Metro Denver Community Information

Unlike some Western cities, Denver has a central downtown area. Here, within easy walking distance, are 5,200 hotel rooms, the city's convention complex, performing arts complex, and a wide variety of shops, department stores, restaurants, and nightspots. Also within easy walking distance are some of the city's top attractions including the Denver Pavilions, Denver Art Museum and Colorado History Museum. A mile-long pedestrian mall cuts through the heart of downtown Denver and is surrounded by a series of parks and plazas that soften the towering skyscrapers and provide viewpoints from which to see and appreciate the modern architecture.

Denver Facts

The 154 square mile city of Denver was founded November 17, 1858 and incorporated November 7, 1861. The city's population is 501,700 with a total metro population of 2,286,975.

Denver's elevation is exactly 5280 feet above sea level giving it the appropriate nickname of the "Mile High City".

Denver is the largest metro city in a 600 miles radius — an area about the size of Europe.

Denver has the nation's largest city park system, with more than 200 parks within city limits and 20,000 acres of parks in the nearby mountains — an area larger than Manhattan.

Denver has sunshine 300 days per year — more annual sunshine than San Diego or Miami Beach.

The 53 square mile Denver International Airport is so large it could hold the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and Chicago O'Hare Airport combined.

Denver is a sports capital, represented by all four Major League sports — NHL Colorado Avalanche, NBA Denver Nuggets, NFL Denver Broncos, MLB Colorado Rockies.

Metro Denver has the greatest percentage of high school and college graduates of any major metropolitan area in the U.S. A total of 92.1% of the population in metro Denver have a high school diploma; 35% have at least a bachelor’s degree. The national average is 81.7% for high school graduates and 23% for college degrees.

Denver has the highest number of library card holders per capita of any major urban area ( more than 52% of the city population).

Denver is also home to one of the largest and what many people consider to be the best bookstore in the nation, the famous Tattered Cover, which features 600,000 books on four floors in its main store.

Denver also is the nation's baby boomer capital, with the highest percentage of boomers of any major city, according to the 1998 U.S. Census. One third of the city is between age 35 and 54. Including small cities, only two had a higher percentage than Denver -- Santa Fe and Anchorage. Among major cities, percentage of boomers is: Denver 32.8%; Seattle 31.5%; Atlanta 31.4%; Washington 31.4%; Portland OR 31.4%; San Francisco 30.8%.

Denver is also the "thinnest" city in America and Colorado is the thinnest state. A study by the American Cancer Society in 2002 found that Colorado is the only state in the nation in which fewer than half the people are obese. Only 48 percent of Coloradoans are overweight or obese; every other state had more than 50 percent of their population in this category. The active lifestyle in Colorado, the great weather, the abundance of recreational opportunities and the high education level are credited for this fact. A 1996 federal study of weight by cities found similar results with Denver being listed as the "thinnest" city.

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