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 Ozark County with comparisons to Missouri and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Ozark County vs. Missouri'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 Ozark County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Ozark County's population rose from 6,332 in 1969 to 8,940 in 2022, for a net gain of 2,608, or 41.19%.

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 Missouri's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Missouri's population rose from 4,640,000 in 1969 to 6,177,957 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,537,957, or 33.15%.

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

Ozark County's overall population growth was 41.19% over 1969-2022 outpaced Missouri's increase of 33.15%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Ozark County's population totaled 0.14% of Missouri's population, while in 2022 it comprised 0.14% thereby yielding a +0.01% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Ozark 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, Ozark County's population grew at an annual rate of 0.67% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1972 (11.25%) and posted its lowest growth in 2018 (-3.05%). In 2022, Ozark County's population grew by 1.89%

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 Ozark 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, Ozark County's annual population growth rate averaged 2.47%. It averaged 0.54% throughout the 1980s, 1.16% in the 1990s, 0.17% throughout the 2000s, -1.12% in the 2010s, 1.17% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Ozark County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Missouri and the nation. As the chart reveals, Ozark County's average annual population growth outpaced Missouri's average in the 1970s (2.47% vs. 0.53%), outperformed Missouri's average throughout the 1980s (0.54% vs. 0.41%), surpassed Missouri's average in the 1990s (1.16% vs. 0.88%), lagged Missouri's average during the 2000s (0.17% vs. 0.70%), fell below Missouri's average in the 2010s (-1.12% vs. 0.30%), and topped Missouri's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (1.17% vs. 0.19%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Ozark County led the nation during the 1970s (2.47% vs. 1.10%), posted below the nation during the 1980s (0.54% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation in the 1990s (1.16% vs. 1.23%), fell below the nation throughout the 2000s (0.17% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 2010s (-1.12% vs. 0.74%), and surpassed the nation over 2020-2022 (1.17% vs. 0.31%).