Colorado has the fourth-highest share of its population living in affluent ZIP codes. But southeastern Colorado remains in distress, with Prowers County the most distressed county in the state. Pictured here is a tarantula attempting to cross the road on Highway 71 in 2022. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Looking at Colorado's economy as a drought map, the Front Range from the Wyoming border to Colorado Springs has abundant water and a high wealth ranking, with Douglas County corresponding to Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Economic strength extends along the Interstate 70 corridor over the mountains west through Garfield County to the Utah border, with roaring tributaries of prosperity pouring down from Steamboat Springs as well as Aspen and Telluride. Other prosperous areas include Lake, Custard, Park, Chaffee and Ouray counties.
These areas all rank in the top 20% of U.S. counties in seven indicators of economic health, according to the latest Distressed Communities Index from the Economic Innovation Group in Washington, DC
And what's positive for Colorado is that the majority of the state's population also lives there, more than 41%, compared to 24.4% nationally.
Colorado has the fourth-highest share of its population living in affluent areas, behind Utah, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
“Colorado has a lot of people living in affluent ZIP codes, and the state also has two of the wealthiest counties in the country – Douglas and Elbert,” said August Benzow, research director at EIG.
In the United States, 15.6% of the population lives in economically disadvantaged zip codes, while 24.4% live in affluent zip codes. In Colorado, 40.8% of the state's population lives in an affluent ZIP code, compared to 4.1% who live in a distressed ZIP code.
Essentially, for every ten people who live in an affluent area of Colorado, there is one in a distressed area. In comparison, nationally, for every person living in a distressed area, there are 1.5 people in an affluent area.
However, Benzow notes that the proportion of Colorado's population living in affluent areas has fallen over time from just under half of the population to just over 40%. Job growth has slowed, which could portend future declines.
Also, classifying a county as wealthy does not mean that all people in that county are wealthy. About 38.5% of Aurora's population lived in a ZIP code that was in the high-risk category, while 23.3% of Colorado Springs residents and 18.7% of Denver residents were at risk.
But none of the ZIP codes in the state's three largest cities were in distress, a sign that Colorado is doing well when it comes to measuring its urban population based on the seven measures EIG uses to define prosperity and distress. to increase.
Measures include the proportion of the adult population without a college degree; the proportion of empty apartments, excluding holiday apartments; the proportion of adults aged 25 to 54 who are not employed; the proportion of the population below the poverty line; median household income as a share of metro area or state median household income; Changes in employment in the last five years and the percentage change in the number of establishments, especially companies, in the last five years.
Beneath the wealthy areas are economically “comfortable” areas, concentrated primarily in the southwestern part of the state from Grand Junction down to Durango, but also including Grand and Clear Creek counties and Cheyenne and Kiowa counties in the plains. These counties are in the 20% to 40% range statewide.
Then there are the mid-sized areas, 40% to 60%, like the far northwest corner of Colorado, which is struggling with the loss of coal production, and improving south-central counties like Pueblo, Huerfano and Fremont, as well as Gunnison and Rio counties Grande. Middle-class counties also exist in the central eastern plains and in Montezuma County in the Four Corners area.
Colorado's at-risk areas include Morgan, Phillips and Sedgwick counties in the far northeast, Delta County on the western slope, and the southern San Luis Valley, including Costilla, Conejos, Alamosa and Saguache counties, which have actually seen an improvement from emergency levels . From an economic perspective, these areas are affected by severe drought.
Where the need is at home in Colorado
Although Colorado ranks high in its share of the population living in affluent areas, there remains a concentrated niche of distressed communities in the southeastern part of the state, according to the index.
This region was and is in need in the truest sense of the word. There is a lack of water to support agriculture and heavy industry, a lack of broadband connections needed to recruit remote workers, a lack of workers to fill jobs even if employers offer them, and a lack of new construction for the accommodation of these workers.
Prowers County, home to Lamar, is Colorado's most disadvantaged county, with an index score of 95.7. Bent County to the west, home to Las Animas, has the second-worst emergency score at 95.5. Las Animas County, home to Trinidad, is ranked 62nd worst, followed by Baca County, home to Springfield, at 61st and Otero County at 60th.
It might be easy to dismiss it as an agricultural problem of the Eastern Plains, but Cheyenne and Kiowa counties to the north are in the “comfortable” category of the index. The contrast is strong, even if the landscape is not.
Ideas for helping the region escape its downward spiral keep Leslie Mastroianni, executive director of the Southeast Colorado Economic Development District, busy, especially as she makes the long drives between area cities and sees the boarded-up and abandoned buildings Looking at houses.
“There is a lot of migration,” she admits. “We have an older population, which puts more strain on resources.”
In 1920, these five counties had a combined population of about 94,000. According to the state demography office, there were only 54,312 in the 2020 census. This 42% decline occurred over 100 years, as Colorado's population increased sixfold.
Mastroianni said southeast Colorado has an advantage that places she has worked before, namely rural Illinois and South Dakota, don't have.
“There is a willingness to collaborate, to work together and to overcome obstacles,” she said. “We work very well together and try to address some of the issues.”
The collaboration recently helped the region win a $13 million award from the Colorado Broadband Office to provide better high-speed internet service. Improved connectivity should enable telemedicine and more streaming courses for students. It could open the door to more remote workers as well as companies that rely on technology and automation.
One goal is to keep work on broadband improvements local as much as possible, she said. This will further stretch state and federal resources, but will also help develop local construction expertise. That could come in handy the day demand for new homes and buildings picks up.
The index gives hope. Pueblo County, which was in the distressed category before the pandemic, is now a medium-sized county, a significant improvement, as is Huerfano County. As the region's economic engine, Pueblo's recovery is expected to continue over time.
“We have this little glimmer of hope and we have a great entrepreneurial spirit in this area,” she said. “We have a good piece of heaven here that people need to see.”
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