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 Oconee County with comparisons to Georgia and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Oconee County vs. Georgia's population growth over 1969-2021. 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 Oconee County's annual population for the period 1969-2021 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 53-year period, Oconee County's population rose from 7,848 in 1969 to 43,023 in 2021, for a net gain of 35,175, or 448.20%.

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 1969-2021 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 53-year period, Georgia's population rose from 4,551,000 in 1969 to 10,799,566 in 2021, for a net gain of 6,248,566, or 137.30%.

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 Oconee 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.

Oconee County's overall population growth was 448.20% over 1969-2021 outpaced Georgia's increase of 137.30%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 64.88%.

Another interesting and insightful way of contrasting the population growth of Oconee 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, Oconee County's population comprised 0.17% of Georgia's population, while in 2021 it comprised 0.40% thereby yielding a +0.23% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Oconee County's population growth by tracking the year-to-year percent change over 1970-2021. The average annual percent change for the entire 52-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, Oconee County's population grew at an annual rate of 3.34% over 1970-2021. The county posted its highest growth in 1972 (7.05%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2000 (0.92%). In 2021, Oconee County's population grew by 2.38%

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 Oconee 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 2020-2021.

During the 1970s, Oconee County's annual population growth rate averaged 4.33%. It averaged 3.60% during the 1980s, 4.17% in the 1990s, 2.37% during the 2000s, 2.41% in the 2010s, 2.32% thus far this decade (2020-2021).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Oconee County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Georgia and the nation. As the chart reveals, Oconee County's average annual population growth outperformed Georgia's average in the 1970s (4.33% vs. 1.71%), outpaced Georgia's average during the 1980s (3.60% vs. 1.75%), topped Georgia's average throughout the 1990s (4.17% vs. 2.30%), led Georgia's average in the 2000s (2.37% vs. 1.80%), registered above Georgia's average throughout the 2010s (2.41% vs. 1.01%), and exceeded Georgia's average over the 2 year period of the current decade, 2020-2021 (2.32% vs. 0.73%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Oconee County topped the nation throughout the 1970s (4.33% vs. 1.10%), recorded above the nation throughout the 1980s (3.60% vs. 0.95%), surpassed the nation over the 1990s (4.17% vs. 1.23%), exceeded the nation in the 2000s (2.37% vs. 0.95%), topped the nation in the 2010s (2.41% vs. 0.74%), and outperformed the nation over 2020-2021 (2.32% vs. 0.25%).