Colorado’s population growth slowing, and that could spell economic trouble down the road
Article CAIRCO note:
Excellent news, indeed!
Article publisher:
Denver Post
Article date:
4 November 2018
Article category:
Colorado News
Medium
Article Body:
... Over the past decade, the U.S.population has risen around 1 percent a year and Colorado has grown nearly twice as fast, thanks to strong net migration. But by 2050, U.S. population growth will slow to 0.4 percent a year. Colorado’s rate, which dipped to 1.4 percent last year, will drop to 0.7 percent, according to state forecasts....
Although Colorado has drawn young adults in droves the past decade, the state’s total fertility rate of 1.7 births per woman is now below the national average of 1.8 and below the 2.1 “replacement” rate needed to keep the population stable absent migration, said Cindy DeGroen, projections demographer with the State Demography Office.
That could be a timing issue, in that more births are occurring to women over the age of 30. But as the state’s birth rate is dropping, the state’s population is graying and the number of deaths increasing. As the gap between births and deaths narrows, Colorado will become more reliant, not less so, on people moving here. But a tougher federal stance on immigration is reducing that as a source of future workers, as will labor shortages across the country....
CAIRCO Notes
Translation: as United States immigration laws may finally be enforced, growth mongers are complaining that they won't be able to find cheap foreign labor in order to fuel endless growth in Colorado.
CAIRCO Research
Population momentum is the tendency for population growth to continue beyond the time that replacement-level fertility has been achieved because of the relatively high concentration of people in the childbearing years. It takes a period of time equal to the average life expectancy (approximately three generations or 73 years in the U.S.) for a reduction in fertility to be manifested as a change in actual population numbers. See additional information on fertility and population momentum. Also see this short discussion of population momentum, and Population Terms and Definitions.