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 Fairfield County with comparisons to Connecticut and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Fairfield County vs. Connecticut'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 highlights the short-run pattern of Fairfield 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 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, Fairfield County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.40% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1977 (1.63%) and posted its lowest growth in 1978 (-0.96%). In 2022, Fairfield County's population declined by -0.01%

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 2 again shows the annual percent change in Fairfield 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, Fairfield County's annual population growth rate averaged 0.28%. It averaged 0.31% in the 1980s, 0.58% in the 1990s, 0.37% in the 2000s, 0.50% in the 2010s, 0.20% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 3 compares the decade average growth rates for Fairfield County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Connecticut and the nation. As the chart reveals, Fairfield County's average annual population growth trailed Connecticut's average throughout the 1970s (0.28% vs. 0.33%), trailed Connecticut's average during the 1980s (0.31% vs. 0.58%), exceeded Connecticut's average throughout the 1990s (0.58% vs. 0.31%), trailed Connecticut's average during the 2000s (0.37% vs. 0.51%), topped Connecticut's average throughout the 2010s (0.50% vs. 0.13%), and exceeded Connecticut's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.20% vs. 0.18%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Fairfield County posted below the nation during the 1970s (0.28% vs. 1.10%), recorded underneath the nation in the 1980s (0.31% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation in the 1990s (0.58% vs. 1.23%), lagged the nation during the 2000s (0.37% vs. 0.95%), posted below the nation during the 2010s (0.50% vs. 0.74%), and posted below the nation over 2020-2022 (0.20% vs. 0.31%).