Thornton, CO
Population: 141,799 (2022) · Mid-Size Cities (100K-250K)
Average fiscal health, some areas of concern
Spending Breakdown
Spending data sourced from the Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State & Local Government Finances. Per-capita comparisons use the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities methodology for fair cross-city benchmarking.
Revenue Sources
Per Capita Spending by Department
Score Breakdown
Debt Overview
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See how Thornton stacks up against another city.
vs Denver, COvs Colorado Springs, COvs Aurora, COOther Cities in Colorado
Frequently Asked Questions
Thornton, CO spends $14,462 per resident, based on total expenditures of $2.1B for a population of 141,799. The city has a Fiscal Health Score of C (54/100).
Thornton, CO has total expenditures of $2.1B and total revenue of $2.5B. The city carries $173.1M in total debt, based on Census Bureau data from 2023.
Thornton, CO employs 0 government workers, of which 0 are full-time. The average government salary is $0, with 0.0 employees per 10,000 residents.
Thornton, CO has a Fiscal Health Score of C (54/100). This score evaluates budget balance, debt burden, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and 3-year fiscal trajectory compared to peer cities of similar population.
The this entity record above pulls directly from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. What follows is the per-entity context — how this entity sits in the broader U.S. municipal and county government finances distribution and which underlying factors drive the headline numbers.
Every number on this page links back to the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
Practical use of this page is in combination with the comparison and ranking pages elsewhere on the site, which surface the same data for this entity’s peers within U.S. cities, counties, and states. A single-entity reading without peer context can be misleading when an entity is an outlier on one axis but typical on another.