Denver’s sizzling population growth has lost more of its pop.

The city added 9,844 residents in the year that ended July 1, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. Its official population estimate on that date was 704,621, marking the passing of a new milestone — 700,000 residents — in the city’s long-running population boom.

But for the second straight year, the City and County of Denver’s annual growth rate, at 1.4 percent, reflected a slowing pace, a Denver Post analysis found. That rate was well below the 2 percent level that the city had exceeded for five straight years — peaking at nearly 2.8 percent in 2015, when the city added 18,347 people, according to revised census figures.

Denver’s pace of growth mirrored Colorado’s as a whole, with the state’s population topping 5.6 million in mid-2017 in the new estimates. The state added 77,049 residents, growing 1.4 percent from 2016, for a total population of 5,607,154.

Denver added fewer than 10,000 people for the first time since the 2010 annual census estimates, even as its numerical increase ranked third among counties in the state in the new release.

Denver County remains the largest in the state, but even as its growth decelerates, the longer view in Denver is impressive: Since 2010, Denver’s population has grown by 101,403.

Back in 1990, the city’s population stood at 467,854, the most recent significant low point after years of declines through the 1980s, according to data from the Colorado State Demography Office.

Over the next 27 years, the city’s population grew by more than 236,000, as housing developers built out Lowry, Stapleton and Green Valley Ranch, while older neighborhoods added significant density.

The strain of Denver’s boom has been reflected in soaring housing costs, complaints about intensifying traffic, protests against gentrification and backlashes against development. Those pressures are likely to worsen as more people move to Denver, even if in smaller numbers.

Across metro area, state

The new census estimates showed that the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan statistical area on July 1 had a population of nearly 2.9 million — an increase of 36,379 people, or 1.3 percent.

In the suburbs, the City and County of Broomfield notched the fastest growth of any metro county, at 2.8 percent, putting its latest population at 68,341. Douglas County grew by 2.3 percent, to 335,299. The slowest metro growth rate was Boulder County’s 0.42 percent (population estimate: 322,514).

El Paso County, with a population that stood at just under 700,000, led the state in numerical growth by adding 12,526 people, while Weld County (home to Greeley) added 10,390. The Greeley area, in fact, ranked third in the country for percentage growth among metropolitan areas, with 3.5 percent.

While metro-Denver counties ranked high in terms of numerical growth, the fastest-growing counties in Colorado were in sparsely populated rural areas. They were led by Crowley County (10.6 percent), Custer County (5.9 percent) and Bent County (4.5 percent).

Crowley, east of Pueblo, had the second-fastest growth rate among counties nationally, but the growth spurt amounted a net gain of just 556 residents, for a total population of 5,810. Most of that growth was due to prisoners transferring to the Crowley correctional facility from the Kit Carson facility, according to the Colorado State Demography Office.

Kit Carson County, in turn, lost 6.2 percent of its population, the second-highest percentage loss in the country. The Eastern Plains county’s net decrease of 470 residents led Colorado counties in lost population.

Staff writer Kevin Hamm contributed to this story.