Chaffee County vs Pitkin County

A side-by-side comparison of Chaffee County and Pitkin County: population, income, housing, and more.

Chaffee County and Pitkin County are counties in Colorado. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Chaffee County has the higher population (19,876 vs 17,119 in Pitkin County). Pitkin County has the higher median household income ($100,318 vs $70,909 in Chaffee County). Pitkin County has the higher median home value ($1,131,200 vs $598,500 in Chaffee County).

Population, income & housing

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
Population	19,876	17,119
Median age	47.6 yrs	47.3 yrs
Median household income	$70,909	$100,318
Median home value	$598,500	$1,131,200
Median gross rent	$1,514	$1,880
Housing units	11,315	13,350
Homeownership rate	72.9%	67.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	45.4%	64.0%
Unemployment rate	5.2%	1.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
Population	19,557 → 19,876 (+1.6%)	17,926 → 17,119 (-4.5%)
Median household income	$55,771 → $70,909 (+27.1%)	$78,935 → $100,318 (+27.1%)
Median home value	$357,800 → $598,500 (+67.3%)	$615,900 → $1,131,200 (+83.7%)
Median gross rent	$931 → $1,514 (+62.6%)	$1,473 → $1,880 (+27.6%)

Chaffee County

Population

19,55719,876

Median household income

$55,771$70,909

Median home value

$357,800$598,500

Median gross rent

$931$1,514

Pitkin County

Population

17,92617,119

Median household income

$78,935$100,318

Median home value

$615,900$1,131,200

Median gross rent

$1,473$1,880

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
Under 5	3.9%	3.7%
5 to 17	10.6%	11.2%
18 to 24	5.8%	6.8%
25 to 34	12.2%	12.6%
35 to 44	13.7%	13.3%
45 to 54	12.6%	15.3%
55 to 64	15.5%	15.4%
65 to 74	16.6%	13.4%
75 and over	9.3%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
White (non-Hispanic)	84.5%	80.5%
Black or African American	1.0%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.3%
Asian	0.7%	2.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.5%	5.1%
Hispanic or Latino	9.7%	11.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
No high school diploma	5.4%	3.0%
High school graduate	21.9%	11.2%
Some college or associate's	27.3%	21.8%
Bachelor's degree	26.8%	37.4%
Graduate or professional degree	18.7%	26.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
Drove alone	60.8%	48.5%
Carpooled	9.8%	5.5%
Public transit	0.0%	12.2%
Walked	4.0%	9.9%
Bicycle	4.3%	6.8%
Worked from home	19.6%	14.9%
Other means	1.5%	2.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
1-unit, detached	80.2%	38.4%
1-unit, attached	4.2%	8.6%
2 to 4 units	5.5%	13.0%
5 to 19 units	2.7%	24.1%
20 or more units	0.8%	11.1%
Mobile home & other	6.6%	4.8%

Poverty & households

	Chaffee County	Pitkin County
Poverty rate	10.0%	7.2%
Average household size	2.00	1.88
Mean commute (minutes)	17	20
Median year structure built	1992	1985