Denver serves as the state capital for Colorado. Denver is America’s fifth-most highly populated capital city after Phoenix, Austin, Columbus and Indianapolis.

Nicknames for Denver include The Mile High City for its elevation one mile above sea level, Queen City of the Plains and Wall Street of the West. The official moniker for Colorado is The Centennial State.

Denver’s most famous skyscraper is the Wells Fargo “Cash Register” Building. Another world-famous tourist attraction is the Red Rocks park in Denver including its amphitheater in the foothills.

The Denver Performing Arts Center is America’s second-biggest performing arts center trailing only the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Research website numbeo ranks Denver in the top 29% compared to the 250 cities evaluated on its overall quality of life index at June 2020. Denver scored well on index factors such as purchasing power (strongest 7%), property price to income ratio (lowest 16%), pollution (cleanest 38%) and health care (best 42%). On the negative side, Denver rates relatively poorly on climate (worst 11%), cost of living (highest 22%) and traffic commute time (slowest 45%).

Parts of Denver like its eastern suburbs are vulnerable to tornados during spring and summer, and occasionally cyclones. Denver is prone to hailstorms, having suffered through three of the 10 costliest hailstorms in U.S. history.

Guinness World Records points to Mopar Mile-High Nationals in Denver as being the racetrack where American Warren Johnson became the oldest driver to win a POWERade Series event nine days after attaining age 62.

Denver serves as headquarters for five large corporations recognized as belonging to the Forbes Global 2000 world’s biggest companies. These large businesses are kidney care provider DaVita Inc; Molson Coors Brewing Company; fast-food restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill; petroleum and natural gas producer Cimarex Energy; and Whiting Petroleum Corporation.

One of the world’s biggest gold producers, the Newmont Mining Corporation, has its headquarters in Colorado’s capital city.

From an international trade perspective, Colorado exported U$8.097 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2019. Its most valuable exports include boneless beef including frozen (8.9% of Colorado’s global total), electronic integrated circuits (5.3%), medical, dental or veterinarian instruments and appliances (3.7%), beef with bone including frozen (3.6%), civilian aircraft including engines and other parts (3.4%), orthopedic or fracture appliances including parts (1.8%), molybdenum ores and concentrates (1.5%), fresh or chilled pork (1.4%), and circuitry processors and controllers (1.3%) according to United States Census Bureau data.

The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan statistical area was 7.8% in July 2020, up from 2.6% one year earlier.

Capital Facts for Denver, United States: Quick Reference

 
Denverites celebrate Independence Day as a national holiday each July 4.

Denver’s land area occupies 153.28 square miles (396.99 square kilometers). The state capital’s population was 734,134 Denverites at September 20, 2020.

At the state level, Colorado covers a land area measuring 103,718 square miles (268,875 square kilometers) home to a population of 5.8 million dwellers.

Denver’s population density is more concentrated averaging 4,789 residents per square mile (1,849 per square kilometer).

Zooming out to Colorado’s state boundaries, population density dilutes to an average 56 inhabitants per square mile (22 per square kilometer).