Cherry Creek, Colorado

Area Profile

10,721 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cherry Creek, in Arapahoe County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 47% of 3,904 cities measured58
Housing affordability2614th of 4,223 cities measured73
Climate3212th of 4,223 cities measured62
Physical resilience2472nd of 4,182 cities measured49
AccessTop 1% of 4,226 cities measured100
Economic stabilityTop 10% of 4,226 cities measured78
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.9% and median household income $153,776, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Rent takes 16% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 5.8 times that income.

A major airport is 3 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
10,721
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$153,776
Top 5% nationally
Density
6,420/sq mi
1.7 sq mi of land
Median age
44.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Arapahoe County
Colorado
Metro area
Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO
Nearest major airport
APA
3 mi · Centennial
Median home value
$888,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.9% over the past year, to 355,111 employed residents.

76% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 98% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 95% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$18,341$153,776Top 5%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$13,624$89,848Top 3%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.0%Bottom 24%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.0 minBottom 41%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher76.1%Top 2%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment355,111Top 20%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.7%Bottom 13%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.9%Bottom 11%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force369,478Top 20%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation71.4%Top 15%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$81,690Top 18%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$62,320Top 11%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 41%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 34%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024154k126k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $153,776 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers42,810$37,070
Retail Salespersons40,340$38,470
Stockers and Order Fillers32,610$44,480
Registered Nurses30,380$101,130
Business Operations Specialists, All Other28,670$94,990
Software Developers27,010$137,610

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Arapahoe County, CO, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 6% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $2,093 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.8 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Cost of living
105.8

Prices here run about 6% above the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
16.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,093
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$888,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index105.8Top 33%of 3,6582023
Home price to income5.78Top 10%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.8%Top 42%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3714,340Top 13%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$194$2,093Top 7%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$47,778$888,900Top 3%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.3%Bottom 33%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.9%Bottom 28%of 32,0012024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 15.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 49, in the Good band, and about 17 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DENVER CENTENNIAL AP, 2.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index87.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation15.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100172024 calendar year
Median air quality index49.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing42°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
49
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
87
90th percentile index
Days above 100
17
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

49 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hail and tornado.

HailHigh
TornadoHigh

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, strong wind, inland flooding, cold wave, winter weather, earthquake, wildfire, volcanic activity, heat wave, landslide, drought, ice storm.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Arapahoe County records 4.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 13.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 25.0 per 100,000 residents in Arapahoe County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
25.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Arapahoe County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Cherry Creek rather than Cherry Creek itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

9 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 3 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
CentennialAPA3 mi10,001 ft
Denver IntlDEN20 mi16,000 ft
Colorado Air and Space PortCFO21 mi8,002 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Other cities in Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
DenverDenver County718,87757vs Cherry Creek
AuroraArapahoe County394,43258vs Cherry Creek
LakewoodJefferson County156,58347vs Cherry Creek
ThorntonAdams County144,18761vs Cherry Creek
ArvadaJefferson County122,63455vs Cherry Creek
WestminsterAdams County115,48461vs Cherry Creek
CentennialArapahoe County108,20164vs Cherry Creek
Highlands RanchDouglas County102,257vs Cherry Creek
Castle RockDouglas County79,12365vs Cherry Creek
BroomfieldBroomfield County76,30464vs Cherry Creek
Commerce CityAdams County66,44567vs Cherry Creek
ParkerDouglas County61,78367vs Cherry Creek

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.