A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that Colorado is the seventh-fastest-growing state in the country, having added 91,726 new residents (or almost 10,000 per month) between July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016, to bring the overall population to 5,540,545. And as evidenced by traffic on I-25 and plenty of other observable factors, many, if not most, of these arrivals have settled into the Denver metro area.
Why the continuing boom? An analysis from WalletHub provides answers.
The site's data shows that Denver is among the ten fastest-growing big cities in the country, with "big" defined as metropolitan areas with a population of more than 300,000. Moreover, Aurora is hot on Denver's heels in the overall rankings, demonstrating that the expansion isn't stopping at the Mile High City's limits.
We've highlighted the top ten cities below — but WalletHub also provided Westword with Denver's results in the fourteen categories used to determine overall scores for the 515 cities analyzed. The groupings include a breakdown of population growth and demonstrate a big decrease in unemployment and the poverty rate over a period that, in most cases, spans from 2009 to 2015.
The photo-illustrated categories are below. Then, on page two of this post, WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez drills into the data in a Q&A with Westword that precedes the overall big-city top ten and explanations about methodology. Click to access the original post.
Denver Population Growth: 1.89 percent
Rank: 89
Denver Working-Age Population Growth: 2.13 percent
Rank: 90
Denver College-Educated Population Growth: 2.28 percent
Rank: 173
Denver Median Household Income Growth: 3.85 percent
Rank: 60
Denver Unemployment Rate Decrease: -18.72 percent
Rank: 1
Denver Poverty Rate Decrease: -2.78 percent
Rank: 37
Denver Job Growth: 2.78 percent
Rank: 75
Denver Increase in Ratio of Full-Time to Part-Time Jobs: 3.99 percent
Rank: 183
Denver Growth in Regional GDP per Capita: 0.71 percent
Rank: 246
Denver Increase in Number of Businesses: 1.12 percent
Rank: 124
Denver Increase in Number of Startups: 4.23 percent
Rank: 284
Denver Increase in Venture Capital Investment Amount: 26.5 percent
Rank: 292
Denver Median House Price Growth: 4.48 percent
Rank: 41
Denver Foreclosure Rate Decrease: -0.34 percent
Rank: 171
Overall Score: 52.63
Overall Rank: 56
Overall City Size Rank: 4
Continue for more details about the Denver growth data from WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez and the survey's overall big city rankings.