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 Minidoka County with comparisons to Idaho and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Minidoka County vs. Idaho'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 Minidoka County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Minidoka County's population rose from 15,717 in 1969 to 22,194 in 2022, for a net gain of 6,477, or 41.21%.

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 Idaho's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Idaho's population rose from 707,000 in 1969 to 1,939,033 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,232,033, or 174.26%.

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

Minidoka County's overall population growth was 41.21% over 1969-2022 trailed Idaho's increase of 174.26%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Minidoka County's population totaled 2.22% of Idaho's population, while in 2022 it equated to 1.14% thereby yielding a -1.08% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Minidoka 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, Minidoka County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.67% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1971 (4.25%) and posted its lowest growth in 1987 (-3.48%). In 2022, Minidoka County's population grew by 1.13%

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 shows the annual percent change in Minidoka County'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, Minidoka County's annual population growth rate averaged 2.37%. It averaged -0.21% in the 1980s, 0.49% in the 1990s, -0.22% during the 2000s, 0.70% during the 2010s, 1.34% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Minidoka County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Idaho and the nation. As the chart reveals, Minidoka County's average annual population growth fell below Idaho's average during the 1970s (2.37% vs. 2.81%), posted below Idaho's average in the 1980s (-0.21% vs. 0.65%), fell below Idaho's average in the 1990s (0.49% vs. 2.52%), trailed Idaho's average in the 2000s (-0.22% vs. 2.00%), amounted to less than Idaho's average during the 2010s (0.70% vs. 1.52%), and fell below Idaho's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (1.34% vs. 2.36%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Minidoka County exceeded the nation during the 1970s (2.37% vs. 1.10%), lagged the nation in the 1980s (-0.21% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation in the 1990s (0.49% vs. 1.23%), trailed the nation in the 2000s (-0.22% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 2010s (0.70% vs. 0.74%), and topped the nation over 2020-2022 (1.34% vs. 0.31%).