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 Perry County with comparisons to Tennessee and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Perry County vs. Tennessee'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 Perry County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Perry County's population rose from 5,244 in 1969 to 8,685 in 2022, for a net gain of 3,441, or 65.62%.

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 Tennessee's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Tennessee's population rose from 3,897,000 in 1969 to 7,051,339 in 2022, for a net gain of 3,154,339, or 80.94%.

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

Perry County's overall population growth was 65.62% over 1969-2022 trailed Tennessee's increase of 80.94%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Perry County's population totaled 0.13% of Tennessee's population, while in 2022 it equated to 0.12% thereby yielding a -0.01% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Perry 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, Perry County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.96% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1971 (4.10%) and posted its lowest growth in 1986 (-2.09%). In 2022, Perry County's population grew by 2.50%

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 Perry 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, Perry County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.52%. It averaged 0.72% during the 1980s, 1.49% in the 1990s, 0.36% in the 2000s, 0.59% in the 2010s, 1.44% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Perry County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Tennessee and the nation. As the chart reveals, Perry County's average annual population growth amounted to less than Tennessee's average in the 1970s (1.52% vs. 1.52%), topped Tennessee's average throughout the 1980s (0.72% vs. 0.69%), lagged Tennessee's average during the 1990s (1.49% vs. 1.51%), amounted to less than Tennessee's average throughout the 2000s (0.36% vs. 1.13%), posted below Tennessee's average during the 2010s (0.59% vs. 0.85%), and topped Tennessee's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (1.44% vs. 0.91%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Perry County topped the nation throughout the 1970s (1.52% vs. 1.10%), fell below the nation in the 1980s (0.72% vs. 0.95%), outpaced the nation in the 1990s (1.49% vs. 1.23%), fell under the nation in the 2000s (0.36% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation over the 2010s (0.59% vs. 0.74%), and topped the nation over 2020-2022 (1.44% vs. 0.31%).