You've been delayed on Front Range highways, felt the crowds while shopping and generally get the feeling that Fort Collins, Greeley, Boulder and Denver are starting to blend into one giant metropolitan area. Several statistics from places like the U.S. Census bear that out. The educated are finding Colorado very appealing.
As we reported earlier this week, Forbes Magazine has listed Denver as the sixth fastest growing city in the United States; that's 10 places up from the 2013 ranking.
The city ranks third in the United States for the most highly educated workforce, that’s 36 percent of the population that have a Bachelor's degree, according to the Denver Metro Economic Development Corporation, an affiliate of the Denver Chamber of Commerce.
The U.S. Census Flows Mapper concurs. From 2007 to 2011, over 1,500 college graduates relocated here.
Denver’s reputation as a hub for high tech industry in the fields of aerospace engineering, energy and information technology may be pulling people in from near and far. It doesn’t hurt that the city has also been ranked one of the healthiest cities in the country.
As for the Front Range counties to the north, growth continued but not nearly at the rate of Denver. Almost 5,000 people moved in from overseas and there was a dramatic jump of 39,706 residents from other parts of Colorado moving into the urban center.
Those migration patterns are likely to continue. If the Colorado Department of Local Affairs are right in their predictions, the Front Range will expand to nearly a million people by 2020, with the bulk of the state’s projected population of almost 6 million moving into Denver and the Front Range.
