Colorado Springs grew by about 15% in the past 10 years, putting it on track with growth across the state as a whole, according to official 2020 census data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
El Paso County grew faster, with a 17.4% population increase, making it the eighth fastest growing county in Colorado in the past decade and keeping it in the No. 1 spot on the county population list. The margin between El Paso County and Denver County, Colorado’s second-most populous county, shrunk from 22,000 to 14,000 in the past 10 years, but El Paso County remains the largest county in the state, with 730,000 residents compared to 716,000 in Denver, data show.
While El Paso County was larger than Denver County in 2010 by about 22,000 people, El Paso County’s population fell behind during the recession while Denver recovered faster, state demographer Elizabeth Garner previously told The Gazette.
“Denver recovered much faster than El Paso County, and that had a lot to do with some politics,” she said.
Colorado Springs, where most of the county’s residents live, made deep budget cuts during the recession that made the community less attractive to newcomers, such as failing to maintain the parks, she said.
Prior to the census, El Paso County was estimated to be behind Denver by 4,000 people, and Garner did not expect it to catch up until 2023, she said.
But officials from the county and Colorado Springs said Thursday they weren’t surprised by the newly released federal census data, attributing local growth to high quality of life, a robust job market, diverse industries and collaboration between politicians, nonprofits, businesses and residents to make the county a place where people want to live.
“People are choosing to come to El Paso County and Colorado Springs for quality,” said Dirk Draper, president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber and Economic Development Corporation.
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said he expects the gap in population numbers between Denver and El Paso counties will continue to widen over the years since El Paso County is also larger in square footage than Denver.
“Denver is very dense and we’re more spread out,” Suthers said. “In Denver, they can do some infill and grow that way, but El Paso County can still develop outward.”
Like much of the state, Colorado Springs is now more diverse and less white than 10 years ago, census data show. The city’s growth was largest among new Hispanic Colorado Springs residents, growing from 16% to 18% of the city’s population, while the white portion of the city’s population fell from 71% to 65%.
One of Colorado’s other biggest population centers, Pueblo, grew slower than the rest of the state and didn’t see much of a demographic shift in the past decade, though the biggest growth, by percentage change, was among the city’s small but growing Native American and Asian populations.
Manitou Springs’ population declined slightly. Fountain and Security-Widefield had moderate growth, mostly on pace with the state as a whole. Monument, on the other hand, almost doubled in the size over the past 10 years.
All of them became less white and more Hispanic, like nearly all of the rest of the state.
The Gazette’s Mary Shinn contributed to this report.
This content was originally published here.
