Population Change 

Colorado’s population increased by 30.6 percent between 1990 and 2000, and by 10.5 percent between 2000 and 2006, bringing Colorado’s total population to approximately 4.7 million. 

Approximately 26.5 percent of the total population increase between 2000 and 2005 in Colorado was attributed to immigrants.

FAIR estimates the illegal alien population in 2005 at 263,000. This number is 84% above the U.S. government estimate of 144,000 in 2000, and 748% above the 1990 estimate of 31,000.

According to an estimate of the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2005 there were an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 illegal aliens living in Colorado. That ranked 12th among illegal alien populations in the United States.2/

FAIR estimates in 2004 that the taxpayers of Colorado spent $235.0 million per year on illegal aliens in public schools.3/

FAIR’s projected annual fiscal costs to Colorado taxpayers for emergency medical care, education and incarceration resulting if an amnesty is adopted for illegal residents.
Current	2010	2020
$711,000,000	$1,217,000,000	$2,124,000,000

Population Profile

Colorado has long been concerned about the effects of population growth. In the 1970s, Denver became the first city ever to turn down the Olympics, citing concerns about the accompanying growth’s impact on quality of life.4/ Such concerns still persist: Today, 72 percent of Colorado voters say that the current trend of population growth is a major threat to the quality of life in Colorado.5/ Yet Colorado continues to add the 8th largest number of people to its population of any state.6/

At a time when Colorado is struggling with growth issues like disappearing open space, traffic congestion, and school crowding, immigration continues to add large numbers of residents to the state. Immigration accounted for almost one-quarter of the state’s population increase from 1990 to 2005

Colorado’s population density rose from 32 people per square mile in 1990 to 41 people per square mile in 2000, a 28 percent increase. In the Denver metro area, density rose from 410 people per square mile in 1990 to 533 people per square mile in 2000.7/

Colorado’s foreign-born population increased by over 31 percent between 2000 and 2006. During that period Colorado gained over almost 90,000 immigrants, bringing the total number of foreign-born residents in the state to over 458,000.

Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Disappearing Open Space: Many families who moved to the area for its open space despise the current pace of development spurred by population growth, feeling that what they moved to get away from is following them.8/ Each year Colorado loses 22,500 acres of open space and farmland due to development.9/ Colorado has the second largest growth in housing development in the nation in 2002. 10/

Southeast Aurora, now a dusty prairie, is rapidly developing and will grow by 80,000 people by 2025, pushing Aurora’s population past Boulder’s, currently the second most populous city in Colorado.11/

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Colorado residents increased 17 percent during the 1990s, from 21 minutes to 24 minutes in 2000 (versus a national average of 14 percent).12/,13/ The Denver-Aurora urban area currently ranks thirteenth in the nation for time lost in traffic delays—an estimated 51 hours per year per traveler.14/  30 percent of Colorado's major urban roads are congested and 43 percent of Colorado's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.

Vehicle travel on Colorado's highways increased 60 percent from 1990 to 2003. Congestion in the Boulder area costs commuters $167 per person, $404 per person in Colorado Springs, and $786 per person in the Denver metropolitan area in excess fuel and lost time.15/  13 percent of commuters in Colorado have a commute time of 45 minutes or more.16/

As the area’s population increases by another one million people in the next 20 years, the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) predicts that the number of vehicle miles traveled each weekday in metro Denver will climb by 29 million miles.17/ As a result, the area will have to provide at least 2,300 additional lane-miles to prevent further congestion. Yet DRCOG’s long-range transportation plan plans for an increase of less than half that.18/

Education: Between 2000 and 2005, Colorado’s elementary and high school enrollment increased 8 percent (71,717students).19/ By 2025, enrollment is expected to pass one million students.20/

School overcrowding is becoming a costly issue for Colorado. In order for Colorado to maintain its 1999 student-teacher ratio, approximately 5,000 new teachers will need to be hired annually. The expected additional 10,000 public school students per year will mean building at least 20 new schools annually. A planning Committee reported that Douglas County, which has seen a 43 percent increase of students since 1996, will need ten new schools in the next five years to keep up with its booming population. Construction and renovation to ease such school overcrowding could cost upwards of $175 million.21/

