Residents migrate to Colorado's cities

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
Updated 9m ago

More residents are moving to urban centers across Colorado, especially in the Denver-Boulder area, while the number of Hispanics in the state soared, according to 2010 Census data released Wednesday.

New Census data show residents choosing city living over more rural, mountainous regions of Colorado.

Cities such as Denver, Thornton and Fort Collins saw robust population increases last decade, while the growth of rural areas was far slower, according to the statistics.

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The numbers highlight a relatively new trend of residents choosing city living over more rural, mountainous regions of Colorado, says Andy Goetz, head of the University of Denver's geography department.

"For most of the past 50 years, downtown areas had been largely devoid of residential populations," Goetz says. "Now we're seeing more and more people moving into downtown areas or near downtown areas. They've become a very popular place to live."

Denver remains Colorado's most populous city, with 600,158 residents, followed by Colorado Springs (416,427) and Aurora (325,078), the data show. Castle Rock, 28 miles south of Denver, is growing the fastest of the state's largest cities. It grew 138% over the past decade to 48,200.

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Colorado's Hispanic population grew 41% to more than 1 million last year. Hispanics make up 21% of the population. Non-Hispanic whites grew 10% to 3.5 million in the same period and make up 70% of the population, down from 74.5% in 2000, the data show.

Overall, Colorado added 728,000 residents since 2000, growing 17% to about 5 million residents. That's well below the staggering 31% growth rate the state experienced in the 1990s but still shows people are moving in, Goetz says.

"The 1990s was outrageous growth," he says. "But 17% is still pretty substantial."

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