101,403 more in 7 years, but pace slow again

Denver’s sizzling population growth has lost more of its pop.

The city added 9,844 residents in the year that ended July 1, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. Its official population estimate on that date was 704,621, marking the passing of a new milestone — 700,000 residents — in the city’s long-running population boom.

But for the second straight year, the city and county of Denver’s annual growth rate, at 1.4 percent, reflected a slowing pace, a Denver Post analysis found. That rate was well below the 2 percent level that the city had exceeded for five

straight years — peaking at nearly 2.8 percent in 2015, when the city added 18,347 people, according to revised census figures.

Denver’s pace of growth mirrored Colorado’s as a whole, with the state’s population topping 5.6 million in mid-2017 in the new estimates. The state added 77,049 residents, growing 1.4 percent from 2016, for a total population of 5,607,154.

Denver added fewer than 10,000 people for the first time since the 2010 annual census estimates, even as its numerical increase ranked third among counties in the state in the new release.

Denver County remains the largest in the state, but even as its growth decelerates, the longer view in Denver is impressive: Since 2010, Denver’s population has grown by 101,403.

Back in 1990, the city’s population stood at 467,854, the most recent significant low point after years of declines through the 1980s, according to data from the Colorado State Demography Office.

Over the next 27 years, the city’s population grew