Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

is the central city of a conurbation region in the U.S. state of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

. The conurbation includes one continuous region consisting of the six central counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson. The Denver region is part of the Front Range Urban Corridor. The United States Office of Management and Budget has delineated the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area consisting of ten Colorado counties: the City and County of Denver,

Arapahoe County Arapahoe County may refer to: *Arapahoe County, Colorado *Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory Arapahoe County was a county of Kansas Territory in the United States that existed from August 25, 1855, until Kansas's admission into the Union on January ...

, Jefferson County, Adams County, Douglas County, the City and County of Broomfield, Elbert County, Park County,

Clear Creek County Clear Creek County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,397. The county seat is Georgetown. Clear Creek County is part of the Denver metropolitan area. History Clear Creek County ...

, and Gilpin County. The population, as of the 2020 Census, is 2,963,821, an increase of 16.5% since 2010. The Office of Management and Budget also delineated the more extensive 12-county Denver–Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area comprising the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the Greeley, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The central part of the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) includes Denver and three immediately adjacent counties: Jefferson County to the west, Adams County to the north and east, and Arapahoe County to the south and east. The continuously urbanized area extends northwest into the City and County of Broomfield, bordering Jefferson and Adams counties, and south into Douglas County, adjoining Arapahoe County. Also included in the federally defined MSA are four rural counties: Elbert County on the southeastern prairie and Clear Creek, Gilpin, and

Park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

counties in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

Counties

The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Metropolitan Statistical Area comprises ten counties. The sortable table below includes the following information: #The official name of the county, #The county population as of April 1, 2020, as enumerated by the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to off ...

#The county population as of April 1, 2010, as enumerated by the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...

, #The percent population change from April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2017.

Metropolitan area cities and towns

Places with over 100,000 inhabitants

* Arvada * Aurora *

Centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...

(Principal city) * Highlands Ranch (CDP) * Lakewood * Thornton *

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

Places with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants

* Berkley (CDP) * Brighton * Broomfield * Castle Pines * Castle Rock * Columbine (CDP) *

Commerce City The City of Commerce City is a home rule municipality located in Adams County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 62,418 at the 2020 United States Census, a 35.95% increase since the 2010 United States Census. Commerce City is the ...

* Englewood * Federal Heights * Golden *

Greenwood Village The City of Greenwood Village is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 15,691 at the 2020 United States Census. Greenwood Village is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Met ...

* Ken Caryl (CDP) * Littleton * Lone Tree * Northglenn * Parker * Sherrelwood (CDP) * The Pinery (CDP) * Welby (CDP) *

Wheat Ridge The City of Wheat Ridge is a home rule municipality located in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Wheat Ridge is located immediately west of Denver and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The ...

Places with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants

* Acres Green (CDP) * Applewood (CDP) * Alma * Aspen Park (CDP) * Bailey *

Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus urub ...

* Byers (CDP) * Carriage Club (CDP) *

Pines A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garde ...

(CDP) *

Central City In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central cit ...

Cherry Hills Village The City of Cherry Hills Village is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 6,442 at the 2020 United States Census. Cherry Hills Village is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, C ...

* Coal Creek * Columbine Valley * Cottonwood (CDP) * Deer Trail *

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

(CDP) * Downieville-Lawson-Dumont * East Pleasant View (CDP) * Edgewater * Elizabeth *

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

Evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

(CDP) * Fairplay * Foxfield * Franktown (CDP) * Genesee (CDP) * Georgetown *

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia *Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre * Glendale, Queensland, ...

* Grand View Estates (CDP) * Heritage Hills (CDP) *

Idaho Springs The City of Idaho Springs is the Statutory City that is the most populous municipality in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Idaho Springs is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 201 ...

* Indian Hills (CDP) *

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

* Kittredge (CDP) * Lakeside * Larkspur * Lochbuie *

Louviers Louviers () is a commune in the Eure department in Normandy in north-western France. Louviers is from Paris and from Rouen. Population History Prehistory In the area around Louviers, cut stones from the Paleolithic era have been fou ...

