50 states in 2015, adding nearly 101,000
people. In 2015, Colorado’s population
was the third-smallest population of its six
main competitor states, only larger than
Utah ( 3 million) and Oregon ( 4 million).
Between 2010 and 2015, Colorado’s population increased 8. 1 percent or over 408,300
people. Of Colorado’s competitor states,
Texas (+ 8. 8 percent) was the only state to
record stronger population growth between
2010 and 2015.
The next generation (born after 1997),
millennials, and generation X in Colorado
recorded population gains for all years
from 2011 to 2015, while the baby boomer
and silent generation populations recorded
losses. Of the generational groups that had
a population increase in Colorado between
2014 and 2015, millennials accounted for
nearly 35 percent of the total increase,
rising 10 percentage points from the 2011
portion of 24. 5 percent. Compared with
the competitor states, Colorado’s millennial
growth share was the largest of the group,
Colorado’s millennial population neared 1. 4
million people in 2015, the fifth-largest abso-
lute share of millennials of the competitor
states. Millennial populations in the compet-
itor states ranged from 781,800 in Utah
to 6. 8 million in Texas. Between 2010 and
2015, Colorado added about 156,500 millen-
nials to the state, the second-largest absolute
increase of the competitor states with Texas
leading the pack adding over 468,300
people. Colorado’s millennial population
reported increasing growth rates during the
five-year period and had the fastest millen-
nial growth rates of the competitor states.
Colorado recorded over-the-year increases
in the millennial population of 2 percent in
2011 and 2012 before increasing 2. 4 percent
in 2013 and 2. 6 percent in 2014. The millen-
nial population increased 3. 4 percent in
2015, nearly double the pace of any of the
competitors.
Colorado’s millennial population represented 24 percent of the state’s total
population between 2010 and 2014 and
increased slightly to 25 percent in 2015. The
next generation increased from 18 percent
of the population in 2010 to 23 percent in
2015, while generation X fell slightly from
Denver’s coolness factor has
made it a top destination and
magnet for Millennials.
–New York Times
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