Milken Institute released its 2010 Best Performing Cities Index Monday, and overall, Colorado did not fare well compared to years past.
The index ranks U.S. cities on how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. There are two separate ranking lists - one for the largest 200 metro areas in the country, and one for the smallest 179 metro areas.
Colorado Springs ranks 99 in the list of 200 largest areas. The city is the only one in Colorado on either list to move up in the rankings, but it moved up just two places from 101 in 2009.
The city ranks 85 in 5-year job growth but 176 in one year job growth. The institute reports the city was down 2.88 percent from April 2009 to April 2010. The city did rank 12 in high-tech GDP location quotient, which is a measure of high-tech concentration and location quotient relative to the U.S. average.
Pueblo was included in the smallest areas list and dropped from 33 to 45. Pueblo is ranked 100 out of 179 in 1-year job growth but 34 in 1-year salary increases. Grand Junction is also included in the small areas list. It dropped from 3 to 57 in the rankings despite ranking 6 in 5-year salary increases and 3 in 1-year salary increases.
Other Colorado areas included in the top 200 list include Fort Collins-Loveland, which dropped from 22 to 50, Boulder, which dropped from 44 to 56, Denver-Aurora, which dropped from 55 to 63, and Greeley, which had the fourth largest decline on the list - from 20 to 101.
In 1999, Denver was 7 and Boulder was 17. In 2000 and 2001, Boulder peaked at 4. Colorado Springs and Fort Collins also made the top 20 in 2000.
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