DENVER—Residents of Mexican descent are becoming a larger part of Colorado’s booming Hispanic population and their numbers are increasing where the state is seeing some of its biggest growth, including the Western Slope, according to census data released Thursday.
Hispanics of any race account for about one-fifth of the state’s total population of about 5 million, the Census Bureau said in February. But the new data shows that nearly three in four Hispanics in Colorado have Mexican heritage.
Census officials say Colorado is 20.7 percent Hispanic and that 15.1 percent identified themselves as Mexican. In 2000, that percentage was 10.5 percent.
The census data out Thursday also provides new state demographic information, including housing occupancy rates, the percentage of married people, household size and the state’s median age. Since 2000, Colorado aged by almost two years. The median age is now 36.1, compared to 34.3 a decade ago.
“I think it definitely reflects the aging of the baby boomers,” said Elizabeth Garner, the state’s demographer.
The population of Mexican descent continued to grow in the Denver area, going from 21.8 percent in 2000 to 24.9 percent, an increase of about 28,700 people. Other areas saw an even bigger increase, including Garfield County on the Western Slope. Hispanics there account for 28.3 percent of the county population, compared to 16.7 percent in 2000. And a big factor in that were Mexicans, who are now 23.2 percent of the county’s population, an increase of about almost 10 percentage points since 2000.
In the past, much of the Hispanic growth happened along the Front Range, Garner said. Jobs in mining, tourism, agriculture and the service industry have since attracted Hispanics to the Western Slope, Garner said.
The majority of the Hispanic population is still concentrated in the south-central area of the state, which includes the San Luis Valley.
Other counties where the Mexico-descended population increased include Mesa County, also in the western Colorado, and Jefferson, Weld, Douglas and El Paso counties along the Front Range.
Hispanics as a whole are much younger than the rest of the state’s population. They are the only group whose under-18 population is growing. During the last decade, that Hispanic age group grew by 44 percent.
“Basically what it shows is people who were primarily born here,” Garner said during a presentation earlier this week. “So, you don’t move a lot when you’re really young.”
Their young population also means that Hispanics will likely continue to make up a bigger portion of Colorado’s population, Garner said.
“What do people do when they’re young? They get together and they have kids and so now we’ve got this young population that’s coming in that can definitely be a more native population of this state,” she said.
Other highlights from Thursday’s data:
— The average household size was 2.49 people, compared to 2.53 in 2000.
— About 49.2 percent of households were families with a husband and wife, compared to 51.8 percent in 2000.
— 65.5 percent of Colorado’s occupied housing units were owned, compared to 67.3 in 2000.
Next month, the Census Bureau will release more detailed data that will include information by city and town blocks.
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Ivan Moreno can be reached at
