Census-designated place · El Paso County, Colorado

Fort Carson, Colorado

Fort Carson is a census-designated place in El Paso County, Colorado, part of the Colorado Springs, CO metro area. It has 18,019 residents. Fort Carson, Colorado has a quality-of-life score of 70 out of 100 (high), ranking #4,683 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Colorado it ranks #104 of 220 cities and towns. It ranks best on average commute time (low), broadband subscriptions (high) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (low). It ranks worst on grocery stores (low), property crime rate (high) and violent crime rate (high).

70High

Quality-of-life score: #4,683 of 15,651 cities and towns
Colorado: #104 of 220 in CO
Population: 18,019 (2020-2024)
Land area: 28 mi²
Density: 644.2 /mi²
FIPS code: 0827370

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 70 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety13#13,624/15,637
Economy51#7,670/15,631
Housing—
Health39#9,536/15,609
Healthcare87#1,975/15,650
Environment79#3,294/15,453
Education72#4,390/15,649
Infrastructure100#52/15,650
Community61#6,030/15,651
Leisure & amenities49#8,023/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Fort Carson, Colorado ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “El Paso County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Average commute time · low11.0 min
100/100Colorado 25.2 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013
Broadband subscriptions · high98.8%
97/100Colorado 93.5%United States 91.0%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B28002
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) · low4.8 µg/m³
97/100Colorado 5.8 µg/m³United States 8.0 µg/m³2022Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyEl Paso County value
High school diploma or higher · high99.4%
97/100Colorado 92.9%United States 89.6%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B15003
Distance to an airport · low9 mi
94/100Colorado 40 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauEl Paso County value
Uninsured residents (under 65) · low1.5%
94/100Colorado 9.3%United States 9.8%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B27010

Weaknesses

Grocery stores · low0.7 /10k
5/100Colorado 1.0 /10kUnited States 1.7 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsEl Paso County value
Property crime rate · high2,330 /100k
7/100Colorado 2,144 /100kUnited States 1,535 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationEl Paso County value
Violent crime rate · high553 /100k
7/100Colorado 422 /100kUnited States 328 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationEl Paso County value
Rent-burdened households · high63.9%
9/100Colorado 52.9%United States 51.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25070
Rent as share of income · high37.0%
9/100Colorado 31.4%United States 30.6%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25071
Suicide rate · high24.2 /100k
10/100Colorado 22.4 /100kUnited States 14.1 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataEl Paso County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
14,951 (2015-2019) → 18,019 (2020-2024)
+21%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Unemployment rateImproving
11.3% (2015-2019) → 3.7% (2020-2024)
−7.6 pts5 yearsCensus table B23025US 3.7% → 4.0%
Median household incomeImproving
$48,321 (2015-2019) → $66,237 (2020-2024)
+37%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
19.5% (2015-2019) → 25.6% (2020-2024)
+6.1 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%
Income inequality (Gini index)Worsening
0.315 (2015-2019) → 0.373 (2020-2024)
+19%5 yearsCensus table B19083US 0.482 → 0.483
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
95.3% (2015-2019) → 98.8% (2020-2024)
+3.5 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Fort Carson, Colorado improved on 3 of 10 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 7 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved3

Bachelor's++6.1 points19.5% → 25.6%
Household income+37%$48,321 → $66,237
Broadband+3.5 points95.3% → 98.8%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 10 measures

Change of every measure of Fort Carson, Colorado between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	10.9 min2015-2019	11.0 min2020-2024	+0.1 min	Within the margin of error	46%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.5%2015-2019	25.6%2020-2024	+6.1 points	Improved	75%
Broadband subscriptions	95.3%2015-2019	98.8%2020-2024	+3.5 points	Improved	23%
Child poverty rate	18.3%2015-2019	17.8%2020-2024	−0.6 points	Within the margin of error	49%
High school diploma or higher	96.2%2015-2019	99.4%2020-2024	+3.2 points	Within the margin of error	70%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.3152015-2019	0.3732020-2024	+0.058	Within the margin of error	13%
Median household income	$48,3212015-2019	$66,2372020-2024	+37%	Improved	69%
Poverty rate	13.6%2015-2019	15.3%2020-2024	+1.7 points	Within the margin of error	28%
Rent as share of income	38.0%2015-2019	37.0%2020-2024	−1 points	Within the margin of error	63%
Rent-burdened households	67.2%2015-2019	63.9%2020-2024	−3.4 points	Within the margin of error	67%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Fort Carson, Colorado five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Fort Carson, Colorado in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Fort Carson, Colorado itself moved +2.9 points in standing on average over the same 8 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

18,019 residents (±1,246)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

3,380 households (±350)

Fort Carson, Colorado
Colorado share

Under $25k14%†458
$25k–50k19%†658
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

3,380 households (±350)

Fort Carson, Colorado
Colorado share

Own0.0%0
Rent100%3,380

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

11,472 workers (±774)

Fort Carson, Colorado
Colorado share

Drive alone54%6,163
Carpool18%2,045
Public transit0.0%†4

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Colorado Springs, CO

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of El Paso County, the county holding most of Fort Carson's residents.

