Lakewood, Colorado

**Lakewood** is a city in Colorado, the United States. It was founded in 1889.
Its population ranks fifth of all the Colorado cities. It ranks 167th (in population) out of all the cities in the United States.
In 2020, the population was 155,984. Lakewood is to the west of Denver, Colorado's capital. It is one of the key cities of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor.

## History

This urban and suburban community was started in 1889 by Charles Welch and W.A.H. Loveland; who platted a 13-block area along Colfax Avenue west of Denver in eastern Jefferson County. Loveland used to be the president of the Colorado Central Railroad and lived in Golden. After retiring, he moved to the new area known as Lakewood.

Up until 1969, this area known as Lakewood didn't have a city government. Instead, they relied on water districts, fire districts, and the government of Jefferson County. This area known as Lakewood was more of a community and had been around for 80 years. Police protection was provided to them by the Jefferson County Sheriff and volunteers from fire districts.

In 1969, the City of Lakewood was legally turned into Jefferson City. Not too long after, they held an election. They decided to change the city's name to Lakewood because the majority disliked "Jefferson City," and believes it would be confused with existing communities in Colorado and Missouri. At this time, the population was already over 90,000.

Lakewood never had a traditional downtown area. West Colfax Avenue served the metropolitan area as U.S. Route 40 and the main route that joined Denver with the Rocky Mountains. Colfax from Harlan west to Kipling and beyond had mostly commercial establishments. Originally, in Lakewood, there was only the Jewish Conspumtive Relief Society (JCRS) for tuberculosis patients, a small, frame Methodist Church, and telephone exchange. However, by the 1950s, grocery and drug stores, gas stations, restaurants and taverns, several motels, branch banks, a movie theater, a roller rink, a bowling alley, and used car lots could be found as well. Several shopping centers with multiple businesses also developed.

In 2011, Lakewood was named an All-America City for the first time.

## Geography

Lakewood is located at  at an elevation of . It is located in the middle of U.S. Route 6 and Colorado State Highway 121 in central Colorado,positioned immediately west of Denver and  north-northwest of Colorado Springs.

Lakewood lies in the Colorado Piedmont on the western edge of the Great Plains, just east of the Front Range of the southern Rocky Mountains. Green Mountain, a mesa  tall, is located in the far west-central part of the city.

Lakewood is located in the watershed of the South Platte River. Several small tributaries of the river flow east through it. From north to south, this includes Lakewood Gulch, Weir Gulch, Sanderson Gulch, and Bear Creek. Two tributaries of Lakewood Gulch, Dry Gulch and McIntyre Gulch, flow east through the northern part of the city. Turkey Creek, a tributary of Bear Creek, flows northeast through the far southwestern part of the city. In addition, Lena Gulch, a tributary of Clear Creek to the north, flows east then north through the extreme northwestern part of the city.

Several small lakes and reservoirs are in Lakewood. The Soda Lakes lie in the far southwestern part of the city. East of them lies Bear Creek Lake, a reservoir fed by Bear Creek and Turkey Creek. Clustered near each other in central Lakewood are Main Reservoir, East Reservoir, Smith Reservoir, Kendrick Lake, and Cottonwood Lake. Northeast of them lies Kountze Lake. In the northwestern part of the city, Lena Gulch both feeds and drains Maple Grove Reservoir. In the far southern part of the city lies Bowles Reservoir No. 1 and, just outside the city limits to the reservoir's northeast, Marston Lake.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . Of which   are land and  (2.6%) are covered by water.

As a suburb of Denver, Lakewood is part of both the greater Denver metropolitan area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. It borders other communities on all sides, including Wheat Ridge to the north, Edgewater to the northeast, Denver to the east and southeast, Dakota Ridge to the south, Morrison to the southwest, and Golden, West Pleasant View, East Pleasant View, and Applewood to the northwest.

## Climate

Lakewood experiences a semiarid climate (Köppen _BSk_) with winters tha fluctuate between mild to cold and snowy while summers are warm to hot, with great temperature differences (about 30°F) between day and night year round. Precipitation happens mostly in the spring and summer.

