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 Gilliam County with comparisons to Oregon and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Gilliam County vs. Oregon'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 Gilliam County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Gilliam County's population dropped from 2,383 in 1969 to 2,018 in 2022, for a net loss of -365, or -15.32%.

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 Oregon's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Oregon's population rose from 2,062,000 in 1969 to 4,240,137 in 2022, for a net gain of 2,178,137, or 105.63%.

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

Gilliam County's overall population growth was -15.32% over 1969-2022 trailed Oregon's increase of 105.63%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Gilliam County's population totaled 0.12% of Oregon's population, while in 2022 it totaled 0.05% thereby yielding a -0.07% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Gilliam 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, Gilliam County's population contracted at an annual rate of -0.25% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1975 (10.93%) and posted its lowest growth in 1971 (-16.42%). In 2022, Gilliam County's population grew by 0.15%

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 Gilliam 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, Gilliam County's annual population growth rate averaged -1.09%. It averaged -2.08% in the 1980s, 1.33% during the 1990s, -0.35% during the 2000s, 0.49% throughout the 2010s, 1.22% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Gilliam County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Oregon and the nation. As the chart reveals, Gilliam County's average annual population growth fell below Oregon's average in the 1970s (-1.09% vs. 2.26%), amounted to less than Oregon's average during the 1980s (-2.08% vs. 0.80%), recorded under Oregon's average throughout the 1990s (1.33% vs. 1.98%), amounted to less than Oregon's average in the 2000s (-0.35% vs. 1.16%), fell below Oregon's average throughout the 2010s (0.49% vs. 1.02%), and outpaced Oregon's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (1.22% vs. 0.19%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Gilliam County posted below the nation during the 1970s (-1.09% vs. 1.10%), fell below the nation in the 1980s (-2.08% vs. 0.95%), outpaced the nation over the 1990s (1.33% vs. 1.23%), fell under the nation throughout the 2000s (-0.35% vs. 0.95%), fell below the nation throughout the 2010s (0.49% vs. 0.74%), and outperformed the nation over 2020-2022 (1.22% vs. 0.31%).