Colorado Fun Facts Information About Colorado, Colorado Geography, and Colorado Schools

Colorado is known as the Centennial State or Colorful Colorado. The abbreviation is CO and the capital of Colorado is Denver. Denver is also the largest city in Colorado. Residents of Colorado are known as Coloradans.

Colorado is ranked 24th in population and received its statehood on August 1, 1876.

Colorado shares its borders with Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. Two major bodies of water associated with Colorado are the Colorado River and the Rio Grande.

The Lark Bunting is Colorado’s state bird, and the state tree is the Colorado blue spruce. Colorado’s state flower is the Rocky Mountain Columbine. Colorado’s states song’s lyrics are about the state flower. The state song is “Where the Columbines Grow.” The columbine flower is a rare species, and it is actually against the law to pick them or harm them in any way.

Colorado’s major agricultural industries are wheat, sheep, and cattle. Colorado’s other industries such as tourism, do well with skiers. Colorado also dabbles in the mining of gold and silver, oil, and finance.

There were 673,438 K12 students in the Colorado public schools in 1996. Out of those students 54,565 were first grade students. There were also 36,398 K12 public school teachers in the Colorado public schools system. There were a total of 1,531 Colorado public schools in 1996. (Source: IES National Center for Education Statistics)