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 Habersham County with comparisons to Georgia and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Habersham 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 traces Habersham County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Habersham County's population rose from 20,656 in 1969 to 47,475 in 2022, for a net gain of 26,819, or 129.84%.

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 portrays Habersham 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.

Habersham County's overall population growth was 129.84% over 1969-2022 trailed Georgia's increase of 139.79%, and topped the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of comparing the population growth of Habersham County is to trace 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, Habersham County's population totaled 0.45% of Georgia's population, while in 2022 it totaled 0.44% thereby yielding a -0.02% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Habersham 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, Habersham County's population grew at an annual rate of 1.59% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 2006 (3.73%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1979 (-1.28%). In 2022, Habersham County's population grew by 1.57%

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 Habersham 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, Habersham County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.92%. It averaged 0.95% during the 1980s, 2.53% during the 1990s, 2.01% throughout the 2000s, 0.60% in the 2010s, 1.35% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Habersham County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Georgia and the nation. As the chart reveals, Habersham County's average annual population growth outperformed Georgia's average in the 1970s (1.92% vs. 1.71%), fell below Georgia's average in the 1980s (0.95% vs. 1.75%), outpaced Georgia's average during the 1990s (2.53% vs. 2.30%), led Georgia's average during the 2000s (2.01% vs. 1.80%), recorded under Georgia's average in the 2010s (0.60% vs. 1.01%), and recorded above Georgia's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (1.35% vs. 0.84%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Habersham County led the nation over the 1970s (1.92% vs. 1.10%), fell under the nation in the 1980s (0.95% vs. 0.95%), outpaced the nation over the 1990s (2.53% vs. 1.23%), led the nation in the 2000s (2.01% vs. 0.95%), posted below the nation over the 2010s (0.60% vs. 0.74%), and outgained the nation over 2020-2022 (1.35% vs. 0.31%).