DENVER (KDVR) — Denver is home to some of the nation’s highest-earning households, but those people are far more white than Black.
Colorado is chock full of high-value workers. It has the nation’s fifth-highest share of computer, engineering and science occupations, the fifth-highest share of information jobs and the fourth-highest share of workers in management, business and finance. Colorado is one of only nine states with a median family income of over $100,000 and one of only 10 states where this exceeds $80,000.
In the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area, about half (49%) of white households have an income of $100,000 or higher. Meanwhile, only 26% of Black or African-American households make $100,000 or higher.
The gap increases as household income levels rise. Eleven percent of white households make between $100,000 and $124,999, while 10% of Black households do. Nine percent of white households make between $125,000 and $149,999, while 5.6% of Black families do.
About 13% of Denver area white households make between $150,000 and $199,999, while 5.5% of Black households make the same. About 16% of white households make $200,000 or more, while less than 5% of Black families do.
On the flip side, greater shares of Black families are represented in the lower income levels.
Denver’s gap between six-figure Black households and six-figure white households is 22.46%. This is the nation’s fifth-highest gap among U.S. metro areas with more than 500,000 households.
The San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, D.C. areas are the only large metros in the U.S. with a higher gap between one and the other.
The metros around Riverside, California, Tampa, Phoenix and Pittsburgh have the narrowest gap between the shares of six-figure white and six-figure Black households.