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 Ionia County with comparisons to Michigan and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Ionia County vs. Michigan'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 Ionia County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Ionia County's population rose from 45,946 in 1969 to 66,809 in 2022, for a net gain of 20,863, or 45.41%.

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 Michigan's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Michigan's population rose from 8,781,000 in 1969 to 10,034,113 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,253,113, or 14.27%.

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

Ionia County's overall population growth was 45.41% over 1969-2022 outpaced Michigan's increase of 14.27%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Ionia County's population comprised 0.52% of Michigan's population, while in 2022 it comprised 0.67% thereby yielding a +0.14% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Ionia 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, Ionia County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.72% over 1970-2022. The county recorded its highest growth in 1991 (8.23%) and posted its lowest growth in 2009 (-2.01%). In 2022, Ionia County's population grew by 0.02%

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 illustrates the annual percent change in Ionia 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, Ionia County's annual population growth rate averaged 1.16%. It averaged 1.00% during the 1980s, 0.82% during the 1990s, 0.38% in the 2000s, 0.44% throughout the 2010s, 0.03% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Ionia County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Michigan and the nation. As the chart reveals, Ionia County's average annual population growth outpaced Michigan's average in the 1970s (1.16% vs. 0.52%), outpaced Michigan's average in the 1980s (1.00% vs. 0.01%), led Michigan's average during the 1990s (0.82% vs. 0.68%), recorded above Michigan's average throughout the 2000s (0.38% vs. 0.01%), outperformed Michigan's average in the 2010s (0.44% vs. 0.18%), and outpaced Michigan's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.03% vs. -0.15%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Ionia County exceeded the nation throughout the 1970s (1.16% vs. 1.10%), outgained the nation over the 1980s (1.00% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 1990s (0.82% vs. 1.23%), lagged the nation during the 2000s (0.38% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 2010s (0.44% vs. 0.74%), and fell under the nation over 2020-2022 (0.03% vs. 0.31%).