In 2007 Colorado ranked 42nd in the nation for its student-teacher ratio of seventeen students per teacher.22/

Crowded Housing: 39,000 Colorado households are defined as crowded by housing authorities (2.15 percent of occupied housing).23/ Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born.24/,25/

Sprawl: Metro Denver has the fourth worst case of urban sprawl in the nation, according to the Fannie Mae Foundation.26/ Residents are trying to fight back by organizing neighborhood groups to pool private funds and buy up land to protect it from development.27/

However, such solutions are limited because even well-intentioned “smart growth” can’t accommodate continual population expansion. With metro Denver’s population set to add more than an additional one million people by 2020, many in the area worry that Denver is on its way to becoming the next Los Angeles.28/

Sprawl will have a devastating effect on Colorado’s natural resources if it remains unchecked, according to studies conducted by Colorado State University. “Colorado’s rapidly growing population and the trend toward more development and sprawl will inevitably lead to more conflicts over natural resources,” points out CSU biologist Rick Knight.29/

Water: With a population increase of over 10 percent between 2000 and 2006, Colorado is one of the 10 fastest growing states in the Union. This population growth results to a large extent from immigration; as Colorado saw nearly a one-third (32.7%) increase in its foreign-born population during those six years. 30/ By contrast, over the same period, the native-born population increased by 8.5 percent and that included the births to immigrants. When the U.S.-born children of immigrants are included, immigrants account for over forty-five percent (45.2%) of the state’s population growth.

If current growth trends continue, by 2050 the state’s population will have reached 8.9 million residents, nearly double the population of 4.8 million in 2006.31/  Colorado currently has a per-capita demand of 209 gallons of water each day. This means that in 2050, daily, public demand may exceed the 2006 level by up to 833 million gallons per day.

Limited sources of groundwater and a dwindling Colorado River simply cannot continue to yield adequate water if this growth continues. According to the water manager of Aurora, Peter Binney, "It is wrong to assume that cities could continue to grow without experiencing something akin to a religious awakening about the scarcity of water."32/

Adding to the state’s demand-induced water woes, global climate change further aggravates the water conditions. The Colorado River largely depends on runoff from the Sierra Nevada snow pack. Climate change has caused less snow pack to be annually produced, as well as premature melting. This further jeopardizes future supplies by facilitating more evaporation, reducing the river’s flows. 33/

Indeed, in its current condition, the Colorado River no longer flows all the way to the sea for large portions of the year. 34/ Lake Mead and neighboring Lake Powell, two large reservoirs which divert water from the Colorado River, have seen declining water levels. A study from the Scripp’s Institution of Oceanography states that there is a 50% chance that these two reservoirs will be nothing but mud puddles in as little as 13 years.35/ Already, statistical models indicate that Lake Mead will never reach full capacity again.36/

Marine research physicist Tim Barnett and climate scientist David Pierce have concluded that collectively, human demand, in addition to natural forces such as evaporation and climate change, are creating a net deficit of nearly 1 million acre-feet of water per year from the Colorado River.37/

 Hope for Colorado water resources, and the Colorado River Basin, which is essential to much of the Southwest, can only transpire if the demand for water is reduced to the rate at which it is naturally replenished.

Additionally, the Ogallala Aquifer is critical to farming in the center of the nation, including eastern Colorado. However, it is replenished slowly because of the relatively dry area. At least 12 billion cubic meters are being drawn from it every year. It's drying up. At the current rate, the aquifer may be dry in less than 25 years. 38/ Limited water resources are being exacerbated by growing human consumption When the aquifer finally runs dry, the High Plains Region will be little more than desert.

