For yet another year, the City and County of Denver led all counties in Colorado in numeric population increase, according to the US Census Bureau and their just-released population estimates for July 1, 2008. Here are the numbers:
This is a great sign that our core city remains the thriving heart of the region, and that through infill development and higher densities, we are achieving a more sustainable kind of growth.
Almost there. I was hoping that this was the year that we broke 600k. Oh well.
Good to see little D leading the way again. In the next few years, it may reach it's record population.
That means we should have hit 600k by last August and by mid April we will have added another 10k. (Assuming the same growth rate). Excellent…
Well, Denver is the center of growth numerically but as a percent it's not nearly as impressive.
The counties with higher percent growth are a little disappointing.
* Douglas County (sprawl central!)
* Weld – sprawl up I-76? Or Oil?
* Montrose, Garfield, Mesa – Oil? Agriculture?
* Eagle – Mountain tourism?
I'm glad to see healthy growth in Denver county, but I'd be happier if we led in percent growth as well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we can do better and should encourage more infill to get there.
Denver's growth is largely due, in my opinion, to far-sighted decisions made more than two decades ago by Mayor Federico Pena.
Adding up the numbers for Denver, Arapahoe, Adams, Douglas, Jefferson, Boulder and Broomfield yields a result of 2,745,804.
With the entire Stapleton Airport filling up with houses and residents, it would be hard not to grow like this – these numbers are not entirely attributable to Downtown infill, as much as I wish they were. We should be thinking about where and how to get growth in Denver after that redevelopment is complete.
Meanwhile, this is exciting news because it likely bumps Denver up on the list of most populous cities. It's relatively far down the list because so many Denver Area residents are officially listed under suburban populations as Denver proper has a significantly lower land area, relative to the metro area, than places like El Paso or Phoenix. We're neck-and-neck with Seattle now.
Sorry to inform you that Stapleton only grew by 1800 people last year. The market has slowed, so Stapleton isn't even a big chunk of that growth. Green Valley Ranch/Gateway also didn't grow much – not even a couple thousand. The rest of the growth has to come from somewhere else in Denver.
What excites me the most about those figures is now Denver County is the most populous in Colorado. El Paso had 4,000 more people in 2007 and now Denver has 2,000 more in 2008. Way to go!