CO economic growth fell from 5th in the nation to 41st, according to new report

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DENVER — Two new reports are shedding light on the state of Colorado’s economy.

The University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business released its 60th Annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook on Monday. While it shows Colorado’s economy is still growing, it's doing so at a slower pace.

When comparing the prior 15 years to this year, Colorado’s economic growth has fallen significantly — from 5th in the nation to 41st, according to the report. The report shows Colorado’s employment, personal income and population growth rankings also fell.

"Colorado’s performance has slipped in the rankings, demonstrating the difficulty in maintaining growth for a sustained period of time," the report said.

The report said slower growth "may be the new reality for Colorado as population growth, especially through net migration, remains slow, creating headwinds for labor force and job growth."

Read the 2025 Colorado Business Economic Outlook below:

State Representative Bob Marshall said it all comes back to the higher cost of living.

“The cost of living here is just much, much higher than other places,” Marshall said. “We were a destination for the young, upwardly mobile population for years. That's died off quite a bit because of the massive housing costs.”

The Colorado Chamber of Commerce said there’s another reason for slower growth: too many regulations on businesses.

The chamber released a reportof its own on Tuesday, showing Colorado ranks sixth in the nation for regulations on businesses. The report said there were nearly 200,000 restrictions on businesses in Colorado.

“A lot of these regulations could be considered as redundant or otherwise excessive, and approximately 45% of these regulations do fall in that category,” said Irina Piatselchyts, a senior partner and consultant for StratACUMEN, a business analysis and research firm. “That presents a huge opportunity or a great opportunity for Colorado to actually jump on this and make the regulatory environment a little bit easier.”

The chamber’s report showed regulations on businesses grew by 7.1% from 2020 to 2023. By comparison, the report said federal regulations increased by 1.3% between 2020 to 2023.

Read the Colorado Chamber of Commerce's report below:

The chamber is urging the state to do more to limit regulations and get rid of ones that are redundant.

“A lot of these regulations have been in the area of labor and employment, energy and environment. So those would be some of the areas we would be focusing on in terms of our legislative solutions,” said Loren Furman, the president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.

Marshall attended the chamber’s virtual briefing and said while he is “very sympathetic” when it comes to getting rid of duplicative regulations, he supports those in place to protect the environment.

“I grew up here in Colorado in the 70s, and remember the 'brown cloud,'" Marshall said, referring to the nickname given to air pollution that loomed over Denver in the 1970s and 1980s. "We fought like heck to get rid of that. But now, even if we've halved the emissions per person, we have about twice the population. So just like L.A. has harder regulations for air quality than most of the rest of the United States, we require it, too.”

Marshall said protecting Colorado’s water sources through regulations is also a necessity.

“Water is probably the biggest issue constantly in Colorado for its long-term health and development,” said Marshall.

The debate over regulations is likely to heat up when lawmakers start a new legislative session next month.

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