The U.S. Census Bureau released the July 1, 2024 population estimates for counties on March 13, 2025. The Census Bureau plans to release the July 1, 2024 population estimates for cities and towns in May 2025.
The population of the State of Colorado increased 1.0% from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, gaining 56,154 people. Between 2020 and 2024, this is the largest year-over-year increase.
The county with the largest change in population from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024 is Weld County, which increased by 9,529, or 2.6%; followed by Douglas County at 8,854 (2.3%), Denver County at 7,652 (1.1%), Adams County at 7,296 (1.4%), El Paso County at 5,838 (0.8%), and Arapahoe County at 5,054 (0.8%).
When the Census Bureau released the July 1, 2024 population estimates for the nation and states in December 2024, it announced a modification in how international migration was counted. Because this modification better reflected increases in volume of international migrants to the United States, counts were revised for 2022 and 2023. In Colorado, these revisions had the largest impact on the population estimates for Arapahoe and Denver counties, increasing their total population for July 2023 by nearly 1.0 percent.
The counties with the fastest rates of growth between 2023 and 2024 are San Juan County at 3.0% (24), Weld County at 2.6% (9,529), Douglas County at 2.3% (8,854), Elbert County at 2.0% (570), and Lincoln County at 1.8% (100). The population increase in Lincoln County was in its group quarters population; the largest group quarters facility in the county is the Limon Correctional Facility.
Natural increase in the state was the largest since the pandemic, with 17,294 more births than deaths. The counties with the highest natural increase are Denver, El Paso, Arapahoe, Adams, and Weld, which is the same as last year. Thirty-six counties experienced natural decrease (more deaths than births), with Mesa County and Pueblo County being the largest of those.
Net migration, the number of people moving in to a county minus the number moving out of a county, accounted for 68.8% of the total population change in the state between 2023 and 2024. Weld, Douglas, Mesa, and Larimer Counties had the largest net domestic, or state-to-state migration, while Arapahoe, Denver, Adams, El Paso, and Boulder counties had the largest net international migration.
Since the 2020 Census, 25 counties have declined in population as of July 1, 2024. While some of these counties have had population declines over the past two decades, some started experiencing population loss since 2020. The largest of these are Jefferson, Boulder, Eagle, and Summit counties.
Please contact Nancy Gedeon (nancy.gedeon@state.co.us) if you have any questions about these new population estimates.
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