(CDP) * Meridian (CDP) * Montbello (CDP) * Morrison * Mountain View * North Washington (CDP) * Perry Park (CDP) * Ponderosa Park (CDP) * Roxborough Park (CDP) * Sedalia (CDP) *

Sheridan Sheridan may refer to: People Surname *Sheridan (surname) *Philip Sheridan (1831–1888), U.S. Army general after whom the Sheridan tank is named *Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), Irish playwright (''The Rivals''), poet and politician ...

* Silver Plume * Simla * St. Mary's * Stonegate (CDP) * Strasburg (CDP) * Todd Creek (CDP) * Twin Lakes (CDP) * Westcreek (CDP) * West Pleasant View (CDP)

Communities previously part of the Denver metro area

Former Denver metro communities now part of the separate Boulder metropolitan area due to being located in Boulder County

* Boulder * Longmont * Lafayette * Louisville *

Superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places *Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lake ...

Former Denver metro communities now part of the separate Greeley metropolitan area due to being located in Southwestern Weld County

* Dacono * Firestone * Fort Lupton * Frederick

Regional cooperation

The

Denver Regional Council of Governments 240px, A map showing counties included in the Denver Regional Council of Governments The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG, ) is a nonprofit, membership organization of local governments in the Denver region of the state of Colorado. ...

(DRCOG, pronounced Doctor Cog) is a regional planning and inter-governmental coordination organization in a nine-county region. The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) provides funding for scientific and cultural facilities in a seven-county region including: *The Denver Museum of Nature and Science *The Denver Zoo *The Denver Art Museum *The

Denver Center for the Performing Arts The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, acting classes for the commun ...

*The Denver Botanic Gardens In addition, the

Regional Transportation District The Regional Transportation District, more commonly referred to as RTD, is the regional agency operating public transit services in eight out of the twelve counties in the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area in the U.S. state of Col ...

(RTD) provides mass transit, including a light rail system. In 2005 the RTD developed a twelve-year comprehensive plan, called " FasTracks", to build and operate rail transit lines and expand and improve bus service throughout the region.

Economy

The most prosperous parts of the area are in the south and the northwest, while the most industrialized areas are in the northeast, specifically in the northern part of Denver proper and extending to areas such as

in Adams County. Changes in house prices for the area are publicly tracked on a regular basis using the Case–Shiller index; the statistic is published by Standard & Poor's and is also a component of S&P's 10-city composite index of the value of the residential real estate market. The Denver MSA is also home to one of the fastest growing tech scenes outside of Silicon Valley in the country. Electricity is provided by

Xcel Energy Xcel Energy Inc. is an American utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico in 2019. It consists of four oper ...

. Cable television is provided by

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

Sports

The following table shows sports teams in the Denver metropolitan area that average more than 12,000 fans per game:

Air quality

The center of the metropolitan area sits in a valley, the

Denver Basin The Denver Basin, variously referred to as the Julesburg Basin, Denver-Julesburg Basin (after Julesburg, Colorado), or the D-J Basin, is a geologic structural basin centered in eastern Colorado in the United States, but extending into southeast ...

, and suffers from

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different type ...

known colloquially as the ''brown cloud'', building up if the air is stagnant as it often is in the winter. Severity of pollution in this area has varied enormously over the years. In the late 1980s the area was frequently in violation of multiple National Ambient Air Quality Standards established by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

(EPA). The Regional Air Quality Council (RAQC) was formed in 1989 to create plans to address the problem. Through a variety of measures the area's air quality was improved and in 2002 the EPA designated the area in compliance with all federal health-based air quality standards. Denver was the first major city in the United States to reach compliance with all six of these standards after previously violating five of them. Since then the EPA introduced a new standard for small particulates and made the existing ozone standard stricter. In 2003 the new ozone standard was frequently exceeded in the area and was occasionally exceeded as far away as Rocky Mountain National Park. The RAQC hopes to implement plans enabling the area to comply with the new standards by 2007.

Sister cities

Though Aurora, Boulder, Brighton, Broomfield, Denver, Lakewood, and Longmont have their own individual

sister city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

relationships, the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) as a whole has a sister city relationship with the Baghdad Governorate of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

References

External links

Denver Regional Council of GovernmentsInternational MigrationRegional Air Quality CouncilRegional Transportation DistrictScience & Cultural Facilities DistrictUnited States Census Bureau

U.S. population estimates
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Co Metropolitan Statistical Area Geography of Denver Metropolitan areas of Colorado Geography of Aurora, Colorado