Did you know that the Economic and Business Research Center (EBRC), which houses the MAP Dashboard, celebrated its 75th anniversary this year? Tucson was a very different place 75 years ago. For one, there were far fewer people here. The 1950 Census figures reveal that fewer people lived in Arizona than currently reside in Pima County today. The population of Arizona in 1950 was 749,587 and only 141,216 in Pima County (Figure 1). The most recent Census from 2020 indicated 7,151,502 people living in Arizona and 1,043,433 in Pima County. That was an increase of 854.1% for Arizona and 638.9% for Pima County. The Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is the same geographic area as Pima County.
Figure 1: Population
Technology is now an integral part of our everyday lives and internet access is an important part of that, which is why the MAP Dashboard tracks information on internet access in Tucson and comparable metropolitan areas. It looked quite different 75 years ago. There were no home computers back then and televisions, an item we take for granted now, were quite rare – only 0.6% of Pima County households owned a television in 1950. That would be 245 televisions for the entire county!
The trajectory of population growth for the Tucson area over the last 75 years along with a reflection on changes in demographics, housing, and society can be found in a recent article titled Tucson Then and Now: What Has Changed Over 75 Years.
