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 Banks County with comparisons to Georgia and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Banks County vs. Georgia'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 tracks Banks County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Banks County's population rose from 6,778 in 1969 to 19,328 in 2022, for a net gain of 12,550, or 185.16%.

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 tracks Georgia's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Georgia's population rose from 4,551,000 in 1969 to 10,912,876 in 2022, for a net gain of 6,361,876, or 139.79%.

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

Banks County's overall population growth was 185.16% over 1969-2022 outpaced Georgia's increase of 139.79%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Banks County's population comprised 0.15% of Georgia's population, while in 2022 it totaled 0.18% thereby yielding a +0.03% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Banks 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, Banks County's population grew at an annual rate of 2.01% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1997 (5.90%) and posted its lowest growth in 2011 (-1.52%). In 2022, Banks County's population grew by 4.26%

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 shows the annual percent change in Banks County's population since 1970, but this time they are overlayed with average growth rates for the decade of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020-2022.

During the 1970s, Banks County's annual population growth rate averaged 2.15%. It averaged 1.95% in the 1980s, 3.30% during the 1990s, 2.64% during the 2000s, -0.10% throughout the 2010s, 2.36% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Banks County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Georgia and the nation. As the chart reveals, Banks County's average annual population growth surpassed Georgia's average in the 1970s (2.15% vs. 1.71%), led Georgia's average throughout the 1980s (1.95% vs. 1.75%), topped Georgia's average in the 1990s (3.30% vs. 2.30%), registered above Georgia's average during the 2000s (2.64% vs. 1.80%), fell below Georgia's average throughout the 2010s (-0.10% vs. 1.01%), and exceeded Georgia's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (2.36% vs. 0.84%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Banks County recorded above the nation during the 1970s (2.15% vs. 1.10%), recorded above the nation throughout the 1980s (1.95% vs. 0.95%), registered above the nation during the 1990s (3.30% vs. 1.23%), outperformed the nation in the 2000s (2.64% vs. 0.95%), posted below the nation over the 2010s (-0.10% vs. 0.74%), and exceeded the nation over 2020-2022 (2.36% vs. 0.31%).