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 New England 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 traces New England's annual population for the period 1958-2020 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 63-year period, New England's population rose from 10,219,000 in 1958 to 14,847,468 in 2020, for a net gain of 4,628,468, or 45.3%.

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 portrays New England'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.

New England's overall population growth was 45.3% over 1958-2020 trailed the United States' increase of 89.2%.

Another interesting and insightful way of contrasting the population growth of New England is to compare 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, New England's population comprised 5.9% of the United States' population, while in 2020 it comprised 4.5% thereby yielding a -1.4% share-shift.

Figure 4 displays the short-run pattern of New England's population growth by tracking the year-to-year percent change over 1959-2020. The average annual percent change for the entire 62-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, New England's population grew at an annual rate of 0.61% over 1959-2020. New England recorded its highest growth in 1959 (2.13%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2020 (-0.01%). In 2020, New England's population declined by -0.01%

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

During the 1960s, New England's annual population growth rate averaged 1.18%. It averaged 0.51% throughout the 1970s, 0.66% in the 1980s, 0.49% in the 1990s, 0.40% during the 2000s, and 0.31% thus far this decade (2010 to 2020).

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

Relative to nationwide population growth trends, New England lagged the nation throughout the 1960s (1.18% vs. 1.29%), posted below the nation in the 1970s (0.51% vs. 1.10%), lagged the nation throughout the 1980s (0.66% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation throughout the 1990s (0.49% vs. 1.23%), trailed the nation throughout the 2000s (0.40% vs. 0.95%), and fell below the nation over 2010-2020 (0.31% vs. 0.68%).