Colorado Springs:
Colorado Springs located in central east of the United States. It is basically situated in the fountain creek some 97 km away from the Colorado State Capital in Denver. Colorado Springs is blessed with much natural beauty. The mountainous region provides a scenic beauty and a place for tourism. Colorado basically is situated around the base of Pikes Peaks. This city is also the centre of around 24 national sports governing bodies. It was entitled as the best place to live in the USA by the U.S. News and World Report ("100 Best Places to Live in the USA | US News Best Places to Live", 2016). It covers an area of around 505 square kilometers. And has a population of 456,568 (DADS, 2016). It is also called as the second most popular city in Colorado and also regarded as a 40th popular city of the United States ("City of Colorado Springs - Demographics", 2016).
History:
It is believed that the first inhabitants of this place were the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Ute. Initially this area was included in the Kansas Territory 1854. Later after that it was regarded as many different territories and finally ending up into Colorado Springs in 13th August 1859. It was also the capital of Colorado territory from 5th November 1861 till 14th August 1862.
Demographics:
Coming to the demographics Colorado Springs has initially been a very small populated state before turning into a vast populated area. The population of Colorado in 2014 was 445,830. In which 99% was urban population and 1% was rural. The population increase since the year 2000 is notable and is 23.5%. The male population are about 49.2% of the total population that are male population are 219,422 and the female population are 226,408 which is around 50.8% ("Colorado Springs, Colorado (CO) profile: population, maps, real estate, averages, homes, statistics, relocation, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, moving, houses, news, sex offenders", 2016). The population density is around 2,242 people per square mile ("Colorado Springs Population 2016 - World Population Review", 2016). According to the census conducted in 2010 there are around 7.1% of the children below the age of 5. 25% of the population is below 18 years of age. And people over 65 years of age were just 10.9% of the total population. There is a majority of white people with 78.8% of the total population. 6.3% of the population is black people. 1% of the population is of American Indian people. Asians are just 3% of the total population. 5.1% of the population belongs to two races and 16.1% of the population is Hispanic or Latino ("Population, Census, April 1, 2010", 2016).
Economy:
The economy of the Colorado is basically run by defense forces, industry and tourism. These three are considered as the backbone of Colorado’s economy. The high tech industry and the military has opened many employments to people, this is why the unemployment rate, which was 7.3% in November 2013 dropped to 4.8% in October 2014 and finally it decreased even more to 3.9% in October 2015. Whereas, the whole nation unemployment rate is about 5% of the total nation population. Basically most of the jobs come from the military, where a large number of people are concerned with the growth of military equipments like missiles.
The second most important backbone of the economy is an industry. Colorado is famous for its high class technical electronic equipment manufacturing industry. But due to weak tourism the high technology industry has faced a downfall. The production of electronic goods has reduced from 21,000 to almost 8,000 in just 6 years of tenure. And it is also predicted that this downfall in employment shall increase in coming years. Some of the famous high technical industries include Verizon business, Hewlett-Packard and SAN.
The third source of Economy is through tourism. Colorado Springs in one of the beautiful place in world. The mountain ranges and there are many recreational places where tourists visit. There are around 13,000 people currently employed in the tourism industry. It is estimated that Colorado welcomes around 5 million tourists from the globe and it generates around $1.35 billion which is quite a major contribution to the economy. Some of the famous places in Colorado for tourists are U.S. Olympic Training Center, the ANA money museum, Garden of Gods, Cheyenne Mountain ZOO, Old Colorado City and a fine arts center. Apart from tourist who visits Colorado for adventure and fun, Colorado also has tourist for religious pilgrimages. Number of Christians visits Colorado for religious purposes. In fact Colorado is named as “the Evangelical Vatican”.
Apart from that Colorado Culture also promote movies and music and other recreational fun as well. Colorado is also famous for numerable sports activities being conducted throughout the year. There are many national and international sports activities that are carried out in Colorado.
Wildfire:
One of the most threatening and pondering an issue that Colorado is about to face is a shortage of water. The forest around the lake are often set on fire, this fire gets fierce with the intervention of air. The fire is brought to rest with large amount of water that is taken from water reservoirs. If these reservoirs are used too often there is a risk that soon there will be a critical shortage of water in Colorado. Along with water issues the wildfire also carries soil, dust and waste along with it that also tends to create a block in the rivers and this might increase the cost of water in coming years.
The burning or bushes and trees turn into a waxy structure that later makes the burn area as completely hydrophobic and increases the hazards of flash floods and also causes erosion. The left out of burnt trees are flooded into rivers that have to be cleared through water treatment plants (Photograph John Wark, 2012).
References:
100 Best Places to Live in the USA | US News Best Places to Live. (2016).Realestate.usnews.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings-best-places-to-live
(DADS), D. (2016). American FactFinder - Results. Factfinder2.census.gov. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
Colorado Springs, Colorado (CO) profile: population, maps, real estate, averages, homes, statistics, relocation, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, moving, houses, news, sex offenders. (2016). City-data.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://www.city-data.com/city/Colorado-Springs-Colorado.html
Colorado Springs Population 2016 - World Population Review. (2016). Worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/colorado-springs-population/
Population, Census, April 1, 2010. (2016). Census.gov. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/POP010210/0816000
Photograph John Wark, R. (2012). Colorado Wildfires Threaten Water Supplies -- National Geographic News. News.nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120703/colorado-wildfires-waldo-high-park-hayman-threaten-water-supplies/
