DENVER — Colorado is continuing to boom with new jobs, development and people, according to data from the state.

In the last 20 years, Colorado’s population has increased by a little more than 1.5 million people. As of 2019, the state had 5.7 million residents.

“I think we’re probably going to get to 5.8 million [people] for 2020,” said Elizabeth Garner, Colorado’s state demographer.

Population growth slowed during the 2008 recession.

Since 2010, however, Colorado has welcomed about 700,000 new residents. On average, the state is growing anywhere from 70,000 to 80,000 people each year.

That said, it experienced a bit of a slow-down in 2019, when the population increased by about 67,000 over the prior year.

“Compared to the year before where we increased by about 80,000 — it’s about 13,000 fewer people in terms of total growth we’ve seen over that time period,” said Garner.

Much of the growth has been concentrated along the Interstate 25 corridor.

“Which is also where we’re creating all of the jobs. So it makes sense where we’re seeing the job growth and population growth,” Garner said.

According to state data, in the last two decades, most newcomers moved to the Front Range (about 91%) and nearly 8% decided to call the Western Slope, home.

In 2018, the population of the Denver metro area was estimated at 2.9 million.

While a majority of new people moving into Colorado (especially Denver) fall under the millennial category, seniors who are 65 and older have become the fastest growing age group in the state, according to Garner.

“And that is just an issue with math, that we don’t have a lot of people over the age of 65 right now, but we have a lot of 64-year-olds,” Garner said. “[But] most people who move to the state are in the age group of 22-37. That’s kind of our bread and butter”.

Moving forward, Garner expects Colorado’s population growth to slow down in 2030, 2040 and 2050.