By population Denver, CO is 19th of 387 US metropolitan areas, with 3 million residents. This page lays out the income and housing picture and a trade-by-trade look at the competition.
Officially the Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO metropolitan statistical area, it takes in Denver, Aurora and Centennial.
Home values tell their own story; here the median is $603,800, 81 percent above the national figure. The typical household income is $105,762, 31 percent above the national figure. Both figures matter for pricing and for which offers land.
64.1% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 1 points below the US share. The unemployment rate stands at 4.5%, about the same as the US share. A four-year degree or more: 49.4%, 14 points above the US share. Median age 37.3, 1.6 years below the national median.
Denver, CO versus Colorado: income 11 percent higher than the Colorado figure, home values 12 percent higher than the Colorado figure, business density about the same as the Colorado figure.
The business base: 91,522 establishments with employees. That works out to 30.5 businesses per 1,000 residents, 22 percent above the national figure (the national rate is 25 per 1,000). The single largest category in the table below is restaurants, with 5,829 locations. 4,445 of them are home-services contractors, 4.9% of everything, about the same as the US share.
| Trade | Establishments | Per 100,000 residents | vs US mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roofing contractors | 491 | 16.4 | 1.76× |
| Personal care services (all) | 2,263 | 75.4 | 1.29× |
| Beauty salons | 1,181 | 39.3 | 1.28× |
| Self-storage facilities | 252 | 8.4 | 1.24× |
| Legal services | 2,242 | 74.7 | 1.13× |
| Electrical contractors | 1,016 | 33.8 | 1.11× |
| Dentists | 1,623 | 54.1 | 1.09× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 108 | 3.6 | 1.07× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 489 | 16.3 | 1.05× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 261 | 8.7 | 1.02× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 1,183 | 39.4 | 0.97× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 1,294 | 43.1 | 0.87× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 5,829 | 194.1 | 0.86× |
| Landscaping services | 1,005 | 33.5 | 0.78× |
| General automotive repair | 708 | 23.6 | 0.76× |
| Physicians' offices | 1,778 | 59.2 | 0.74× |
| Automobile dealers | 347 | 11.6 | 0.67× |
| Child day care services | 577 | 19.2 | 0.64× |
| General freight trucking | 738 | 24.6 | 0.58× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 560 | 18.6 | 0.51× |
Ratio above 1.00: the trade holds a bigger share of the local business base than it does nationally; below 1.00, a smaller one.
More common here than nationally: roofing contractors, personal care services, beauty salons and self-storage operators. Roofing contractors lead at 491 establishments, 1.8 times the US share. Under-represented categories: grocery stores, general freight trucking, child day care services and automobile dealers. Grocery stores are the thinnest at 560, about half of the national share. Plumbing and HVAC contractors, electrical contractors and concrete contractors sit near their national proportions.
Adjusted for population, restaurants are the thickest on the ground (194.1 per 100,000), with personal care services and legal services next. Counted by establishments, the order is restaurants (5,829), personal care services (2,263), legal services (2,242). By sector, legal services are the most over-represented at about the same as the US share; automotive businesses are the least, at about 73% of.
In roofing contractors, personal care services and beauty salons the question is not whether to advertise but how narrowly: the tighter the keywords, the towns and the offer, the less is wasted against the crowd. Scarcity in grocery stores, general freight trucking and child day care services cuts the other way: fewer rivals per search, cheaper clicks, and a chance to become the default answer in the map results with a modest, steady effort. The population is younger than the national median (1.6 years below the national median), which raises the value of Instagram, streaming and AI-answer visibility next to search. With income 31 percent above the national figure, the message can lead on quality, warranty and speed rather than the lowest price.
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Denver, CO has 3 million residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 19th of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Denver, CO is $105,762 (ACS 2024 5-year), above the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 91,522 employer establishments in Denver, CO (County Business Patterns 2023), or 30.5 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Denver, CO is $603,800, and 64.1% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), roofing contractors, personal care services and beauty salons have more establishments per resident than the US average; grocery stores, general freight trucking and child day care services have fewer in Denver, CO.
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Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023. Updated 2026-09-29.