Denver’s growth spurt slows down
Denver is still growing fast, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates that show the city added 13,028 people in the year that ended July 1. And most of its population increase again was attributable to newcomers. But county population estimates rele
In the prior year ending July 1, 2015, according to revised census estimates, Denver’s growth rate was nearly 2.7 percent.
Still, the latest year of growth was slightly faster than the 1,000-per-month pace that Mayor Michael Hancock and other city officials frequently cite as shorthand for the city’s long-sustained growth. Barring an about-face, it’s likely that Denver will cross the 700,000 population milestone in the coming year.
Denver’s slowing pace of growth bears out a recent projection by the Colorado State Demography Office for the state as a whole.
Colorado’s population in July 2016 was estimated by the Census Bureau to be 5.5 million, up 91,726 people or slightly less than 1.7 percent — the seventh-highest growth rate among states for that year. State demographers forecast that Colorado will add plenty of people through 2020, with its population nearing 6 million.
But the latest Population and Economic Overview report predicts a less-fevered pace due to “a slowing economy, slowing birth rates, our aging population and slower labor force growth.”
How that plays out in Denver and the wider metro area could determine whether neighborhood densification, traffic congestion and other growing pains remain dominating issues — or fade into the background.
Here are a few other nuggets from the new census estimates:
Newcomers vs. births: Similar to most suburban counties, Denver’s surge — its population has grown since 2010 by more than 93,000, or 15.5 percent — has largely been due to an influx of newcomers. The new estimates attribute about 60 percent of the city’s growth from 2015 to 2016 to net domestic and international migration, or people moving into Denver from else-
where. The rest was from natural population growth (births minus deaths).
Colorado’s fastestgrowing counties: Denver added the second-most people in the state last year. The top spot went to El Paso County (home to Colorado Springs), which had 688,284 residents after growing by 13,994. Greeley’s Weld County was third, which after an increase of 9,879 was home to 294,932 people. The counties with the fastest rates of growth were all small and rural, led by southern Colorado’s Costilla County.
Other metro Denver counties: Nearly all other counties in the metro area were far down the list for growth rates, due to their sizes, but ranked in the state’s Top 10 for raw population increases. Arapahoe was fourth, Adams fifth, Jefferson sixth, Douglas seventh, Boulder ninth and Broomfield 12th.
In 2015, Broomfield had ranked first statewide for rate of growth, but on that list, it fell to 13th in 2016.
The census estimates put the population of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan statistical area — which excludes Boulder — at nearly 2.9 million, after the region grew by 44,261 people, or 1.6 percent. Its population increase ranked 15th among metro areas nationally, and its growth rate ranked 66th.