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 North Carolina 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 North Carolina's annual population for the period 1958-2021 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 64-year period, North Carolina's population rose from 4,376,000 in 1958 to 10,551,162 in 2021, for a net gain of 6,175,162, or 141.1%.

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 North Carolina'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.

North Carolina's overall population growth was 141.1% over 1958-2021 outpaced the United States' increase of 90.6%.

Another interesting and insightful way of comparing the population growth of North Carolina 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, North Carolina's population comprised 2.5% of the United States' population, while in 2021 it comprised 3.2% thereby yielding a +0.7% share-shift.

Figure 4 highlights the short-run pattern of North Carolina'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, North Carolina's population grew at an annual rate of 1.41% over 1959-2021. The state posted its highest growth in 1960 (2.58%) and posted its lowest growth in 1969 (0.54%). In 2021, North Carolina's population grew by 0.90%

Over the past six decades some states 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 North Carolina'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, North Carolina's annual population growth rate averaged 1.22%. It averaged 1.44% in the 1970s, 1.24% in the 1980s, 1.93% during the 1990s, 1.74% throughout the 2000s, 0.93% in the 2010s, 0.87% thus far this decade (2020-2021).

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

Relative to nationwide population growth trends, North Carolina recorded underneath the nation over the 1960s (1.22% vs. 1.29%), exceeded the nation in the 1970s (1.44% vs. 1.10%), outgained the nation in the 1980s (1.24% vs. 0.95%), recorded above the nation during the 1990s (1.93% vs. 1.23%), registered above the nation throughout the 2000s (1.74% vs. 0.95%), registered above the nation throughout the 2010s (0.93% vs. 0.74%), and surpassed the nation over 2020-2021 (0.87% vs. 0.25%).