## Demographics

As of the 2020 census, 155,984 people lived in the city. These people belonged to 67,292 households. The population density was 3,588 people per square mile (1,385/km). Its 65,758 housing units averaged 1,533.5 per square mile (591.9/km). The racial makeup of the city was 72.1% White, 3.8% Asian, 1.9% Black, 1.6% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 7.7% from other races, and 12.7% from two or more races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 22.7% of the population.

Out of the 67,292 households, 23.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.6% were married couples living together, 22.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 28.9% had a female householder with no husband present. About 32.3% of all households were a single person living alone, and 12.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 people.

When looking at the population by age, it was 17.9% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 24.3% from 45 to 64, and 17.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.4 years. The population divided by gender was 49.5% male and 50.5% female.

In 2021, the median income for a household in the city was $77,122, and for a family was $95,805. The city's per capita income was $46,404. About 5.7% of families and 9.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.1% of those under age 18 and 11.3% of those age 65 or over.

## Economy

Lakewood makes money in a lot of different way, but gets the most money from the government. Companies based in Lakewood include Einstein Bros. Bagels, FirstBank, and The Integer Group.

As of 2021, 62.3% of the population over the age of 16 had a job, and 3.9% were unemployed (not working but looking for a job). The different types of the employed civilian labor force was 52.5% in management, business, science, and arts; 17.3% in sales and office occupations; 15.5% in service occupations; 7.8% in production, transportation, and material moving; and 6.9% in natural resources, construction, and maintenance. The three industries employing the largest percentages of the working civilian labor force were educational services, health care, and social assistance (19.2%); professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (18.1%); and arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accomodation and food services (10.2%).

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Lakewood, Colorado
- **settlement type**: List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, Home rule municipality
- **image skyline**: Green Mountain (Lakewood, Colorado).jpg
- **image caption**: Green Mountain as seen from Mt. Zion
- **image flag**: Flag of Lakewood, Colorado.svg
- **image map**: Jefferson County Colorado Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Lakewood Highlighted.svg
- **map caption**: Location of the City of Lakewood in
- **pushpin map**: USA
- **pushpin label**: Lakewood
- **pushpin label position**: right
- **pushpin map caption**: Location of the City of Lakewood in the
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision name**: United States
- **subdivision type1**: U.S. state, State
- **subdivision name1**: Colorado
- **subdivision type2**: List of counties in Colorado, County
- **subdivision name2**: Jefferson County, Colorado, Jefferson County
- **subdivision type3**: List of municipalities in Colorado, City
- **subdivision name3**: Lakewood
- **government type**: Colorado municipalities#Home rule municipality, Home rule municipality
- **established title**: Founded
- **established date**: 1889
- **established title2**: municipal corporation, Incorporated
- **established date2**: 1969
- **unit pref**: US
- **total type**: Total
- **area total km2**: 115.635
- **area land km2**: 112.595
- **area water km2**: 3.040
- **population as of**: 2020 United States census, 2020
- **population total**: 155,984
- **population rank**: List of municipalities in Colorado, 5th in Colorado
List of United States cities by population, 167th in the United States
- **population density sq mi**: 3,588
- **population metro**: 2,963,821 (List of metropolitan statistical areas, 19th)
- **population blank1 title**: Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area, CSA
- **population blank1**: 3,623,560 (List of primary statistical areas, 17th)
- **population blank2 title**: Front Range Urban Corridor, Front Range
- **population blank2**: 5,055,344
- **timezone1**: Mountain Time Zone, MST
- **utc offset1**: −07:00
- **timezone1 dst**: Mountain Time Zone, MDT
- **utc offset1 dst**: −06:00
- **elevation ft**: 5518
- **postal code type**: ZIP codes
- **postal code**: Denver 80214-80215, 80227, 80226-80228, 80232, 80235-80236
Golden 80401
Littleton 80123
- **area code**: Both Area code 303, 303 and Area code 720, 720
- **blank name**: Federal Information Processing Standard, FIPS code
- **blank info**: 08-43000
- **blank1 name**: Geographic Names Information System, GNIS feature ID
- **blank1 info**: [http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:0181620 0181620]