above the nation throughout the 2000s (1.85% vs. 0.95%), registered above the nation throughout the 2010s (1.55% vs. 0.74%), and registered above the nation over 2020-2022 (0.55% vs. 0.31%).