County grew by eleven percent in last decade

By niki [email protected] I It has been two years since the Census Bureau admonished us to fill out our forms and the numbers are finally in. What changes have occurred in Rio Blanco County since the last census? The county’s overall population has increased 11.4 percent, from 5,986 in 2000 to 6,666 in 2010. Of those, 2,475 live in the town of Meeker and 2,365 live in the town of Rangely. The rest of the residents live in unincorporated Rio Blanco County, with 1,383 on the west end, and 443 on the east end. There are 3,309 recorded housing units on the 2010 census for RBC. Of those, 2,647 are occupied, and 662 are vacant. The majority of those vacancies, 505, are on the west side of the county, with 157 vacant units on the east side.Approximately 24.3 percent of Rio Blanco County residents are children under 18 years of age. Of those 6,666 residents, 5756, or 86 percent, consider themselves white, while 665 residents classify their race as Hispanic or Latino. The remaining 245 residents selected African American (49), American Indian and Alaska native (44), Asian (22), native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (11), and some other race alone (5). The rest of the 665 residents consider themselves of mixed race.How does Rio Blanco County compare to the rest of the state? El Paso County is the most populous county in Colorado, with 622,263 residents. Denver County follows with 600,158. Douglas County, which includes the cities of Castle Rock, Lone Tree and Highlands Ranch, among others, showed the largest population increase, adding 109,699 people to their ranks. Seventeen Colorado counties declined in population. The fastest-growing counties in Colorado include Weld (39.7 percent), Garfield (28.7 percent), Mesa (26.2 percent) and Eagle (25.3 percent). Denver, Colorado Springs and Aurora are the top three cities in the state by population.  And lest you think things around Meeker and Rangely are growing too fast, the municipalities of Firestone and Severance, Colo., reported growth rates of more than 400 percent. Colorado’s Hispanic population (largest minority group) increased by more than 300,000 or 41 percent between 2000-2010. The overall population of Colorado grew by 16 percent. The number of African Americans in the state increased by 19 percent, Asians by 45 percent and white non-Hispanic by 9.9 percent. According to the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), “The increase in diversity occurred throughout the state, not just in the metro areas. The largest increases in the minority population were in Arapahoe, Adams and El Paso.  However, large increases were also seen in the Eastern Plains counties of Yuma, Kit Carson and Morgan and the Western Slope counties of Moffat, Garfield, Eagle and Mesa.”