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 Muscatine County with comparisons to Iowa and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Muscatine County vs. Iowa'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 Muscatine County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Muscatine County's population rose from 36,655 in 1969 to 42,377 in 2022, for a net gain of 5,722, or 15.61%.

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 Iowa's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Iowa's population rose from 2,805,000 in 1969 to 3,200,517 in 2022, for a net gain of 395,517, or 14.10%.

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

Muscatine County's overall population growth was 15.61% over 1969-2022 outpaced Iowa's increase of 14.10%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Muscatine County's population comprised 1.31% of Iowa's population, while in 2022 it comprised 1.32% thereby yielding a +0.02% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Muscatine 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, Muscatine County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.28% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1975 (1.97%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1987 (-1.21%). In 2022, Muscatine County's population declined by -0.73%

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 traces the annual percent change in Muscatine County'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, Muscatine County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.00%. It averaged -0.18% in the 1980s, 0.45% throughout the 1990s, 0.28% in the 2000s, 0.11% in the 2010s, -0.67% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Muscatine County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Iowa and the nation. As the chart reveals, Muscatine County's average annual population growth outgained Iowa's average in the 1970s (1.00% vs. 0.39%), led Iowa's average in the 1980s (-0.18% vs. -0.51%), amounted to less than Iowa's average in the 1990s (0.45% vs. 0.52%), fell below Iowa's average in the 2000s (0.28% vs. 0.39%), amounted to less than Iowa's average during the 2010s (0.11% vs. 0.49%), and fell below Iowa's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.67% vs. 0.17%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Muscatine County recorded underneath the nation over the 1970s (1.00% vs. 1.10%), posted below the nation in the 1980s (-0.18% vs. 0.95%), recorded underneath the nation in the 1990s (0.45% vs. 1.23%), fell below the nation throughout the 2000s (0.28% vs. 0.95%), recorded underneath the nation over the 2010s (0.11% vs. 0.74%), and fell below the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.67% vs. 0.31%).