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Saguache · FY2021 municipal finance benchmarks

Saguache County · San Luis Valley · statutory town · Pop. 520 (2025 estimate); FY2021 per-resident figures use 539 · Census finance data FY2016, FY2021

Latest Census Bureau finance data for Saguache: FY2021. Retrieved Oct 2026. Newer years are added when the Census Bureau publishes them. Why the lag?

City website (opens in a new tab)

Compare

FY2021 in brief

Saguache collected $2,200 per resident (including city-run utilities), 11% below the median of the 227 Colorado municipalities reporting that year, 26% above its peers. Tax revenue per resident sits 13% above its peers, but 13% below the state median.

Generated from the figures below. Every number links to its Census source.

Compared with

Nearest on population, household income and region

FY2021 headline figures

Revenue per resident (definition)

$2,200
26% above peers
Includes city-owned utilities
Peer median
$1,744
CO median · 227 with a published figure
$2,476
Position
Higher than 40% of the 227 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
+19.3%/yr
How Colorado compares on revenue per resident

Expenditures per resident (definition)

$1,423
19% below peers
Includes city-owned utilities
Peer median
$1,763
CO median · 220 with a published figure
$2,208
Position
Higher than 25% of the 220 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
+0.7%/yr

Tax revenue per resident (definition)

$935
13% above peers
Peer median
$831
CO median · 201 with a published figure
$1,072
Position
Higher than 40% of the 201 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
+18.3%/yr

How this number was calculated

Revenue per resident · $2,200
Reported by the city to the Census Bureau

  1. 1Metric

    $2,200 Total revenue divided by population

    = Total revenue ÷ population

    Full definition: Revenue per resident

  2. 2Inputs

    Total revenue $1.2M ÷ population 539 (2021 estimate)

  3. 3Census line items

    • A80 Sewer charges
    • A91 Water utility charges
    • C89 State aid
    • D89 Local government aid
    • T01 Property tax
    • T09 General sales tax
    • T15 Selective sales taxes (lodging, utilities, etc.)
    • T29 Licenses & permits
    • U20 Interest earnings
    • U30 Fines & forfeits
    • U99 Miscellaneous

  4. 4Source file

What the numbers mean

  • Saguache runs city-owned utilities, which add 13.4% of its revenue. Cities that don't run utilities will look lower on revenue and spending per resident for that reason alone. What counts as utility revenue
  • With about 539 residents, small changes in Saguache's budget move per-resident figures a lot. Compare several years, not one.

Where the money comes from and where it goes

Per resident, FY2021. Bars show Saguache; the gold tick is the peer median. How categories work

The biggest difference from peers is Transportation: $267 per resident, 26.2× the peer median. On the revenue side, intergovernmental is 2.9× peers.

Money in

Revenue

$2,200
per resident26% above peers
Money in: Saguache revenue per resident by category, FY2021, against the peer median. Open a category for its lines and Census item codes.
CategoryPer residentvs peers
$7407% abovepeers $691
$5442.9×peers $185
$29532% belowpeers $434
$2764.3×peers $65
$1503.6×peers $41
$14742% abovepeers $104
$4866% abovepeers $29
Peer median of 5 peers · Colorado median of 227 reporting

Money out

Spending

$1,423
per resident19% below peers
Money out: Saguache spending per resident by category, FY2021, against the peer median. Open a category for its lines and Census item codes.
CategoryPer residentvs peers
$61816% abovepeers $531
$38639% belowpeers $634
$26726.2×peers $10
$9353% belowpeers $199
$5970% abovepeers $35
None reported · peers $13$0None reported
Peer median of 4 peers · Colorado median of 220 reporting

Saguache and its peers

The five Colorado municipalities nearest on population, median household income and region. Budget size isn’t a matching factor, so peers aren’t chosen on the figures being compared. Per resident, FY2021. How peers are chosen

Open in Compare
Saguache compared with its peer municipalities, FY2021, per resident
MunicipalityRevenueExpendituresTax revenueSales taxDebt
SaguacheUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 13.4% of total revenue in FY2021. Revenue and spending per resident include them, so cities that run their own utilities read higher than cities that don't.$2,200$1,423$935$740Not reported for this year
South ForkUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 14.7% of total revenue in FY2021. Revenue and spending per resident include them, so cities that run their own utilities read higher than cities that don't.Regional hub: Sales tax per resident is 2.6× the Colorado median.$2,963$2,039$2,286$2,250Not reported for this year
NuclaUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 40.3% of total revenue in FY2021. Revenue and spending per resident include them, so cities that run their own utilities read higher than cities that don't.$1,311$1,577$467$369$81
San Luis$1,744$718$552$589
NorwoodUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 35.5% of total revenue in FY2021. Revenue and spending per resident include them, so cities that run their own utilities read higher than cities that don't.$2,535$1,949$1,043$848$469
La JaraUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 14.5% of total revenue in FY2021. Revenue and spending per resident include them, so cities that run their own utilities read higher than cities that don't.$1,548$1,020$831$691$789
Peer median$1,744$1,763$831$691Not reported for this year

Utilities marks a municipality whose revenue and spending include city-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit), which raises its per-resident totals.

