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 Martin County with comparisons to Florida and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Martin County vs. Florida'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 Martin County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Martin County's population rose from 27,121 in 1969 to 162,006 in 2022, for a net gain of 134,885, or 497.35%.

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 Florida's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Florida's population rose from 6,641,000 in 1969 to 22,244,823 in 2022, for a net gain of 15,603,823, or 234.96%.

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

Martin County's overall population growth was 497.35% over 1969-2022 outpaced Florida's increase of 234.96%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Martin County's population totaled 0.41% of Florida's population, while in 2022 it totaled 0.73% thereby yielding a +0.32% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Martin 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 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, Martin County's population grew at an annual rate of 3.48% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1973 (17.26%) and posted its lowest growth in 2006 (-0.08%). In 2022, Martin County's population grew by 1.10%

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 depicts the annual percent change in Martin 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, Martin County's annual population growth rate averaged 8.55%. It averaged 4.77% in the 1980s, 2.61% during the 1990s, 1.46% during the 2000s, 0.83% in the 2010s, 0.82% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Martin County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Florida and the nation. As the chart reveals, Martin County's average annual population growth outpaced Florida's average during the 1970s (8.55% vs. 3.62%), topped Florida's average in the 1980s (4.77% vs. 2.93%), outperformed Florida's average throughout the 1990s (2.61% vs. 2.23%), recorded under Florida's average during the 2000s (1.46% vs. 1.70%), amounted to less than Florida's average throughout the 2010s (0.83% vs. 1.36%), and amounted to less than Florida's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.82% vs. 1.37%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Martin County topped the nation in the 1970s (8.55% vs. 1.10%), surpassed the nation over the 1980s (4.77% vs. 0.95%), outperformed the nation over the 1990s (2.61% vs. 1.23%), topped the nation over the 2000s (1.46% vs. 0.95%), outgained the nation in the 2010s (0.83% vs. 0.74%), and led the nation over 2020-2022 (0.82% vs. 0.31%).