Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The town was settled in 1910 and has 16,197 residents today.
Welby’s weakest is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $385K, 3.6 years of the Denver metro’s $106K median household income. Taken together, its subjects give Welby a C+ overall, better than 44% of U.S. towns. The ranking puts it 106th of 158 in Colorado. Where it does best is walkability (A−) — it is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 77% of U.S. towns. On health, just 14 of Colorado’s 218 towns do worse. Only 5 of the 159 Colorado towns we compare have a lower share of adults with a bachelor’s degree than Welby. The biggest park or preserve is Rotella Park, at 43 acres. Elsewhere it is close to typical: B for schools, B for incomes and B− for hazard risk.
Figures: home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · health, CDC PLACES · schools, state test and graduation results · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenStreetMap.
Where Welby beats most towns.
Where Welby’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 Welby is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 6,875 in 1970, 15,553 in 2020. The archive holds 4 old photos and papers going back to 2005 and 6 maps from 1938 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Welby. Close and well known come first.
Big draw7 mi Stadium & arenaEmpower Field at Mile High
7 mi Stadium & arenaBall Arena
Big draw18 mi TheatreRed Rocks Amphitheatre
6 mi Stadium & arenaCoors Field
5 mi Stadium & arenaDick's Sporting Goods Park
7 mi Theme parkElitch Gardens Theme ParkEmpower Field at Mile High: Thelastcanadian, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ball Arena: KM Newnham, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Red Rocks Amphitheatre: Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Welby is unincorporated, so Adams 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 Welby.
Welby scores below Sherrelwood and its other neighbors on health, but it has many renters stretched by housing costs.
Its public schools are run by the Adams 12 Five Star Schools. One of its 5 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. Public school enrollment in Welby: 1,521 students across 4 schools.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monterey Community SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–8 | Grades K–8 | 440 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CO on state tests and graduation
The top destinations are Denver (27%), Aurora (7%) and Thornton (6%). Only 1% of working residents stay in Welby for work; the rest commute out. 13% of Welby residents live below the poverty line, against 8.4% in Colorado’s towns and 9.6% across U.S. towns. Also worth knowing: its typical journey to work stands at 28 minutes.
| Welby | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 10% | 18% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.2% | 7.8% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its typical July afternoon high stands at 89°F, where Colorado’s towns sit at 89°F and U.S. towns at 85°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
All 3 graded neighbors score healthier than its C+, from Sherrelwood (B) to Thornton (A−).
The share of adults in Welby who have diabetes: 11%. The town does better than the Colorado average on 2 of 26 CDC measures and worse on 15. In Welby, 23% of adults say their health is fair or poor, and 28% get no exercise outside work. Among 159 Colorado towns, just 4 have a higher share of adults who have obesity than Welby.
| Welby | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 10% | 8.1% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 68% | 71% | 79% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 15% | 19% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 16% | 25% |
| What stands out | Welby | CO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.4% | 7.8% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 19.8% | 22.9% |
| More uninsured adults | 23.8% | 11.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
In Welby, the concentration of trails is 0.5 miles per square mile. There are 2.0 miles of trail across 4 parks and preserves.
| Welby | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 4.2% | 7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sandhofer Open Space | 0.5 mi | 11 |
| 2. Rotella Park | 0.4 mi | 43 |
| 3. Steele Street Park | — | 10 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
32% of Welby’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by hail at 31%. Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 54% of U.S. communities. Since 1999, 2 flood insurance claims have been paid out here.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
67.6% of renter households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, against 52.9% across Colorado.
Welby’s typical rent comes in at $1,656 a month. Homes in Welby sold for 99.6% of their list price on average. On the market here: a median 26 days to sell.
| Welby | Colorado towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,656 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
17 within 15 miles of the center of Welby
About 5 of every 100 Welby residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Colorado.
Census-designated place in Adams County, CO, USA
Welby is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Adams County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Welby CDP was 15,553 at the 2020 United States census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Welby.
| Town | CO rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welby | #106 | C+ | C+ | — | B | C+ |
| Thornton | #102 | B− | C− | C− | B+ | A− |
| North Washington | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sherrelwood | #126 | C | C | — | D | B |
| Twin Lakes | #125 | C | C− | — | D | B+ |
Welby, Sherrelwood and Twin Lakes report no FBI crime data of their own. North Washington isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Welby with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Welby grades C+ overall, better than 44% of U.S. towns and #106 of 158 in Colorado. It grades C+ for health and B for schools.
The typical home is worth about $385,000, 27% below the Colorado typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.
