Pitkin County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, 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 wes ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,358. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

and largest city is

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

. The county is named for

Colorado Governor The governor of Colorado is the head of government of the U.S. state of Colorado. The governor is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's state government and is charged with enforcing state laws. The governor has the power to either app ...

Frederick Walker Pitkin Frederick Walker Pitkin (August 31, 1837 – December 18, 1886), a U.S. Republican Party politician, served as the second Governor of Colorado, United States from 1879 to 1883. Life and career Frederick Pitkin was born in Manchester, Connect ...

. Pitkin County has the seventh-highest per capita income of any U.S. county. Measured by mean income of the top 5% of earners, it is the wealthiest U.S. county. Pitkin County is included in the Glenwood Springs Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Edwards-Glenwood Springs

Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and the territory of Puerto Ric ...

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has an area of , of which is land and (0.3%) is water. The county's highest point is Castle Peak, a fourteener with a height of . It is south of Aspen on the Gunnison County border.

Adjacent counties

* Eagle County – northeast * Lake County – east * Chaffee County – southeast * Gunnison County – south * Mesa County – west * Garfield County – northwest

Major highways

State Highway 82 * Colorado 133

State Highway 133

National protected areas

White River National Forest White River National Forest is a National Forest in northwest Colorado. It is named after the White River that passes through its northern section. It is the most visited National Forest in the United States, primarily from users of the twelv ...

Collegiate Peaks Wilderness The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness is a area located in central Colorado between Leadville and Buena Vista to the east and Aspen to the west and Crested Butte to the southwest. Most of the area is in the San Isabel and Gunnison National Forests, wi ...

* Holy Cross Wilderness * Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness *

Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are vari ...

Trails and byways

American Discovery Trail The American Discovery Trail is a system of recreational trails and roads that collectively form a coast-to-coast hiking and biking trail across the mid-tier of the United States. Horses can also be ridden on most of this trail. The coastal tra ...

* Continental Divide National Scenic Trail * West Elk Loop Scenic Byway

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 14,872 people, 6,807 households, and 3,185 families living in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 15 people per square mile (6/km²). There were 10,096 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile (4/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 94.33%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 0.53%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.27% Native American, 1.12%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0.04%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 2.37% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 1.34% from two or more races. Of the population, 6.54% were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race. There were 6,807 households, out of which 21.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.70% were married couples living together, 5.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 53.20% were non-families. Of all households, 35.80% were made up of individuals, and 3.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.77. In the county, the population was spread out, with 16.70% under the age of 18, 7.70% from 18 to 24, 38.30% from 25 to 44, 30.50% from 45 to 64, and 6.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 115.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 117.40 males. The median income for a household in the county was $59,375, and the median income for a family was $75,048. Males had a median income of $40,672 versus $33,896 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the county was $40,811. About 3.00% of families and 6.20% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 4.40% of those under age 18 and 5.60% of those age 65 or over.

Life expectancy

According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, residents of Pitkin County had a 2014 life expectancy of 86.52 years, the second-longest in the nation. Both men and women live longer in Pitkin County than nearly every other county in the United States. The life expectancy at birth is 85.2 years for men and 88.0 years for women. Two contiguous counties, Summit and

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...

counties, rank first and third in the nation respectively in life expectancy. Factors contributing to the high life expectancy in Pitkin County are "high education, high income, high access to medical care, the people are physically active, obesity is lower than anywhere else—so you’re doing it right”, said Ali Mokdad, one of the study's co-authors. In June 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked the county with the nation's fourth-best life expectancy, at 93.4 years.

Communities

City

Towns

Basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

* Snowmass Village

Census-designated places

* Norrie * Redstone * Woody Creek

Other unincorporated communities

Ashcroft Ashcroft may refer to: Places * Ashcroft, British Columbia, a village in Canada **Ashcroft House in Bagpath, Gloucestershire, England—eponym of the Canadian village * Ashcroft, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Ashcroft, Colorado, ...

Buttermilk Buttermilk is a fermented dairy drink. Traditionally, it was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream. As most modern butter in western countries is not made with cultured cream but uncultured sweet cream, most m ...

* Meredith * Snowmass

Politics

Pitkin County favored the Republican nominee in the 1884 and 1888 presidential elections, but in 1892 supported the Populist nominee, James B. Weaver, when Democratic nominee

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

wasn't on the ballot in Colorado. Pitkin County favored the Democratic nominees from 1896 to 1916, voting for them in every election in that period, and being one of the few Western counties to support

Alton B. Parker Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American judge, best known as the Democrat who lost the presidential election of 1904 to Theodore Roosevelt. A native of upstate New York, Parker practiced law in Kingston, New York, ...

in 1904. From 1920, Pitkin County followed national trends until being narrowly carried by losing candidate

Thomas E. Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: although ...

in 1944. Pitkin was largely Republican-leaning until the growing ski resort community drew its residents to the liberal George McGovern – rejected by a majority of the electorates of all but 129 other counties – in 1972. Like many ski destination counties, since 1988 Pitkin has turned heavily Democratic. The last Republican to carry the county was Ronald Reagan in 1984. George H. W. Bush was the last Republican to gain even a third of Pitkin County's vote since then. In this modern era, Pitkin has also frequently been one of the leading counties for third-party candidates, being the fourth-best county in the nation for Eugene McCarthy in 1976 and the third-best for John B. Anderson in 1980.Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas
1980 Presidential Election Statistics
/ref>

References

External links

Pitkin County Government websiteColorado Historical Society
{{authority control Colorado counties 1881 establishments in Colorado Populated places established in 1881