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 Ravalli County with comparisons to Montana and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Ravalli County vs. Montana'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 Ravalli County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Ravalli County's population rose from 14,237 in 1969 to 47,298 in 2022, for a net gain of 33,061, or 232.22%.

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 Montana's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Montana's population rose from 694,000 in 1969 to 1,122,867 in 2022, for a net gain of 428,867, or 61.80%.

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

Ravalli County's overall population growth was 232.22% over 1969-2022 outpaced Montana's increase of 61.80%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Ravalli County's population totaled 2.05% of Montana's population, while in 2022 it equated to 4.21% thereby yielding a +2.16% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Ravalli 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, Ravalli County's population grew at an annual rate of 2.31% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1978 (6.98%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2009 (-0.66%). In 2022, Ravalli County's population grew by 2.54%

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 traces the annual percent change in Ravalli 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, Ravalli County's annual population growth rate averaged 4.33%. It averaged 1.37% in the 1980s, 3.59% in the 1990s, 1.25% during the 2000s, 0.88% during the 2010s, 2.77% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Ravalli County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Montana and the nation. As the chart reveals, Ravalli County's average annual population growth outperformed Montana's average during the 1970s (4.33% vs. 1.29%), topped Montana's average during the 1980s (1.37% vs. 0.14%), exceeded Montana's average throughout the 1990s (3.59% vs. 1.16%), topped Montana's average during the 2000s (1.25% vs. 0.92%), amounted to less than Montana's average during the 2010s (0.88% vs. 0.89%), and outgained Montana's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (2.77% vs. 1.45%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Ravalli County surpassed the nation throughout the 1970s (4.33% vs. 1.10%), led the nation during the 1980s (1.37% vs. 0.95%), exceeded the nation in the 1990s (3.59% vs. 1.23%), outgained the nation over the 2000s (1.25% vs. 0.95%), exceeded the nation throughout the 2010s (0.88% vs. 0.74%), and led the nation over 2020-2022 (2.77% vs. 0.31%).