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 Salt Lake County with comparisons to Utah and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Salt Lake County vs. Utah's population growth over 1969-2020. 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 Salt Lake County's annual population for the period 1969-2020 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 52-year period, Salt Lake County's population rose from 455,000 in 1969 to 1,165,517 in 2020, for a net gain of 710,517, or 156.2%.

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 Utah's annual population for the period 1969-2020 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 52-year period, Utah's population rose from 1,047,000 in 1969 to 3,249,879 in 2020, for a net gain of 2,202,879, or 210.4%.

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 Salt Lake County's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with Utah, 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.

Salt Lake County's overall population growth was 156.2% over 1969-2020 trailed Utah's increase of 210.4%, and topped the United States' increase of 63.7%.

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

In 1969, Salt Lake County's population comprised 43.5% of Utah's population, while in 2020 it equated to 35.9% thereby yielding a -7.6% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Salt Lake County's population growth by tracking the year-to-year percent change over 1970-2020. The average annual percent change for the entire 51-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, Salt Lake County's population grew at an annual rate of 1.87% over 1970-2020. The county posted its highest growth in 1980 (3.97%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2020 (0.60%). In 2020, Salt Lake County's population grew by 0.60%

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 Salt Lake County's population since 1970, but this time they are overlayed with average growth rates for the decade of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2020.

During the 1970s, Salt Lake County's annual population growth rate averaged 2.81%. It averaged 1.83% in the 1980s, 2.17% during the 1990s, 1.33% in the 2000s, 1.31% during the 2010s, and 0.60% in 2020.

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Salt Lake County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Utah and the nation. As the chart reveals, Salt Lake County's average annual population growth trailed Utah's average in the 1970s (2.81% vs. 3.07%), fell below Utah's average throughout the 1980s (1.83% vs. 1.88%), fell below Utah's average in the 1990s (2.17% vs. 2.59%), lagged Utah's average throughout the 2000s (1.33% vs. 2.14%), and trailed Utah's average over the 10 year period of the last decade, 2010-2019 (1.31% vs. 1.64%). In 2020, Salt Lake County's growth has recorded under Utah's average (0.60% vs. 1.45%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Salt Lake County recorded above the nation over the 1970s (2.81% vs. 1.10%), led the nation during the 1980s (1.83% vs. 0.95%), topped the nation during the 1990s (2.17% vs. 1.23%), outpaced the nation over the 2000s (1.33% vs. 0.95%), and recorded above the nation over 2010-2019 (1.31% vs. 0.68%). In 2020, growth for Salt Lake County has exceeded the national average (0.60% vs. 0.35%).