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 Metropolitan New Hampshire with comparisons to New Hampshire and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Metropolitan New Hampshire vs. New Hampshire'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 Metropolitan New Hampshire's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Metropolitan New Hampshire's population rose from 424,248 in 1969 to 878,293 in 2022, for a net gain of 454,045, or 107.02%.

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 New Hampshire's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, New Hampshire's population rose from 724,000 in 1969 to 1,395,231 in 2022, for a net gain of 671,231, or 92.71%.

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 Metropolitan New Hampshire's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with New Hampshire, 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.

Metropolitan New Hampshire's overall population growth was 107.02% over 1969-2022 outpaced New Hampshire's increase of 92.71%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Metropolitan New Hampshire's population totaled 58.60% of New Hampshire's population, while in 2022 it equated to 62.95% thereby yielding a +4.35% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Metropolitan New Hampshire'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, Metropolitan New Hampshire's population grew at an annual rate of 1.39% over 1970-2022. Metropolitan New Hampshire recorded its highest growth in 1971 (3.36%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1991 (-0.61%). In 2022, Metropolitan New Hampshire's population grew by 0.46%

Over the past five decades some metropolitan regions 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 Metropolitan New Hampshire'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, Metropolitan New Hampshire's annual population growth rate averaged 2.58%. It averaged 2.23% in the 1980s, 1.10% throughout the 1990s, 0.73% in the 2000s, 0.55% in the 2010s, 0.53% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Metropolitan New Hampshire noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for New Hampshire and the nation. As the chart reveals, Metropolitan New Hampshire's average annual population growth registered above New Hampshire's average in the 1970s (2.58% vs. 2.33%), exceeded New Hampshire's average in the 1980s (2.23% vs. 1.94%), outpaced New Hampshire's average in the 1990s (1.10% vs. 1.02%), fell below New Hampshire's average during the 2000s (0.73% vs. 0.75%), recorded above New Hampshire's average during the 2010s (0.55% vs. 0.42%), and trailed New Hampshire's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.53% vs. 0.57%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Metropolitan New Hampshire outgained the nation throughout the 1970s (2.58% vs. 1.10%), outgained the nation during the 1980s (2.23% vs. 0.95%), fell under the nation in the 1990s (1.10% vs. 1.23%), posted below the nation over the 2000s (0.73% vs. 0.95%), lagged the nation throughout the 2010s (0.55% vs. 0.74%), and registered above the nation over 2020-2022 (0.53% vs. 0.31%).