Douglas County, Colorado

About Douglas County, CO

Douglas County is the seventh-most populous of the 64 counties of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 285,465.[1] The county seat is Castle Rock.[2] Douglas County is part of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located midway between Colorado’s two largest cities, Denver and Colorado Springs. Douglas County has the highest median household income of any Colorado county or statistical equivalent. It is ranked ninth nationally in that category, and has the highest of any county or equivalent not in the DC or NY metro areas. Douglas County is lightly wooded, mostly with ponderosa pine, with broken terrain characterized by mesas, foothills and small streams. Cherry Creek and Plum Creek rise in Douglas County and flow north toward Denver and into the South Platte River. Both were subject to flash flooding in the past, Plum Creek being partially responsible for the Denver flood of 1965. Cherry Creek and Plum Creek are now dammed. Most residents commute to workplaces elsewhere in the metropolitan area outside of the county. Suburban development is supplementing the traditional ranching economy of the county.