Historically, the City of Bend population made up about half of the Deschutes County population. This changed in the 1960s when thousands of rural recreational lots and suburban lots were platted in the county outside of urban areas.

Much of the county population growth in the 1970s and 1980s was driven by persons seeking open space rather than urban lots. Figure 4-1 shows the change in population since the 1940 census.

The late 1980s marked the swing out of a recessionary period in Central Oregon and into better economic times. Bend’s expanding role as the regional trade and service center, combined with its attractiveness as a year-round tourism and recreation area, fueled another surge of population and employment growth that continued through the 1990s and has become stronger during the early 2000s.