The talk of the towns has been that native Coloradans are becoming harder to find. This is believed to be due to the high influx of “transplants” from various different states. Whether these folks came for skiing, job opportunities, 14ers, or legal cannabis. Only each individual knows his or her own answer, as it is probably mixed across the board.
Let’s look at some numbers that will help us get down to facts about this ongoing question. According to US Census Bureau numbers, it’s no myth that Colorado has grown substantially in the last decade. Comparing numbers from 2010 with those of a 2018 census, we can notice a 13.25 percent increase. That’s 666,368 new residents, equaling more than a new capital city worth of folks. 2020 Census numbers will most likely further accentuate this trend.
Looking at these increasing numbers, one might think that born and bred Coloradans are becoming outnumbered.ย Not necessarily. These numbers differ wildly from county to county across the Centennial State. Let’s take El Paso county first, which is home to Colorado Springs. Only 19.7% of residents in this county were born within the state. Compare this to Conejos County in SW Colorado, where 74% of these residents were born locally in Colorado. If we look at Denver County, the number is 28% of residents who were born within the state lines.
These create quite a stark contrast, making this sort of a tough question. It really depends exactly where in the state you are counting numbers. Certainly in the Front Range area, the “Colorado Natives” are on the decline. In the bigger picture, statewide 42% of Coloradans were born locally in Colorado. Interestingly enough, that number has stayed pretty consistent over the past decade and even back to the 1980s.
Let’s compare these numbers to a couple of quite skiable states, like Utah and California. Utah has a total population of 3,282,120 people, with 61.91% being born within Utah. California has a total population of 39,937,500 residents, of that number 55.32% were born within “The Golden State”. When we compare these numbers against Colorado numbers it shows us that indeed other states have higher numbers of lifelong residents. Especially considering that California has more than six times the amount of people that are in Colorado, that sure makes for a whole lot of California “natives”.
