The City and County of Denver (pronounced /ˈdɛnvər/) is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains The Denver downtown district is located immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (1.6 km) or 5,280 feet (1,609.344 m) above sea leve The 105th meridian west of Greenwich passes through Union Station and is the temporal reference for the Mountain Time Zone.

The population of Denver was 600,158 according to the 2010 census.According to 2009 Census estimates, Denver was the 26th most populous U.S. cityThe 10-county Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2009 population of 2,552,195 and ranked as the 21st most populous U.S. metropolitan statistical areaand the 12-county Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2009 population of 3,110,436 and ranked as the 16th most populous U.S. metropolitan area.Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile (800 km) radius and the second-largest city in the Mountain West and Southwest after Phoenix. Denver is the most populous city in the Front Range Urban Corridor, an urban region stretching across 18 counties in two states. The population of the Front Range Urban Corridor was estimated to be 4,328,406 in 2009.

Denver is home to a variety of sports teams and belongs to a select group of U.S. cities with teams from four major sports. Denver submitted the winning bid to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, but subsequently withdrew giving it the dubious distinction of being the only city to back out after winning a bid to host the Olympics. The Denver Broncos of the NFL, who are currently coached by John Fox, have been able to draw crowds of nearly 70,000 since their AFL origins in the early 1960s and continue to draw fans today to their current home Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The team has advanced to the Super Bowl six times and won back-to-back in 1998 and '99. The Denver Broncos are owned by Pat Bowlen. In the 1980s and 1990s, one of the top priorities of former Mayor Federico Peña was bringing major league baseball to the city, an effort which culminated in the creation of the Colorado Rockies as an expansion franchise in 1993 and the opening of Coors Field in 1995. The Rockies advanced to the playoffs in 1995, but were eliminated in the first round. In 2007, their late-season winning streak saw them advance to the playoffs as a wild-card entrant, advance to and win the NL Championship Series and bring the World Series to Denver for the first time. Denver is also home to the Colorado Avalanche, a National Hockey League team that relocated from Quebec City in 1995. They have won two Stanley Cups (1996 and 2001) while in Denver and play at Pepsi Center, which also hosts the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League. The Major League Soccer team Colorado Rapids play in Dick's Sporting Goods Park, an 18,000 seat stadium opened for the 2007 MLS season, located in Commerce City, a suburb of Denver.^] In 2006 Denver established a professional outdoor lacrosse team, the Denver Outlaws. They play in Sports Authority Field at Mile High and are sanctioned by Major League Lacrosse. In 2006, The Denver Outlaws won the Western Conference Championship.In 2010, the Colorado Rapids won the MLS Cup and were the MLS Champions.