What is Denver-Aurora-Centennial's Life Score?

Denver-Aurora-Centennial scores 40.0/100 (grade C-), rank #343 of 387. Signature cost at the 6th percentile; stamps BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · cost CEILING · wages PEAK.

What pulls Denver-Aurora-Centennial up or down?

Strongest: wages (94/100). Weakest: cost of living (6/100). Profile mark RENT-SQUEEZE; dimension gap 88.

How current is this data?

Federal releases current as of August 2026 (BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA). Cadence varies by series; see methodology.

Metro Life Score

Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 11th percentile of the national corpus.

Compiled by PlainCompare

40.0
Life Score / 100: C-
Grade (curved): #343
of 387 metros: 11%
composite percentile

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Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Denver-Aurora-Centennial is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #343 of 387 (40.0/100, grade C-, 11th percentile). Carried by wages at 94/100; held back most by cost of living at 6/100.

11th
composite percentile: #343
of 387 peers: 6th
cost dimension percentile: 94th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · signature cost

Denver-Aurora-Centennial: cost pressure is the outlier

Denver-Aurora-Centennial is a BOTTOM-band metro where cost sits only at the 6th percentile (CEILING) — the clearest outlier vs wages at the 94th and composite #343. Cost of Living (6/100) is the main drag; Wages (94/100) keeps the floor. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO ranks #343 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #364 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

BEA RPP 105.8 (rent-RPP 146.9). BLS median salary $78,519, 1,580,940 jobs (Fast Food and Counter Workers, Retail Salespersons, Stockers and Order Fillers). HUD 2BR FMR $2,089/mo (studio $1,643).

FBI UCR (CO): 481 violent, 2641 property/100K. NCES: 15.7:1 ratio, 13.7% charter. DOL infant childcare $12,821/yr. EPA: 24 Superfund sites (CO).

Where Denver-Aurora-Centennial sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

40 11th percentile higher than 11% of 387 US metros

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026

How the 40.0 is built

Denver-Aurora-Centennial's Life Score, decomposed

Cost of Living 1.2 (3%) Wages 18.9 (47%) Rent 1.0 (3%) Safety 1.0 (3%) Schools 6.4 (16%) Childcare 2.3 (6%) Environment 9.2 (23%)

Dimension detail

How Denver-Aurora-Centennial scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 6/100 (20%) Bottom 10%

Wages 94/100 (20%) Top 10%

Rent 7/100 (15%) Bottom 10%

Safety 7/100 (15%) Bottom 10%

Schools 64/100 (10%) Average

Childcare 23/100 (10%) Below average

Environment 92/100 (10%) Top 10%

Key Data Points

105.8

Cost Index (RPP)

$78,519

Avg Median Salary

$2,089

2BR Fair Market Rent

481

Violent Crime/100K (CO)

15.7:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$12,821

Infant Childcare/yr (CO)

Superfund Sites (CO)

1,580,940

Total Employment

Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are CO state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.

Compare Denver-Aurora-Centennial With...

Denver-Aurora-Centennial vs Pueblo Compare → Denver-Aurora-Centennial vs Grand Junction Compare → Denver-Aurora-Centennial vs Colorado Springs Compare → Denver-Aurora-Centennial vs Paducah Compare → Denver-Aurora-Centennial vs Pocatello Compare → Denver-Aurora-Centennial vs Wildwood Compare →

Ranking Context

Denver-Aurora-Centennial outranks 11% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#340	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	40.1	C-
#341	Kankakee, IL	40.3	C-
#342	Flagstaff, AZ	40.3	C-
#343	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	40.0	C-
#344	Gettysburg, PA	40.0	C-
#345	Knoxville, TN	40.0	C-
#346	Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY	39.9	C-

Quality vs. Affordability

Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO's quality rank (bottom 12% lowest-quality) and affordability rank (bottom 6% least affordable) sit close together -- an unusually proportionate metro where overall quality and cost-of-living move together.

Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO (highlighted) among its 12 nearest composite-Life-Score peers, out of 387 tracked metros nationally. Crosshairs mark this peer neighborhood's own median composite score and cost-of-living score. Cost-of-living score is already inverted so higher = more affordable.

CO Metro Scores

Pueblo, CO B 52.0 Grand Junction, CO C+ 45.9 Colorado Springs, CO C 42.5 Fort Collins-Loveland, CO C- 42.2 Greeley, CO C- 41.8 Boulder, CO C- 41.1

Read with Denver-Aurora-Centennial

Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Denver-Aurora-Centennial (BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.

Gettysburg, PA

ABS(composite) peer at 40.0 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Knoxville, TN

ABS(composite) peer at 40.0 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY

ABS(composite) peer at 39.9 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

ABS(composite) peer at 40.1 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Manchester-Nashua, NH (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 6/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CEILING vs this metro's CEILING.

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 6/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CEILING vs this metro's CEILING.

Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO relocation guide

Stamp-branched guide for BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.

Using Denver-Aurora-Centennial's bottom-third Life Score

Denver-Aurora-Centennial scores 40.0/100 overall, but Wages (94.3) and Cost of Living (6.0) sit 88.3 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.

Wages is the strongest of Denver-Aurora-Centennial's seven dimensions (weighted 20% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
Cost of Living is the weakest (weighted 20% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
Pueblo is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Pueblo

A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Denver-Aurora-Centennial Life Score 40.0/100 · signature cost · retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page

U.S. Census Bureau ACS - multi-dimension demographic + housing + income aggregates for cross-area comparison. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
BEA Regional Economic Accounts - GDP, personal income, employment by state and metro. bea.gov/data/regional
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) - wage estimates for comparable-area indexing. bls.gov/oes
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) - crime statistics for safety-score component. fbi.gov/ucr
NCES Common Core of Data - public-school quality indicators by area. nces.ed.gov/ccd
EPA AirNow + Air Quality System (AQS) - air-quality measurements by area. epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) - county and metro housing-cost indicators. huduser.gov/datasets/fmr