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 St. Charles Parish with comparisons to Louisiana and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing St. Charles 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 St. Charles Parish's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, St. Charles Parish's population rose from 29,033 in 1969 to 50,998 in 2022, for a net gain of 21,965, or 75.66%.

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 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.

Figure 3 shows St. Charles Parish's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with Louisiana, 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.

St. Charles Parish's overall population growth was 75.66% over 1969-2022 outpaced Louisiana's increase of 26.84%, and topped the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of contrasting the population growth of St. Charles Parish is to trace its individual percentage contributions to Louisiana's statewide population over time, as shown in Figure 4. 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, St. Charles Parish's population comprised 0.80% of Louisiana's population, while in 2022 it comprised 1.11% thereby yielding a +0.31% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of St. Charles 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, St. Charles Parish's population grew at an annual rate of 1.08% over 1970-2022. The parish posted its highest growth in 2006 (3.52%) and posted its lowest growth in 2022 (-2.68%). In 2022, St. Charles Parish's population declined by -2.68%

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 6 again illustrates the annual percent change in St. Charles Parish'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, St. Charles Parish's annual population growth rate averaged 2.37%. It averaged 1.47% during the 1980s, 1.22% in the 1990s, 0.97% during the 2000s, -0.01% during the 2010s, -1.04% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for St. Charles Parish noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Louisiana and the nation. As the chart reveals, St. Charles Parish's average annual population growth surpassed Louisiana's average during the 1970s (2.37% vs. 1.35%), outgained Louisiana's average in the 1980s (1.47% vs. 0.28%), exceeded Louisiana's average in the 1990s (1.22% vs. 0.48%), outperformed Louisiana's average during the 2000s (0.97% vs. 0.09%), amounted to less than Louisiana's average during the 2010s (-0.01% vs. 0.38%), and posted below Louisiana's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-1.04% vs. -0.53%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, St. Charles Parish exceeded the nation in the 1970s (2.37% vs. 1.10%), exceeded the nation in the 1980s (1.47% vs. 0.95%), lagged the nation during the 1990s (1.22% vs. 1.23%), exceeded the nation during the 2000s (0.97% vs. 0.95%), lagged the nation during the 2010s (-0.01% vs. 0.74%), and recorded underneath the nation over 2020-2022 (-1.04% vs. 0.31%).