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 Metropolitan New York with comparisons to New York and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Metropolitan New York vs. New York'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 Metropolitan New York's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Metropolitan New York's population rose from 16,777,689 in 1969 to 18,321,818 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,544,129, or 9.20%.

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 New York's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, New York's population rose from 18,105,000 in 1969 to 19,677,151 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,572,151, or 8.68%.

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 Metropolitan New York's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with New York, 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.

Metropolitan New York's overall population growth was 9.20% over 1969-2022 outpaced New York's increase of 8.68%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Metropolitan New York's population comprised 92.67% of New York's population, while in 2022 it equated to 93.11% thereby yielding a +0.44% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Metropolitan New York'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, Metropolitan New York's population grew at an annual rate of 0.17% over 1970-2022. Metropolitan New York recorded its highest growth in 2011 (1.02%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2021 (-1.34%). In 2022, Metropolitan New York's population declined by -0.92%

Over the past five decades some metropolitan regions 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 Metropolitan New York'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, Metropolitan New York's annual population growth rate averaged -0.33%. It averaged 0.21% during the 1980s, 0.52% during the 1990s, 0.24% throughout the 2000s, 0.53% throughout the 2010s, -0.95% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Metropolitan New York noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for New York and the nation. As the chart reveals, Metropolitan New York's average annual population growth trailed New York's average throughout the 1970s (-0.33% vs. -0.26%), registered above New York's average in the 1980s (0.21% vs. 0.20%), surpassed New York's average in the 1990s (0.52% vs. 0.49%), exceeded New York's average throughout the 2000s (0.24% vs. 0.22%), registered above New York's average during the 2010s (0.53% vs. 0.46%), and fell below New York's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.95% vs. -0.91%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Metropolitan New York recorded underneath the nation during the 1970s (-0.33% vs. 1.10%), recorded underneath the nation throughout the 1980s (0.21% vs. 0.95%), fell below the nation during the 1990s (0.52% vs. 1.23%), trailed the nation in the 2000s (0.24% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation over the 2010s (0.53% vs. 0.74%), and fell under the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.95% vs. 0.31%).