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 Ventura County with comparisons to California and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Ventura County vs. California'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 tracks Ventura County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Ventura County's population rose from 369,811 in 1969 to 832,605 in 2022, for a net gain of 462,794, or 125.14%.

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 California's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, California's population rose from 19,711,000 in 1969 to 39,029,342 in 2022, for a net gain of 19,318,342, or 98.01%.

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

Ventura County's overall population growth was 125.14% over 1969-2022 outpaced California's increase of 98.01%, and outpaced the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Ventura County's population totaled 1.88% of California's population, while in 2022 it equated to 2.13% thereby yielding a +0.26% share-shift.

Figure 5 highlights the short-run pattern of Ventura 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, Ventura County's population grew at an annual rate of 1.55% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1980 (4.03%) and recorded its lowest growth in 2022 (-0.80%). In 2022, Ventura County's population declined by -0.80%

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 shows the annual percent change in Ventura 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, Ventura County's annual population growth rate averaged 3.31%. It averaged 2.64% throughout the 1980s, 1.13% throughout the 1990s, 0.93% during the 2000s, 0.37% during the 2010s, -0.51% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Ventura County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for California and the nation. As the chart reveals, Ventura County's average annual population growth led California's average during the 1970s (3.31% vs. 1.67%), led California's average during the 1980s (2.64% vs. 2.31%), amounted to less than California's average during the 1990s (1.13% vs. 1.38%), recorded under California's average in the 2000s (0.93% vs. 0.99%), posted below California's average throughout the 2010s (0.37% vs. 0.68%), and trailed California's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (-0.51% vs. -0.44%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Ventura County outgained the nation during the 1970s (3.31% vs. 1.10%), led the nation in the 1980s (2.64% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation throughout the 1990s (1.13% vs. 1.23%), lagged the nation over the 2000s (0.93% vs. 0.95%), trailed the nation during the 2010s (0.37% vs. 0.74%), and posted below the nation over 2020-2022 (-0.51% vs. 0.31%).