Part of the Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the 19th-most populous metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the country, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau last year. With a population growth of nearly 20% since the 2010 census, the mile-high metro is bound to see its fair share of worsening commuter traffic.<\/p>\n
Using a methodology<\/a> similar to our previous studies in this series<\/a>, we set out to identify the top 10 commuter towns within a radius of five to 50 miles from Denver. We ranked the cities based on commute time, housing value, school ratings and crime rate. The weight attributed to these metrics emphasizes the importance of short commute times and housing affordability, which accounted for 40% and 30%, respectively, of each city\u2019s overall score.<\/p>\n Because the majority (83%) of workers in the Denver metro area<\/a> drive to work, we only scored the average commute time by car to keep the ranking as relevant as possible. Drivers from the top 10 cities on the list below spend a minimum of 23 minutes on average commuting to work in Denver; there\u2019s a 19-minute difference between the shortest and longest commute times.<\/p>\n