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 Charles County with comparisons to Maryland and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Charles County vs. Maryland'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 Charles County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Charles County's population rose from 46,637 in 1969 to 170,102 in 2022, for a net gain of 123,465, or 264.74%.

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 Maryland's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Maryland's population rose from 3,868,000 in 1969 to 6,164,660 in 2022, for a net gain of 2,296,660, or 59.38%.

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

Charles County's overall population growth was 264.74% over 1969-2022 outpaced Maryland's increase of 59.38%, and topped the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Charles County's population totaled 1.21% of Maryland's population, while in 2022 it equated to 2.76% thereby yielding a +1.55% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Charles 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, Charles County's population grew at an annual rate of 2.48% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1972 (6.74%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2020 (0.53%). In 2022, Charles County's population grew by 0.73%

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 depicts the annual percent change in Charles 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, Charles County's annual population growth rate averaged 4.33%. It averaged 3.35% during the 1980s, 1.83% during the 1990s, 2.02% in the 2000s, 1.37% during the 2010s, 0.85% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Charles County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Maryland and the nation. As the chart reveals, Charles County's average annual population growth surpassed Maryland's average in the 1970s (4.33% vs. 0.88%), registered above Maryland's average throughout the 1980s (3.35% vs. 1.14%), led Maryland's average in the 1990s (1.83% vs. 1.06%), exceeded Maryland's average throughout the 2000s (2.02% vs. 0.87%), led Maryland's average during the 2010s (1.37% vs. 0.73%), and led Maryland's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.85% vs. 0.01%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Charles County exceeded the nation during the 1970s (4.33% vs. 1.10%), outpaced the nation over the 1980s (3.35% vs. 0.95%), recorded above the nation in the 1990s (1.83% vs. 1.23%), exceeded the nation over the 2000s (2.02% vs. 0.95%), exceeded the nation during the 2010s (1.37% vs. 0.74%), and exceeded the nation over 2020-2022 (0.85% vs. 0.31%).