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 Kauai County with comparisons to Hawaii and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing Kauai County vs. Hawaii'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 Kauai County's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Kauai County's population rose from 30,044 in 1969 to 73,810 in 2022, for a net gain of 43,766, or 145.67%.

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 tracks Hawaii's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Hawaii's population rose from 743,000 in 1969 to 1,440,196 in 2022, for a net gain of 697,196, or 93.84%.

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

Kauai County's overall population growth was 145.67% over 1969-2022 outpaced Hawaii's increase of 93.84%, and topped the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, Kauai County's population comprised 4.04% of Hawaii's population, while in 2022 it equated to 5.12% thereby yielding a +1.08% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of Kauai 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 traced 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, Kauai County's population grew at an annual rate of 1.73% over 1970-2022. The county posted its highest growth in 1971 (12.24%) and recorded its lowest growth in 1972 (-4.15%). In 2022, Kauai County's population grew by 0.03%

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 Kauai 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, Kauai County's annual population growth rate averaged 2.46%. It averaged 2.75% in the 1980s, 1.58% during the 1990s, 1.33% throughout the 2000s, 1.00% in the 2010s, 0.17% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for Kauai County noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Hawaii and the nation. As the chart reveals, Kauai County's average annual population growth amounted to less than Hawaii's average in the 1970s (2.46% vs. 2.49%), outperformed Hawaii's average throughout the 1980s (2.75% vs. 1.43%), outpaced Hawaii's average during the 1990s (1.58% vs. 1.01%), exceeded Hawaii's average in the 2000s (1.33% vs. 1.07%), surpassed Hawaii's average in the 2010s (1.00% vs. 0.79%), and topped Hawaii's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.17% vs. -0.39%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, Kauai County registered above the nation throughout the 1970s (2.46% vs. 1.10%), registered above the nation during the 1980s (2.75% vs. 0.95%), surpassed the nation during the 1990s (1.58% vs. 1.23%), recorded above the nation over the 2000s (1.33% vs. 0.95%), outpaced the nation throughout the 2010s (1.00% vs. 0.74%), and fell below the nation over 2020-2022 (0.17% vs. 0.31%).