Colorado’s metro areas, with the exception of Grand Junction, saw economic growth last year, according to a report today from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
But the recovery was unevenly distributed, with three areas outpacing the national average and four lagging.
Boulder, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins grew faster than the U.S. metro average of 2.5 percent in inflation-adjusted terms last year.
Denver, Greeley and Pueblo lagged the national average, while Grand Junction was among a handful of metro areas where economic activity continued to contract.
After declining 3 percent in 2009, Boulder’s GDP bounced back at a 4 percent clip in 2010. The performance, which ranked 62nd among U.S. metro areas, was driven by solid gains in information, professional and business services and retail trade.
Grand Junction’s economic output declined 3.3 percent in 2010 after falling 6.3 percent in 2009, ranking it 362nd out of 366 metro areas on that measure.
Production from natural resources and mining companies rose, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a sharp decline in the construction and financial services.
The Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area remains the state’s economic engine, with a 2010 current GDP of $157.6 billion, or $6.84 out of every $10 of economic activity generated by Colorado metro areas last year. Metro Denver ranked 18th among all U.S. metro areas for the size of its economy.
But it only ranked 235th for its growth rate of 1.3 percent. Construction and finance were drags on the economy, while mining and information pushed it forward.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or
