About Lakewood

Lakewood is a Home Rule Municipality that is the most populous city in Jefferson County, Colorado. Lakewood is also the fourth most populous city in the State of Colorado. Lakewood is west of Denver and is part of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Before incorporation in 1969, Lakewood was an agrarian/suburban community with policing provided by the Jefferson County Sheriff, a volunteer fire service, and with few street lights and sidewalks. The City of Lakewood was incorporated in 1969 and at the time of incorporation the city population was already over 90,000, making Lakewood one of the largest cities to be incorporated in the history of the United States.

The development of the community known as Lakewood was begun in 1889 by Charles Welch and W.A.H. Loveland, who platted a 13-block area along Colfax Avenue at Harlan Street in eastern Jefferson County. Loveland, the former president of the Colorado Central Railroad, retired to the new community of Lakewood after many years of living in nearby Golden.

Lakewood also is home to Lakewood High School, consistently ranked one of the best high schools in the state by Newsweek.

The City of Lakewood currently has a population of approximately 144,000 residents. Over 6,200 sales and use tax licenses are typically active in any given year.