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 the Wausau MSA with comparisons to Wisconsin and the nation at large. This analysis features alternative approaches toward discussing, diagnosing and comparing the Wausau MSA vs. Wisconsin'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 the Wausau MSA's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, the Wausau MSA's population rose from 120,590 in 1969 to 166,334 in 2022, for a net gain of 45,744, or 37.93%.

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 Wisconsin's annual population for the period 1969-2022 to illustrate population patterns over time. During this 54-year period, Wisconsin's population rose from 4,378,000 in 1969 to 5,892,539 in 2022, for a net gain of 1,514,539, or 34.59%.

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 the Wausau MSA's population growth in a broader context by offering direct comparisons across time with Wisconsin, 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.

The Wausau MSA's overall population growth was 37.93% over 1969-2022 outpaced Wisconsin's increase of 34.59%, and fell below the United States' increase of 65.57%.

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

In 1969, the Wausau MSA's population totaled 2.75% of Wisconsin's population, while in 2022 it comprised 2.82% thereby yielding a +0.07% share-shift.

Figure 5 displays the short-run pattern of the Wausau MSA'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, the Wausau MSA's population grew at an annual rate of 0.61% over 1970-2022. The Wausau MSA posted its highest growth in 1977 (2.06%) and posted its lowest growth in 2021 (-0.17%). In 2022, the Wausau MSA's population grew by 0.08%

Over the past five decades some msas 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 the Wausau MSA'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, the Wausau MSA's annual population growth rate averaged 1.23%. It averaged 0.35% throughout the 1980s, 0.93% throughout the 1990s, 0.49% throughout the 2000s, 0.22% during the 2010s, 0.02% thus far this decade (2020-2022).

Figure 7 compares the decade average growth rates for the Wausau MSA noted in the previous graph with the corresponding decade averages for Wisconsin and the nation. As the chart reveals, the Wausau MSA's average annual population growth outpaced Wisconsin's average in the 1970s (1.23% vs. 0.64%), amounted to less than Wisconsin's average during the 1980s (0.35% vs. 0.40%), trailed Wisconsin's average throughout the 1990s (0.93% vs. 0.94%), recorded under Wisconsin's average during the 2000s (0.49% vs. 0.61%), trailed Wisconsin's average during the 2010s (0.22% vs. 0.37%), and fell below Wisconsin's average over the 3 year period of the current decade, 2020-2022 (0.02% vs. 0.07%).

Finally, relative to nationwide population growth trends, the Wausau MSA outgained the nation during the 1970s (1.23% vs. 1.10%), fell below the nation over the 1980s (0.35% vs. 0.95%), fell below the nation in the 1990s (0.93% vs. 1.23%), posted below the nation throughout the 2000s (0.49% vs. 0.95%), posted below the nation throughout the 2010s (0.22% vs. 0.74%), and lagged the nation over 2020-2022 (0.02% vs. 0.31%).