El Paso County has 18,852 employer establishments, 253 for every 10,000 residents (1.02× the US rate of 248; 0.82× Colorado's), with 267,012 paid employees at an average annual pay of $59,667. The Census Bureau also counts 67,894 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 18,852; 67,894 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 253; US 248 · Colorado 309
Paid employees: 267,012
Average annual pay: $59,667; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of El Paso County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	1,823	24.4	1.17×About typical	22,416	$61,980	3,991
Lessors of real estate	1,506	20.2	1.64×More than typical	3,588	$55,960	6,698
Specialty trade contractors	1,364	18.3	1.18×About typical	9,928	$61,479	4,704
Restaurants and other eating places	1,278	17.1	0.93×About typical	26,737	$24,673	280
Real estate agents and brokers	960	12.9	2.64×More than typical	1,315	$58,402	2,060
Offices of other health practitioners	768	10.3	1.69×More than typical	4,502	$46,954	2,194
Management, scientific and technical consulting	615	8.2	1.23×About typical	3,037	$87,057	2,578
Limited-service restaurants	571	7.7	0.95×About typical	12,742	$20,849	109
Construction of buildings	552	7.4	0.98×About typical	4,161	$77,942	1,688
Services to buildings and dwellings	504	6.8	1.00×About typical	4,077	$39,752	3,202
Computer systems design and related services	500	6.7	1.55×More than typical	13,534	$104,878	937
Full-service restaurants	495	6.6	0.86×About typical	11,065	$29,717	97

Rank places for an industry Open El Paso County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 745,819 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $98.6M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Fort Carson, Colorado: $5,471 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $98.6M; −25% vs FY2025
Per resident: $5,471; US $1,994
Sole-source: 31%; US 30%
Single offer: 8.9%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Department of the Army$86.4M88%
Defense Health Agency$8.3M8.4%
Defense Commissary Agency$1.5M1.5%
Defense Logistics Agency$1.1M1.1%
Forest Service$593K0.6%
Federal Acquisition Service$349.2K0.4%
Defense Information Systems Agency$249.2K0.3%
Federal Prison Industries / Unicor$34.9K0.0%

Top recipients

T&H SERVICES, LLC$26.6M27%
SERVICESOURCE INC$7.6M7.8%
JOHN BOWMAN, INC.$6.6M6.7%
PROFESSIONAL CONTRACT SERVICES, INC.$5.2M5.3%
PUEBLO DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES, INC.$5M5.1%

Spending by fiscal year

189.1MFY2017
210.9MFY2018
163MFY2019
184.7MFY2020
131.2MFY2021
132.4MFY2022
175.8MFY2023
152.3M

Top industries (NAICS)

Facilities support services · 5612$27M27%
Services to buildings and dwellings · 5617$20.7M21%
Nonresidential building construction · 2362$15.8M16%
Highway, street, and bridge construction · 2373$5.7M5.8%
Electric lighting equipment manufacturing · 3351$4.4M4.5%
Foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors · 2381

Largest awards whose ZIP code lies mostly in Fort Carson, Colorado

BASE OPERATIONS SERVICES$259.8M
T&H SERVICES, LLC· El Paso County, CO· Facilities & utilities· Feb 19, 2019 – May 28, 2026· W911RZ19C0002
CONSTRUCT SOF TACTICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE FACILITY$27M
HHI CORPORATION· El Paso County, CO· Construction & real property· Jul 21, 2023 – Feb 10, 2026· W9128F23C0025
ROLLING PIN BARRACKS RENOVATION$17M
HHI CORPORATION· El Paso County, CO· Construction & real property· Sep 25, 2024 – May 12, 2026· W9128F24F0188
CONSTRUCT FIRE STATION SUPPORT FACILITY

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Fort Carson, Colorado, so they do not add up across cities.

Fort Carson, Colorado's figures are part of those of El Paso County, CO ($3.4B in FY2026), never added to them: 2.9% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Fort Carson is mostly in El Paso County.

See federal money in El Paso County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Fort Carson, Colorado is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

John W. Hickenlooper

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

El Paso County75100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Colorado Springs, CO78

Other cities and towns in El Paso County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/0827370

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends