Colorado Public Radio, in a piece by Sarah Mulholland, gives a quick look at a Common Sense Institute report showing Colorado’s economic momentum is fading right along with its popularity as a destination state. The article says Colorado has fallen from third in domestic migration in the 2014-2015 period to 44th in the comparable 2024-2025 stretch, while its net migration ranking dropped from fifth to 42nd.
CPR notes that Colorado’s economy has already been lagging national growth for about two years, and that the state lost jobs last year for the first time since 2010, outside the pandemic disruption. The article also points to some possible factors behind the slowdown, including the state’s reliance on the tech sector and a brutal run-up in home prices that has made Colorado less attractive to newcomers.
The Common Sense Institute warning, as CPR presents it, is pretty straightforward. Colorado’s old growth model leaned heavily on people wanting to move here. That no longer appears reliable. Birth rates are not replacing workers, domestic migration has dried up, and the economic engine that once looked unstoppable is now sputtering badly enough that even CPR had to notice.
The Bullet Point Brief
- CPR reports that Colorado has gone from one of the country’s top destination states to one of the least popular for domestic migration. That is not a minor wobble. That is a face-plant.
- The article says Colorado fell from third to 44th in domestic migration and from fifth to 42nd in net migration over the last decade. You do not tumble that far by accident. That takes policy.
- Colorado’s economic growth has been trailing the national rate for about two years, and the state lost jobs last year for the first time since 2010 outside the COVID mess. That is what decline looks like before the official talking points catch up.
- CPR cites likely causes such as housing costs and reliance on the tech sector. Fair enough, as far as it goes. But notice how politely the article tiptoes around the government decisions that helped make both problems worse.
- The Common Sense Institute warns of a nasty cycle where fewer workers mean fewer businesses, and fewer businesses mean fewer people want to move here. That is the sort of doom loop you get when leadership mistakes slogans for strategy.
My Bottom Line
I love the work of the Common Sense Institute, and I will dig deeper into the study than the fleeting little CPR pass-over here. Because of course CPR will not say the quiet part out loud. This did not just happen to Colorado like a hailstorm. It happened after seven years of the Polis administration and a legislature full of virtue-signaling, over-regulating Democrats under the Gold Dome.
Colorado’s decline is not mysterious. It is predicted and predicated on policy. You cannot hammer employers, inflate housing costs, layer on regulation, chase away affordable energy, and govern like the state economy is an endless trust fund, then act puzzled when people stop showing up and businesses start looking elsewhere. That is not bad luck. That is cause and effect with a mountain backdrop.
And the cruel part is who gets stuck holding the bag. The people who love this state, built lives here, and have always called it home are the ones left trying to afford the place they grew up in while picking up the pieces of Jared’s failed social experiment. Native Coloradans are watching the promise of this state get strangled by performative politics and policy vanity projects, then being told not to believe their own eyes.
Colorado used to sell itself. Opportunity did the talking. Now the state is coasting on an old reputation while current leadership burns through it like a teenager with a borrowed truck. If Colorado wants to recover, it has to stop pretending decline is some random weather pattern and start admitting the obvious: bad policy got us here, and only better policy gets us out.
Source: Colorado Public Radio
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