Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Newspaper-November 24, 2007
By Gary Harmon


Mesa County's population grew by almost 5,000 people in the past year, according to recent estimates by the state demographer's office, which show northwest Colorado is one of the state's fastest-growing regions.

Garfield, Mesa, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, the epicenter of the energy boom in the Piceance Basin, had some of the state's highest growth rates, according the demographer's estimates.

Mesa County's population grew 3.68 percent last year, from 130,662 to 135,468, making it one of Colorado's fastest-growing counties, according to the estimates. Garfield County, meanwhile, grew at an even faster rate of 4.6 percent, pushing the population from 50,673 to 53,020, the demographer's office said.

Even Rio Blanco County, which had population losses in recent years, saw a 3.5 percent growth rate, pushing the population to 6,288 from 6,073, the demographer's office said.

The estimates "kind of verified what we've been saying," said Aron Diaz, executive director of the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado. "We are the fastest-growing area of the state."

Fast growth affects western Colorado differently than it does other parts of the state, such as Douglas County on the Front Range, which had a 5.6 percent growth rate, Diaz said. Western communities hit with sudden influxes of people are ill-prepared to deal with it because they're so isolated, he said.

"We are building every industry we have from the ground up to accommodate the growth," he said.

Officials will point to that growth rate to bolster their position that the state's energy communities need money generated by federal mineral royalties and state severance taxes, Diaz said.

Two western Colorado counties on the edge of the energy boom also saw growth.

Delta County grew by 1.4 percent from 30,257 to 30,678, and Montrose County climbed to 38,903, up from 37,880, a 2.7 percent growth rate.

Grand Junction's population was 51,631, and there were 69,382 people living in the unincorporated parts of Mesa County, according to the 2006 estimates, which put the city's growth rate at 4.5 percent and the unincorporated rate at 2.2 percent over the 2005 figures, when Grand Junction had 49,422 residents, and there were 67,858 people living in the unincorporated area.

Fruita was the region's fastest-growing town, up 10.2 percent from 9,393 to 10,349, and Palisade grew 3.5 percent, from 2,842 to 2,941, according to the estimates.

The city of Delta grew 1.6 percent from 7,659 to 7,782, according to the estimates, while Montrose's municipal population increased from 16,070 to 16,486, or 2.6 percent.

In Rio Blanco County, Meeker grew 3.7 percent from 2,273 to 2,357, and Rangely grew from 2,068 to 2,111, or 2.1 percent.

(c) 2007 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Sentinel

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