Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A city of 410,053, settled in 1891. Home to University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus.
Aurora is a city of 410,053, and it grades C overall, ranked 122nd of 158 in Colorado. It is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns. The trade-off: its crime rate is higher than 96% of U.S. towns, with 3,092 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. Aurora’s violent crime rate is 7.6 per 1,000 residents, above both the Colorado town median (2.3) and the median of U.S. towns (1.6). Aurora has 10 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Melvin School and William Smith House. Aurora's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 91% of U.S. towns.
Where Aurora beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
| College | Students |
|---|---|
| University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus | 18,774 |
| Community College of Aurora | 7,694 |
| Arizona College of Nursing-Aurora | 212 |
Census counts: 202 in 1900, 386,261 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1900 and 5 maps from 1948 on.
10 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Colorado), ordered by how far Aurora is from typical.
Its grades run from A for walkability (better than 92% of comparable towns) to D− for safety (better than 4%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Aurora. Close and well known come first.
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaEmpower Field at Mile High
Big draw26 mi TheatreRed Rocks Amphitheatre
16 mi Stadium & arenaBall Arena
15 mi Stadium & arenaCoors Field
11 mi Stadium & arenaDick's Sporting Goods Park
16 mi Theme parkElitch Gardens Theme ParkEmpower Field at Mile High: Thelastcanadian, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Red Rocks Amphitheatre: Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ball Arena: KM Newnham, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Coors Field: Matt Kozlowski, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dick's Sporting Goods Park: Tom Pratt, CC BY 2.0 · Elitch Gardens Theme Park: USGS, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Aurora, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Aurora.
Aurora trades workers with Denver and other neighbors, has a shorter frost-free season than most of the country, though not than most of Colorado and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in Colorado.
Reported crimes fell from 18,637 to 13,054 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The property crime rate in Aurora is 24.5 per 1,000 residents. Aurora reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 96% report less.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its public schools are run by the Aurora Joint District No. 28. Three of its 106 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,491 | D |
| Cherokee Trail High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 3,089 | A |
| Aurora Quest K-8Top results in townGrades K–8 | Grades K–8 | 575 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CO on state tests and graduation
Within Colorado it is less healthy than 69% of the 159 graded towns: Colorado sets a high bar.
Aurora beats the Colorado average on 1 of 26 CDC measures and trails it on 9. 69% of Aurora adults had a checkup this year.
| Aurora | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 69% | 71% | 79% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 10% | 8.1% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 26% | 35% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 27% | 35% |
| What stands out | Aurora | CO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.5% | 7.8% |
| More uninsured adults | 16.1% | 11.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The Denver-stapleton weather station, 9 miles away, records that the frost-free season runs about 156 days: shorter than most of the country, but longer than 77% of Colorado places with climate records.
Aurora has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers, with very little rain. July afternoons reach 89°, January nights drop to 18° and about 49 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Aurora has about as many jobs (160,573) as working residents, but only 40,225 people both live and work here. Jobs based here grew from 105,546 in 2013 to 160,573.
About one in 4 of Aurora’s working residents works in town. Jobs based in Aurora grew to 160,573 in 2023, 55,027 more than in 2013. Aurora’s average trip to work is 29 minutes.
| Aurora | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 23% | 7.5% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 17% | 18% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its typical home is the least expensive on its borders; Watkins is next at $509K. The typical value, about $448K, is 11% below its July 2022 peak.
The typical Aurora home is worth about $448,000, down 2.6% in a year, 15% below the Colorado typical home. 62% of households own their home in Aurora.
| Aurora | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,835 a month | $1,807 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 62% | 71% | 73% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 60% | 53% | 48% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
118 miles of trail in 145 parks and preserves. Proghorn Nature Area, at 540 acres with 1.9 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Aurora | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 10% | 6.8% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Morrison Nature Center | 2.3 mi | 242 |
| 2. Proghorn Nature Area | 1.9 mi | 540 |
| 3. Jewell Wetlands | 1.9 mi | 51 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 53% of U.S. communities. Since 1991, 35 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Aurora.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
10 within 15 miles of the center of Aurora
About 5 of every 100 Aurora residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Colorado.
325,078 counted in 2010 and 386,261 in 2020; an estimated 410,053 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 6.2% since 2020, after 18.8% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
10 places in Aurora on the National Register of Historic Places.
48 notable people were born in Aurora.
City in Colorado, US
Aurora () is a home rule city located in Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties, Colorado, United States. The city's population was 386,261 at the 2020 census, with 336,035 in Arapahoe County, 47,720 in Adams County, and 2,506 in Douglas County. It is the third-most-populous city in the state of Colorado and the 50th-most-populous city in the United States as of 2025. Aurora is a principal city of the Denver–Aurora–Centennial, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Denver-Aurora-Greeley, CO Combined Statistical Area, and a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Aurora.
All 4 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its C; Denver (C+) is closest.
| Town | CO rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurora | #122 | C | C | D− | B | B+ |
| Centennial | #36 | A− | C− | C+ | A | A+ |
| Denver | #119 | C+ | C− | D− | B− | A |
| Watkins | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Parker | #48 | A− | C− | C+ | A | A+ |
| Foxfield | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Aetna Estates | — | — | A+ | — | D | B+ |
| Four Square Mile | #43 | A− | C− | — | A− | A− |
Aetna Estates has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Aetna Estates and Four Square Mile report no FBI crime data of their own. Watkins and Foxfield aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Aurora with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Aurora grades C overall, better than 33% of U.S. towns and #122 of 158 in Colorado. It grades B+ for health, D− for safety and B for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D−.
That is 4.2 years of the area's median household income ($105,762 across the Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
48 notable people were born here, including John Kerry and Connor Storrie.
