Front Range Counties to Dominate Colorado’s Population and Politics

Colorado grew by more than 700,000 people since 2000, and it was mostly distributed along the Front Range.  Eighty-two percent of Colorado’s population is spread along the Front Range, with more than two-thirds of it in the six-county metro area.

The North Front Range has about a tenth of the state’s population, with Weld County growing by 40 percent (state’s second fastest with 71,889 new residents). The South Metro area of El Paso and Pueblo counties have 16 percent of the state’s population, with most of it in the Colorado Springs area, which grew by 105,000, helped by a growing military presence.

Within the Denver Metro area, the north and south suburbs continue to grow rapidly (Douglas County held the state record of a 62% increase), and the area’s core city, Denver, added 45,000 residents.

There were a number of counties on the Eastern Slope that lost population the last 10 years, whereas the Western Slope had many counties with large increases, most along the I-70 corridor.