By Dennis Polhill Growth was a big problem in Colorado's early days. There wasn't enough of it. Boom and bust cycles coupled with steady growth yielded a 1950 population of 1,325,271. As the Colorado legislature begins work on growth control, it's important to understand some basic facts about Colorado's cycles of population growth.
Many factors influence people to immigrate.
The predominant factor seems to be economic opportunity. Because 1990 was the last year of a five year out-migration, comparing the 1990 population to the 2000 population artificially exaggerates Colorado's long term growth. Immigration of 77,397 in 1993 was surpassed only in 1973. Natural population growth is consistent. Past efforts to attenuate cycle extremes seem to have made things worse.