Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 19,518 people, the town was settled in 1900.
Where it falls short is incomes — the median household income is $52K, and 15% of residents live below the poverty line. Its best grade is for hazard risk (A−). Homes run about $329K for a typical one, 4.5 times the Grand Junction metro’s $74K median household income. All told, that adds up to a C overall and a rank of 130th of 158 in Colorado. Set against the rest, it does better than 27% of U.S. towns. Clifton has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Clifton Community Center and Church and Kettle-Jens House. Only 18 of Colorado’s 218 towns score lower on health. The biggest park or preserve is Clifton Nature Park, at 42 acres.
Figures: FEMA National Risk Index · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · home values, Zillow · health, CDC PLACES · National Register of Historic Places · OpenStreetMap.
Where Clifton beats most towns.
Where Clifton’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Colorado), ordered by how far Clifton is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 5,223 in 1970, 20,413 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1980 and 3 maps from 1962 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Clifton is unincorporated, so Mesa County and regional agencies provide most services.
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 Clifton.
Clifton is healthier than towns with similar incomes, has hotter summers than nearly all U.S. towns and sends most of its workers to Grand Junction and beyond.
Two of its 4 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. The Mesa County Valley School District No. 51 runs its public schools. Also worth knowing: the 3 public schools in Clifton teach 1,112 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Mountain Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 395 | D |
| Pear Park Baptist School PrivateLargest high schoolGrades 1–12 | Grades 1–12 | 13 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CO on state tests and graduation
Home values rose 27% in five years, to about $329K, against 6% across Colorado. The median property tax bill is $975, against $2,602 across Colorado, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Clifton’s median rent is $1,107 a month, where Colorado’s towns sit at $1,812 a month and U.S. towns at $1,185 a month. The typical Clifton home is worth about $329,000, up 0.6% in a year, 38% below the Colorado typical home. On the market here: a median 24 days to sell.
| Clifton | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,107 a month | $1,812 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 73% | 71% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Clifton has 2,015 jobs for its 8,214 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Clifton’s typical journey to work comes in at 22 minutes. Most people who work leave Clifton to do it: just 5% work in town. Only 7 of the 159 Colorado towns we compare have a lower middle household income than Clifton. Half the trips to work are shorter than 6 miles.
| Clifton | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $52,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 15% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 14% | 18% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Clifton’s natural-hazard score from FEMA is 24 of 100, below both Colorado’s towns (52 of 100) and U.S. towns (44 of 100). Of the losses FEMA expects here, 70% come from inland flooding and 16% from lightning. Since 1980, Clifton has seen 2 flood insurance claims paid out.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
July afternoons average 94.4°, hotter than in 95% of U.S. towns; January nights average 18.5°.
About 13 inches of snow falls in a winter. Expect chilly winters and hot summers in Clifton, with very little rain. In Clifton, the January low is 19°F.
| Clifton | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 94°F | 89°F | 85°F |
| January low | 19°F | 17°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
There are 5.0 miles of trail across 6 parks and preserves. Clifton’s density of trails stands at 0.8 miles per square mile. Parks and preserves here: 6, covering 60 acres.
| Clifton | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.8 miles per square mile | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 7.8% | 6.8% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Rocky Mountain Elementary Park | 0.5 mi | 8 |
| 2. Kimwood Park | 0.4 mi | 4 |
| 3. Clifton Nature Park | 0.3 mi | 42 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Against the 6,497 U.S. towns with household incomes like Clifton’s, it is healthier than 78%, so its C+ isn’t only a matter of income.
For adults in Clifton, the share who get no exercise outside work is 24%. Among 159 Colorado towns, just 6 have a higher share of adults who report frequent mental distress than Clifton.
| Clifton | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 69% | 71% | 79% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 12% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 16% | 17% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 10% | 8.1% |
| What stands out | Clifton | CO |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 16% | 9.2% |
| More smokers | 16.6% | 10.9% |
| More adults with COPD | 8% | 5.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Clifton. Close and well known come first.
9 mi National MonumentColorado National Monument483K visitors a year
29 mi MountainGrand Mesa17 mi Ski areaPowderhorn56 runs · 1,653 ft vertical
5 mi MuseumCAF Rocky Mountain Wing Museum
2 mi MuseumCross Orchards Historic Site
15 mi MuseumFruita MuseumColorado National Monument: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Grand Mesa: DrunkDriver, CC BY-SA 3.0 · CAF Rocky Mountain Wing Museum: Airbase1, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cross Orchards Historic Site: Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fruita Museum: Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0
1 within 15 miles of the center of Clifton
About 3 of every 100 Clifton residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Colorado.
2 places in Clifton on the National Register of Historic Places.
Unincorporated community in Colorado, US
Clifton is an unincorporated community, a census-designated place (CDP), and a post office in Mesa County, Colorado, United States. It is part of the Grand Junction, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Clifton post office has the ZIP Code 81520. As of the 2020 census, the population of the Clifton CDP was 20,413.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Clifton.
| Town | CO rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clifton | #130 | C | B− | — | B | C+ |
| Grand Junction | #118 | C+ | C+ | D | B | B+ |
| Fruitvale | #80 | B | C+ | — | B | B+ |
Clifton and Fruitvale report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Clifton with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Clifton grades C overall, better than 27% of U.S. towns and #130 of 158 in Colorado. It grades C+ for health and B for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
