Colorado population could grow by 100k in 2020
Colorado is a national model for growth and it could soon continue. The population in the state is expected to reach 5.8 million in 2020.
"Snowboarding, mountains, hiking. It was an easy decision -- Wisonsin, Colorado? Colorado," said Jon Kornely who moved to Colorado 15 years ago.
He is one of 1.5 million other people who have moved here in the last 20 years.
Elizabeth Garner, Colorado's State Demographer, says as of 2019 the state had 5.7 million residents. And we're expecting more.
"It's about 60 to 70,000 a year that we're forecasting, up at about 5.8 million by 2020," she said.
Much of the growth has been felt by people already living here.
"Front range, Denver, yeah the whole I-25," Kornely said.
El Paso County is one of the areas seeing some of the biggest growth, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The county’s population grew upwards of 713,850 in 2018, just behind Denver’s roughly 716,490 residents.
"It's a relatively large county and it's in a great position in terms that it's by the I-25 corridor so it's able to leverage that," Garner said.
Moving forward, the demography office says Colorado's population growth is already showing signs of a slow down, but a bigger downturn is expected to hit in 2030.
