![]() While the ranking of other metro areas across the country have gone up and down in recent decades, metro Denver has remained in the top ten for areas with the highest per capita incomes for more than 40 years. A new report compiled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Regional Economic Research Initiative gives the Denver area, which includes the cities of Aurora and Lakewood, a number 8 ranking. That number shows how sustained economic growth has been in the Mile High City environs which received a number 7 ranking in 1980. Among 110 metro areas studied, says the Chamber report, only six "were among the top ten for income" in both 1980 and 2021, the last year for which census data is available. Those six included metro Denver, as well as Fairfield County, Connecticut; San Francisco; San Jose; Seattle; and Washington, DC. Two areas in the South and West showed the greatest income growth: metro Austin, jumping from a ranking of 55 in 1980 to 9 today; and metro Fayetteville, Arkansas, with an even more dramatic increase from a 107 ranking four decades ago to 10 today. Expanding the list to the top 30 metro areas sees the West represented by Santa Fe, metro Salt Lake City, and metro Fort Collins as top income growth metros. While not in the top ten, Nashville, Raleigh, and Orem, Utah, saw a dramatic increase in population growth. But notes the report, "some Sunbelt metros experienced rapid job and population growth, but with relatively slow per capital income growth." Typical of this pattern: metro Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Riverside-San Bernardino, California area. Despite the shifts in metro area incomes here and there, the Chamber study offers an observation that should challenge public planners: "Not only has the gap between richer and poorer places widened but, in general, there is little change in which places are richer and which are poorer." The study continues: "Economic opportunity tends to be concentrated in some areas and not others, and most places with less economic opportunity for their residents remain so over time." By Garry Boulard
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