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 Richland Parish with comparisons to Louisiana and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Richland Parish vs. Louisiana'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 Richland Parish's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Richland Parish's population dropped from 21,848 in 1969 to 19,826 in 2022, for a net loss of -2,022, or -9.25%.

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 traces Louisiana's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Louisiana's population rose from 3,619,000 in 1969 to 4,590,241 in 2022, for a net gain of 971,241, or 26.84%.

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.

Another interesting and insightful way of contrasting the population growth of Richland Parish is to trace its individual percentage contributions to Louisiana's statewide population over time, as shown in Figure 3. A rising share means a region's population grew faster, or declined less, than Louisiana's population, while a declining share shows it grew more slowly.

In 1969, Richland Parish's population comprised 0.60% of Louisiana's population, while in 2022 it comprised 0.43% thereby yielding a -0.17% share-shift.

Figure 4 highlights the short-run pattern of Richland Parish'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 illustrated 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, Richland Parish's population contracted at an annual rate of -0.18% over 1970-2022. The parish posted its highest growth in 1971 (2.33%) and posted its lowest growth in 1973 (-3.22%). In 2022, Richland Parish's population declined by -0.32%

Over the past five decades some parishes have experienced extreme swings in growth, and often such swings have tended to coincide with the decades themselves. Figure 5 again shows the annual percent change in Richland Parish's population since 1970, but this time they are displayed with average growth rates for the decade of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020-2022.

During the 1970s, Richland Parish's annual population growth rate averaged 0.18%. It averaged -0.50% throughout the 1980s, -0.03% in the 1990s, -0.18% in the 2000s, -0.26% throughout the 2010s, -0.52% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 6 compares the decade average growth rates for Richland Parish noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Louisiana and the nation. As the chart reveals, Richland Parish's average annual population growth lagged Louisiana's average throughout the 1970s (0.18% vs. 1.35%), trailed Louisiana's average throughout the 1980s (-0.50% vs. 0.28%), fell below Louisiana's average during the 1990s (-0.03% vs. 0.48%), trailed Louisiana's average in the 2000s (-0.18% vs. 0.09%), fell below Louisiana's average during the 2010s (-0.26% vs. 0.38%), and outpaced Louisiana's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.52% vs. -0.53%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Richland Parish posted below the nation throughout the 1970s (0.18% vs. 1.10%), fell under the nation throughout the 1980s (-0.50% vs. 0.95%), posted below the nation in the 1990s (-0.03% vs. 1.23%), recorded underneath the nation in the 2000s (-0.18% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation in the 2010s (-0.26% vs. 0.74%), and fell under the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.52% vs. 0.31%).