Number of people moving to Colorado drops, according to Census records
COLORADO (KRDO) -- Fewer people are loading up the U-Haul to move to Colorado, according to Census records analyzed by the state demography office.
According to our news partners in Denver, 27,337 people moved to Colorado in 2020. Just a year later, data shows the amount of people moving to the state dropped even more to 14,731 people. Let's compare that data to six years ago when a total of 68,844 people moved to Colorado.
“I think it’s something we need to get ready for," State Demographer Elizabeth Garner said. "To me, it makes a little bit of sense. We’ve seen the whole U.S. slow down in terms of growth."
Garner said a decrease in births, an increase in people dying, and net migration are contributing factors to the slowdown in population growth in Colorado.
“So it’s really just thinking more strategically of 'how do we compete when things start slowing down?' And then there’s going to be some states, and some parts of states, that are already slowing down where we need to just think of this idea of strategic shrinkage. How do we slow down gracefully? Still fund all of the things that we love, yet with slower-growing tax base or declining tax base," she said.
"Parts of Colorado that should think about strategic shrinkage and make plans for what it means," Garner said.
However, economic professor, Kishore Kulkarni at Metropolitan State University doesn't see much movement during the pandemic.
"I see that is not a major problem," Kishore Kulkarni said. "It is just a blip in the usual trend of a high inflow of population in Colorado."
Garner said they have factored the pandemic when data was being analyzed.
“So we know that it was a tough year," she said. "However, the results from 2020 weren’t that much different than what we were forecasting, so I don’t know if 2020 was that off."
Between now and 2050, Garner's office predicts Colorado's population to increase by 1.8 million people.
"I think what makes it odd is that people don’t feel it," she said. "And that’s because we have what I would call a lot of visitors."
