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 Sussex County with comparisons to Virginia and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Sussex County vs. Virginia'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 Sussex County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Sussex County's population dropped from 11,603 in 1969 to 10,680 in 2022, for a net loss of -923, or -7.95%.

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 Virginia's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Virginia's population rose from 4,614,000 in 1969 to 8,683,619 in 2022, for a net gain of 4,069,619, or 88.20%.

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 3 portrays Sussex County's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with Virginia, 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.

Sussex County's overall population growth was -7.95% over 1969-2022 trailed Virginia's increase of 88.20%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Sussex County's population totaled 0.25% of Virginia's population, while in 2022 it comprised 0.12% thereby yielding a -0.13% share-shift.

Figure 5 shows the short-run pattern of Sussex 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, Sussex County's population contracted at an annual rate of -0.11% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1999 (22.94%) and posted its lowest growth in 2016 (-2.42%). In 2022, Sussex County's population declined by -1.22%

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 Sussex 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, Sussex County's annual population growth rate averaged -0.54%. It averaged -0.61% in the 1980s, 2.17% throughout the 1990s, -0.30% throughout the 2000s, -1.05% throughout the 2010s, -0.83% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Sussex County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Virginia and the nation. As the chart reveals, Sussex County's average annual population growth trailed Virginia's average throughout the 1970s (-0.54% vs. 1.44%), posted below Virginia's average in the 1980s (-0.61% vs. 1.40%), outpaced Virginia's average during the 1990s (2.17% vs. 1.35%), posted below Virginia's average throughout the 2000s (-0.30% vs. 1.25%), trailed Virginia's average during the 2010s (-1.05% vs. 0.82%), and posted below Virginia's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.83% vs. 0.33%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Sussex County recorded underneath the nation throughout the 1970s (-0.54% vs. 1.10%), recorded underneath the nation over the 1980s (-0.61% vs. 0.95%), outgained the nation over the 1990s (2.17% vs. 1.23%), posted below the nation during the 2000s (-0.30% vs. 0.95%), fell below the nation in the 2010s (-1.05% vs. 0.74%), and posted below the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.83% vs. 0.31%).