Solid Waste: Colorado generates 1.12 tons of solid waste per capita. 39/

Air Quality: The American Lung Association gave Larimer and Douglas counties a grade of “F” in their 2005 state of the air report. Denver and Boulder counties received a “C”, and Arapahoe received a “D”.40/

Poverty: Eighteen percent of immigrants in Colorado have incomes below the poverty level, which represents a 29 percent increase since 2000. Among non-citizens, the poverty rate climbs to 22 percent.41/ Only 54 percent of the state’s immigrant residents who are older than 21 have a high school degree.42/

1.  FAIR estimate based on the 2005 Current Population Survey. 
2. "Estimates of the Unauthorized Migrant Population for States based on the March 2005 CPS", Pew Hispanic Center.                                                                                               
3. Martin, Jack. “Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red,” A Report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
4. “Special Report: The Games That Got Away,” 2002 Olympic Coverage, KSL.com.                        
5.  “Special Report: The Games That Got Away,” 2002 Olympic Coverage, KSL.com.       Colorado Voter Survey, Ridder/Braden, Inc. and Negative Population Growth, March 2001.                                                                                                                          
6. Table A. Leading States/Equivalents by population Changes: July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006. U.S. Census Bureau.                                                                                                
7.  Ibid                                                                                                                                     
8.  Susan Greene, “Colorado’s New Face Front Range Catapults ‘90s Population Explosion,” Denver Post, March 20, 2001.                                                                            
9. Rachel Brand and John Rebchook. “Smart or Sprawl? Already the State’s 3rd-Largest City, Aurora to Boost its Population by 80,000,” Rocky Mountain News, October 19, 2002.                                                                                                                                 
10.  “State Rankings by Acreage and Rate of Non-Federal Land Developed,” Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture.                  
11.  Burt Hubbard, “State Growing Despite Woes,” Rocky Mountain News, December 21, 2002.                                                                                                                                 
12.  Brand and Rebchook, op. cit.                                                                                        
13.  “Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000,” Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.                                                                                                        
14.  “Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 1990,” 1990 Census, U.S. Census Bureau.                                                                                                           
15. "The 2005 Urban Mobility Report", Texas Transportation Institute.                                
16.  Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
17. Todd Hartman, “Growth, Cars Cast Shadow Over Future Air Quality,” Rocky Mountain News, July 29, 2002.                                                                                           
18.  “U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet,” Population Reference Bureau.                                
19. Melanie Worley and Joe Rice, op. cit.                                                                              
20.  "Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1999-   2000," National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.  
21. Debra Gerald and William Hussar, “Projections of Education Statistics to 2010,” National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.                              
22. Hector Gutierrez, “Douglas Group Urges 10 New Schools,” Rocky Mountain News, June 8, 2000.                                                                                                                         
23. Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School      Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S Department of Education.                                             
24. Selected Housing Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.                                                           
25. Haya El Nasser, “U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded,” USA Today, July 2, 2002.                                                                                                                                      
26. Randy Capps, “Hardship Among Children of Immigrants: Findings from the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families,” Urban Institute, 2001.                                             
27. Steve Raabe and Anne Colden, “Denver’s Dubious Rank: No. 4 in Urban Sprawl,” Denver Post, November 2, 2000.                                                                                          
28. Trent Siebert, “Town Stands Against Sprawl,” Denver Post, November 29, 2002.       
29. Sean Kelly, “CoPIRG Rips Projects as ‘Dumb Growth,” Denver Post, July 21, 2000.  
30. U.S. Census Bureau 2006. 
31.  Jack Martin, “Issue Brief: Estimation of Foreign Born Birthrate,” FAIR. 2008.
32. Jack Martin and Stanley Fogel, “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050,” FAIR, March 2006.
33. Daniel J. Weiss, Zoe Brown, “Learning the Worth of Water.” Center for American Progress. November 13, 2007.
34. Mark Jaffe. “Climate Change Hits the West,” Denver Post. May 28, 2008.
35. Sandra Postel and Brian Richter, Rivers of Life: Managing Water for People and Nature.,2003.
36. Patty Henetz, “Utah’s water forecast: Thirsty times are a-brewin’.” Salt Lake Tribune, May 31, 2008.
37. Researchers: Colorado River System is Unsustainable,” Water and Wastewater News, February 18, 2008.
38. Heidi Stevenson. “How Corporations Drain Our Aquifers for Profit (Part 2).” Natural News. June 11, 2008.  
39. Jerd Smith, “Need for Water Going Nowhere But Up,” Rocky Mountain News, September 10, 2002.                                                                                                             
40.  Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
41.  “State of the Air 2005: Colorado”, American Lung Association.                          
42.  “Colorado State Factsheet,” Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.