Report: 21.5% of Coloradans in 'extreme asset poverty'

More than one in five Colorado households have zero or negative net worth, according to the national non-profit Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED).

The organization's 2012 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard said that 21.5 percent of Colorado households are in "extreme asset poverty," meaning that their net worth is zero or negative. Furthermore, 28.9 percent of Colorado households are classified as "asset poor," meaning that they lack sufficient net worth to subsist at the poverty level in the absence of income for three months.

The Denver Post noted that the report ranked Colorado 22nd in the country overall for how residents fare in terms of achieving financial security across five different issue areas. The areas are assets and income, businesses and jobs, housing and homeownership, health care, and education.

CFED noted that "asset poverty," the scorecard's signature measure, presents a conservative estimate of financial security since it counts all assets – including those such as a home or vehicle – that would need to be liquidated to be used to pay for day-to-day needs.

A more stringent measure of resources available to a family is "liquid asset poverty," which does not include assets such as a home or car that are not easily converted into cash.

The report gave Colorado a "C" overall for financial assets and income, noting the state's high bankruptcy rate, as well as the fact that 51.3 percent of Colorado's consumers had subprime credit scores.

On a more positive note, the report gave Colorado an "A" in both businesses and jobs and education, ranking 6th in both microenterprise ownership rates and business-creation rate, and 3rd in the percentage of the population with four-year college degrees.

Colorado is weaker in these areas when it comes to people of color, though. The state ranks 37th in the nation in the category of business ownership by race, and 49th in four-year degree attainment by race.

Colorado also received an "F" in health care. The report pointed to high uninsured rates by income (46th) and the number of uninsured low-income children (47th).

– Alec Arellano