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 Middlesex County with comparisons to Connecticut and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Middlesex 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 traces Middlesex County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Middlesex County's population rose from 112,020 in 1969 to 166,537 in 2022, for a net gain of 54,517, or 48.67%.

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 2 traces Connecticut's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Connecticut's population rose from 3,000,000 in 1969 to 3,626,205 in 2022, for a net gain of 626,205, or 20.87%.

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

Middlesex County's overall population growth was 48.67% over 1969-2022 outpaced Connecticut's increase of 20.87%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Middlesex County's population comprised 3.73% of Connecticut's population, while in 2022 it equated to 4.59% thereby yielding a +0.86% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Middlesex 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, Middlesex County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.75% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1970 (3.07%) and posted its lowest growth in 2015 (-0.49%). In 2022, Middlesex County's population grew by 0.29%

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 Middlesex 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, Middlesex County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.38%. It averaged 1.05% during the 1980s, 0.74% during the 1990s, 0.77% during the 2000s, -0.06% throughout the 2010s, 0.38% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Middlesex County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Connecticut and the nation. As the chart reveals, Middlesex County's average annual population growth outgained Connecticut's average throughout the 1970s (1.38% vs. 0.33%), outperformed Connecticut's average during the 1980s (1.05% vs. 0.58%), outperformed Connecticut's average throughout the 1990s (0.74% vs. 0.31%), topped Connecticut's average during the 2000s (0.77% vs. 0.51%), fell below Connecticut's average during the 2010s (-0.06% vs. 0.13%), and topped Connecticut's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.38% vs. 0.18%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Middlesex County led the nation over the 1970s (1.38% vs. 1.10%), topped the nation throughout the 1980s (1.05% vs. 0.95%), recorded underneath the nation during the 1990s (0.74% vs. 1.23%), fell under the nation in the 2000s (0.77% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation in the 2010s (-0.06% vs. 0.74%), and outgained the nation over 2020-2022 (0.38% vs. 0.31%).