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 Tangipahoa Parish with comparisons to Louisiana and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Tangipahoa 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 Tangipahoa Parish's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Tangipahoa Parish's population rose from 65,464 in 1969 to 137,048 in 2022, for a net gain of 71,584, or 109.35%.

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 Tangipahoa 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.

Tangipahoa Parish's overall population growth was 109.35% over 1969-2022 outpaced Louisiana's increase of 26.84%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

Another interesting and insightful way of highlighting the population growth of Tangipahoa 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, Tangipahoa Parish's population comprised 1.81% of Louisiana's population, while in 2022 it totaled 2.99% thereby yielding a +1.18% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Tangipahoa 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 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, Tangipahoa Parish's population grew at an annual rate of 1.41% over 1970-2022. The parish recorded its highest growth in 2006 (6.65%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1987 (-1.42%). In 2022, Tangipahoa Parish's population grew by 1.14%

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 shows the annual percent change in Tangipahoa 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, Tangipahoa Parish's annual population growth rate averaged 2.00%. It averaged 0.81% during the 1980s, 1.44% in the 1990s, 1.89% throughout the 2000s, 0.96% throughout the 2010s, 1.26% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Tangipahoa Parish noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Louisiana and the nation. As the chart reveals, Tangipahoa Parish's average annual population growth surpassed Louisiana's average in the 1970s (2.00% vs. 1.35%), registered above Louisiana's average throughout the 1980s (0.81% vs. 0.28%), outgained Louisiana's average in the 1990s (1.44% vs. 0.48%), topped Louisiana's average during the 2000s (1.89% vs. 0.09%), topped Louisiana's average throughout the 2010s (0.96% vs. 0.38%), and outperformed Louisiana's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (1.26% vs. -0.53%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Tangipahoa Parish outpaced the nation throughout the 1970s (2.00% vs. 1.10%), fell below the nation over the 1980s (0.81% vs. 0.95%), registered above the nation during the 1990s (1.44% vs. 1.23%), topped the nation in the 2000s (1.89% vs. 0.95%), outpaced the nation throughout the 2010s (0.96% vs. 0.74%), and outgained the nation over 2020-2022 (1.26% vs. 0.31%).