Regional hub marks a municipality whose sales tax per resident is at least 1.5× the Colorado median: a shopping or visitor hub where people who live elsewhere pay much of the sales tax.

Trends

Every available fiscal year. Lines break where a year is missing or withheld; nothing is interpolated.

  • This city
  • Peer median
  • Withheld (shown on the axis, no value)
  • Colorado median (Census of Governments years only)
Revenue per resident
FY2016 $910 to FY2021 $2,200.$0$1.2K$2.5K’16’21Peer median FY2016: $1,073Peer median FY2021: $1,744Colorado median FY2016: $1,746 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $2,476 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2016: $910FY2021: $2,200

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

Peer group changed in FY2021. Peers are matched each year, so the peer median can step when the group changes.

Show data table
Revenue per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016$910$1,073$1,746 (224 reporting)
FY2021$2,200$1,744$2,476 (227 reporting)
Expenditures per resident
FY2016 $1,371 to FY2021 $1,423.$0$1.1K$2.2K’16’21Peer median FY2016: $1,271Peer median FY2021: $1,763Colorado median FY2016: $1,749 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $2,208 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2016: $1,371FY2021: $1,423

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

Peer group changed in FY2021. Peers are matched each year, so the peer median can step when the group changes.

Show data table
Expenditures per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016$1,371$1,271$1,749 (196 reporting)
FY2021$1,423$1,763$2,208 (220 reporting)
Tax revenue per resident
FY2016 $404 to FY2021 $935.$0$536$1.1K’16’21Peer median FY2016: $496Peer median FY2021: $831Colorado median FY2016: $705 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $1,072 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2016: $404FY2021: $935

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

Peer group changed in FY2021. Peers are matched each year, so the peer median can step when the group changes.

Show data table
Tax revenue per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016$404$496$705 (193 reporting)
FY2021$935$831$1,072 (201 reporting)

Questions about Saguache’s finances

How much revenue does Saguache collect per resident?
Saguache collected $2,200 per resident in FY2021, 11% below the median of the 227 Colorado municipalities reporting that year. See the figure
How does Saguache's spending per resident compare with similar cities?
Saguache spent $1,423 per resident in FY2021, 19% below the median of its peers: South Fork, Nucla, San Luis, Norwood and La Jara. See the figure
Which cities is Saguache compared with?
Saguache is compared with South Fork, Nucla, San Luis, Norwood and La Jara: the Colorado municipalities nearest to it on population, median household income and region. Budget size isn't used, so peers aren't chosen on the figures being compared. See the peer table
Where do these numbers come from?
From the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, as each government reported its own fiscal year, divided by Census population estimates. Figures that fail quality checks are withheld rather than shown. Sources and methodology

Community context

American Community Survey 5-year estimates and Census population estimates. Where the selected year isn’t available, the nearest earlier year is shown and labeled.

Population growth (5-yr)
+0.7%/yr
2021 estimate
Median household income
$38.9K
2021 estimate
Poverty rate
6.5%
2021 estimate
Median home value
$127.8K
2021 estimate
Housing vacancy rate
27.1%
2021 estimate

Explore further

Also in San Luis Valley

Revenue per resident, latest published year.

Sources

Dataset: Saguache, CO municipal finance benchmarks

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Please credit “Source: Orivian Municipal Index, orivian.ai/benchmarks”. See the data use terms.

Notes: dollars are nominal (not inflation-adjusted). Colorado medians cover the municipalities reporting that year. Peers: nearest on population, income and region. Definitions: orivian.ai/benchmarks/methodology.Retrieved October 12, 2026 from orivian.ai/benchmarks.

Every figure on this page is read from the published index; nothing is recalculated for display. Read the methodology

Transportation is Saguache’s largest difference from its peers (26.2× the peer median in FY2021). See how that line moves month to month in your own budget-vs-actual.

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