Season 3 Episode 10 Colorado Average

Direct Download:  


Hi! It’s Steph & Mike from This Is, Season 3 Episode 10. Welcome to our podcast!

Steph: Went to Arkansas to visit family, new tattoo started, son was in a karate tournament (3rd place!), found out my newest family member is a baby girl, Alex Pardee’s new Brightmares works debut, and watched Bullet for Marilyn show at the 12 Volt Tavern for Halloween, while there spoke with my friend Jeff who commented that he liked our show and has been following for some time, so thanks for that Jeff!

Mike: Golfing, ICP at The Stampede, saw Fist Fight and Sulfur with some friends at the Oriental,

What is there to do in Colorado in November?  

·         Most of the ski resorts will be open by the end of the month

·         National Parks free entrance day is November 11th

·         Dew Tour in Breck

What is the weather like in Colorado in November?

·         Wild fire season is over!

·         Lows are on average 27 degrees, highs 57

·         Expect a half inch of rain the whole month

·         Snowfall averages 3.8 inches

·         About 10 hours of daylight a day

Feature- Colorado Culture

“Can someone shed some light on current Colorado culture?

Having come here from upstate NY (Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse), I initially described it to friends and families as a t-shirt and jeans culture. I typically meet a native Coloradan maybe 2 in 10 people, so 20% of the time.

Native Coloradans seem reserved and friendly. Possibly overwhelmed with the influx of folks from elsewhere. MidWest relocates are so stoic. I call them the army of Spocks if you know the star trek reference. The Cali relocates remind me the most of NY'ers. Speak their mind, and opinions to share.

The Southern Denver mix seems to be 
20% Coloradans, 40% Cali's, 30% Mid-West, 10% other

The dress down here has me confused, most folks wear what's comfortable, or their old clothes as if they are going to paint their house. I saw a couple so dressed down, I could swear they were impoverished , but then they climbed into a Mercedes and drove away. We went to a child's birthday party, I wore a polo and jeans, and felt over dressed as most folks wore faded t-shirts and jeans. Also can more people please wear gym clothes around? I think that's a Cali thing.

How does an upstate NY'er used to dressing their socio-economic station and going 150mph acclimate to Southern Denver culture?”

·         What's not to understand? Wear what's comfortable... not what you think will impress other people.

·         Culture? Huh, I never noticed. You see the trendy crap downtown. Up in the mountains you see clothes you would wear outdoors

·         First of all, Denver metro pretty much has the same character (or lack thereof) of any urban/suburban blob city in the western United States. Colorado's resort areas are pretty much the home of affluent phonies from somewhere else trying to look and act like "real Coloradans." To any long-time Coloradan, they stick out like a sore thumb.

The Eastern Plains of Colorado is farm and ranch country--populated by those types of folks almost exclusively. They are friendly, but independent and often blunt. If you want a friend who will stick with you through thick and thin, they can't be beat, though. 

The southern half of Colorado is heavily influenced by a Hispanic culture that predates statehood. Until relatively recent years, the Hispanic and Anglo culture of that area lived together and worked together, but with neither really assimilating much of the other. It's still that way to some extent.

Western Colorado used to be like the Eastern Plains, a lot plain-talking, hard-working ranchers and farmers. An added feature was the mining culture, found both there and in much of southern Colorado. The miners were hard-working and hard-drinking, hard-living folks--and a lot of that mentality still lives there. The modern version of that is the oil and gas "culture" that can be found in many areas of the state where that industry is active. This area is being "resort-ized" pretty heavily, so the old culture is getting pretty diluted.

Of course, in the southwestern corner of Colorado, there is the Native American culture of the Ute Indian

So which Colorado culture are you asking about? There are a lot of them.

·         Where dress up attire means cleaning your hiking boots and ironing your jeans. 


While I thought that was a nice summary, I don’t think it covered the finer aspects of our culture here. I hope we are illustrating that for you with our podcast, but I wanted more details.

Colorado Demographics

·         As of 2018 our estimated population is 5.68 million within our 104,094 square miles

·         We are the 8th largest state, but we only have about 52 people per square mile of space, so we are 37th largest population state wise.

·         Like most states across the US, the population of Colorado is growing, but the growth has been significant in past years. Increases between censuses of 30% are not uncommon, and if that trend continues, the numbers could comfortably exceed 6 million at the next census in 2020. Some estimates have placed the 2040 population as high as 7.8 million.

·         The median age is 36.4 and contrary to the Menver description, 49.8% female and 50.1 male

·         The racial diversity in Colorado stands at 84.3% Caucasian, 4.2% that identify under other race, 4.1% African American, those that identify as two or more races at 3.4%, Asian 2.9%, and .9% Native.

·         In religious terms, Colorado's individuals report 64% affiliated with the Christian faith, 5% non-Christian, and 29% are not affiliated.

  • Colorado lies completely above 1,000 meters elevation. It is the only state that can make this claim.

  • Nearly 36% of the land in the state [is owned by the US federal government.

  • Colorado has the largest city park system in the nation, boasting 205 parks within the city limits, and 20,000 acres of park space within the mountains.

·         The average family size is 3.13

·         The average male earns $46,220/year and the average female earns $32,472/year, combining the two sexes that’s an average of $39,960/year per Coloradan. The average two adult household income is at $84,384

·         68.2% are actively participating in the labor force

·         We have a 12.17% poverty rate

·         50.8% is the overall married rate, and 31.3% have never been married. The other 17.9% is a combination of Widowed, Divorced, Separated.


o   64.4% of us occupy the homes we own and their average value is $264,600

o   Average travel time to work is 24.9 minutes

My summary of the data:

                The average Coloradan is in their mid-thirties, almost exactly half male half female. We work hard and our income levels show it. Half of us are currently married with a kid. 2 out of 3 of us subscribe to a religion, but 1 out of 3 don’t and we average a 25-minute commute to work. We are laid back and dress more for the weather, climate or activity than we do for fashion.

What did we learn?

1)      November starts ski season.

2)      Our weather this month gets noticeably darker and colder, but not a whole lot wetter.

3)      Your socio-economic status has very little to do with how you should dress here.

4)      Mike & Steph are average.