Denver again added more people than any other county in Colorado last year, while Broomfield County notched the state’s fastest growth rate, according to 2015 census estimates released Thursday.
The U.S. Census Bureau says Denver’s population in July 2015 was 682,545. That was up 18,582 over 2014, or 2.8 percent.
Meanwhile, much-smaller Broomfield grew by 5.2 percent, ending with an estimated population of 65,065. It was the fifth-fastest-growing county in the nation.
Denver’s boom — it’s grown by nearly 83,000 people since 2010, or 13.8 percent — has resulted in rising traffic and an urban development surge. But as home prices and rents have soared, its affordable housing shortage has grown, dominating debate.
Yet the city’s growth only accelerated last year, census estimates show.
New estimates put the population in the seven-county metro area, which also includes Boulder, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson counties, at nearly 3.1 million, up 2.1 percent in a year and 10.5 percent since 2010.
“For the seventh time in the past eight years, Denver County has led the state in numeric population growth,” urban planning professor Ken Schroeppel wrote Thursday in a post looking at the census data on the DenverUrbanism blog.
His analysis found that last year, Denver captured much more than its share of the metro area’s growth, while Jefferson County’s growth lagged the most.
Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or @JonMurray
