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 Southeast with comparisons to the nation at large. 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 tracks the Southeast's annual population for the period 1958-2021 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 64-year period, the Southeast's population rose from 37,435,000 in 1958 to 85,872,186 in 2021, for a net gain of 48,437,186, or 129.39%.

NOTE: The 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 shows the Southeast's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with the United States. The growth indices shown here express each region's population in 1958 as a base figure of 100, and the populations in later years as a percentage of the 1958 base figure. This method allows for more direct comparison of differences in population growth between regions that may differ vastly in size.

The Southeast's overall population growth was 129.39% over 1958-2021 outpaced the United States' increase of 90.58%.

Another interesting and insightful way of contrasting the population growth of the Southeast is to trace its individual percentage contributions to the United States' total population over time, as shown in Figure 3. A rising share means a region's population grew faster, or declined less, than the United States' population, while a declining share shows it grew more slowly.

In 1958, the Southeast's population comprised 21.50% of the United States' population, while in 2021 it equated to 25.87% thereby yielding a +4.38% share-shift.

Figure 4 highlights the short-run pattern of the Southeast's population growth by tracking the year-to-year percent change over 1959-2021. The average annual percent change for the entire 63-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 Southeast's population grew at an annual rate of 1.33% over 1959-2021. The Southeast recorded its highest growth in 1971 (2.36%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2021 (0.58%). In 2021, the Southeast's population grew by 0.58%

Over the past six decades some BEA regions have experienced extreme swings in growth, and often such swings have tended to coincide with the decades themselves. Figure 5 again depicts the annual percent change in the Southeast's population since 1959, but this time they are overlayed with average growth rates for the decade of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020-2021.

During the 1960s, the Southeast's annual population growth rate averaged 1.32%. It averaged 1.81% during the 1970s, 1.23% during the 1980s, 1.56% during the 1990s, 1.27% in the 2000s, 0.87% throughout the 2010s, 0.60% thus far this decade (2020-2021).

Figure 6 compares the decade average growth rates for the Southeast noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for the nation.

Relative to nationwide population growth trends, the Southeast registered above the nation throughout the 1960s (1.32% vs. 1.29%), led the nation over the 1970s (1.81% vs. 1.10%), outpaced the nation over the 1980s (1.23% vs. 0.95%), surpassed the nation during the 1990s (1.56% vs. 1.23%), topped the nation in the 2000s (1.27% vs. 0.95%), recorded above the nation throughout the 2010s (0.87% vs. 0.74%), and exceeded the nation over 2020-2021 (0.60% vs. 0.25%).