Colorado gained more than a million
new residents during the 1990s, and El Paso County grabbed one out
of every 10 of them, a rate of 33 new people a day.
The startling figures from the 2000 census, released Monday, put
an exclamation point on a decade of nonstop growth here and across
much of the state.
Growth is pretty old news in Colorado, but the numbers, issued
once a decade, are no less amazing:
Douglas County nearly tripled in size, adding nearly as many
people as did El Paso County.
While the suburbs around Denver exploded, the central city itself
grew 18 percent, a rate rarely seen among big cities.
Colorado grew not only in numbers but in complexity. Taking
advantage of unprecedented opportunities to describe their race,
Coloradans showed themselves in more colors than ever before.
Consider:
The Hispanic population rose by 75 percent.
The Asian population grew by 66 percent.
One out of every 50 Coloradans described themselves to be of two
or more races, the first time the census allowed Americans to choose
more than one race.
The growth along the Colorado Springs-Denver corridor will mean
more political clout for El Paso County at the state Capitol - and
less for rural parts of the state.
Rep. Joel Hefley, a Colorado Springs Republican, will watch as
lawmakers lop off whole chunks of his congressional district, to
make room for a 7th U.S. House district.
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