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 Hampshire 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 New Hampshire's annual population for the period 1958-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 65-year period, New Hampshire's population rose from 581,000 in 1958 to 1,395,231 in 2022, for a net gain of 814,231, or 140.14%.

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 Hampshire'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 Hampshire's overall population growth was 140.14% over 1958-2022 outpaced the United States' increase of 91.38%.

Another interesting and insightful way of comparing the population growth of New Hampshire 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, New Hampshire's population comprised 0.33% of the United States' population, while in 2022 it comprised 0.42% thereby yielding a +0.09% share-shift.

Figure 4 shows the short-run pattern of New Hampshire's population growth by tracking the year-to-year percent change over 1959-2022. The average annual percent change for the entire 64-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 Hampshire's population grew at an annual rate of 1.38% over 1959-2022. The state posted its highest growth in 1977 (2.93%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1991 (-0.22%). In 2022, New Hampshire's population grew by 0.56%

Figure 5 compares the decade average growth rates for New Hampshire noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for the nation.

Relative to nationwide population growth trends, New Hampshire outpaced the nation over the 1960s (1.97% vs. 1.29%), topped the nation over the 1970s (2.33% vs. 1.10%), topped the nation throughout the 1980s (1.94% vs. 0.95%), fell below the nation in the 1990s (1.02% vs. 1.23%), posted below the nation during the 2000s (0.75% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation in the 2010s (0.42% vs. 0.74%), and topped the nation over 2020-2022 (0.57% vs. 0.31%).