City profileColoradoFiscal year 2025
How much federal money does Aurora get?
Aurora received $972.3 million in federal awards in FY2025: $2,371 per resident, 68th of 99 large cities by total.In fiscal year 2025, federal agencies obligated $972.3 million in awards whose place of performance is Aurora, CO, about $2,371 per resident.
Aurora is 64th of 99 large cities per resident
Federal awards per resident, FY2025, the 99 largest US cities on this site. Dashed line: median city.
What the money is
That is up 10.5% from FY2024 ($880.3 million). Compared with FY2019, the last year before pandemic relief, it is down 22.7%. The largest share came as contracts ($570.0 million). The Department of Defense obligated the most ($462.8 million), and the largest program was Federal Pell Grant Program ($38.8 million). By this measure Aurora ranks 68th of the 99 large US cities on this site.
What is counted: contracts, grants, loans and payments that agencies report with this city as the place of performance (USAspending.gov city name AURORA, state CO). Payments to individuals, such as Social Security, are published only as county totals to protect privacy, so most of them do not show up at city level. For the full picture see the Colorado page, which includes those payments.
Federal money to Aurora by year
Aurora: $972M in FY2025, down 23% on FY2019
Federal award obligations by fiscal year and type, FY2018–FY2026, nominal dollars. FY26* is preliminary and still filling in.
- Insurance and other
- Loans (subsidy cost)
- Direct payments
- Grants
- Contracts
View every year as a table
| Fiscal year | Contracts | Grants | Direct payments | Loans | Insurance and other | Total | Per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2018 | $779.9M | $293.7M | $61.9M | -$3.3M | $64,879 | $1.1B | – |
| FY2019 | $920.3M | $316.7M | $33.6M | -$13.4M | $81,755 | $1.3B | – |
| FY2020 | $665.7M | $387.2M | $49.3M | -$6.0M | $291,139 | $1.1B | $2,836 |
| FY2021 | $669.7M | $440.0M | $140.0M | -$10.5M | $34,952 | $1.2B | $3,174 |
| FY2022 | $488.2M | $171.5M | $53.4M | -$11.0M | $7,414 | $702.1M | $1,779 |
| FY2023 | $631.9M | $252.5M | $81.0M | -$5.1M | $63,650 | $960.4M | $2,403 |
| FY2024 | $409.0M | $391.0M | $73.3M | -$1.2M | $8.2M | $880.3M | $2,156 |
| FY2025 | $570.0M | $311.6M | $85.5M | $2.1M | $3.1M | $972.3M | $2,371 |
| FY2026* | $412.2M | $408.8M | $92.6M | $69,476 | $4.5M | $918.2M | – |
Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Treasury).
Cities with similar totals
Aurora and the cities ranked either side of it
FY2025 federal awards performed in each city, total dollars.
| Milwaukee, WI | $1.0 billion |
| Scottsdale, AZ | $993.8 million |
| Aurora, CO (this page) | $972.3 million |
| Charlotte, NC | $927.3 million |
| Newark, NJ | $830.3 million |
Who pays and for what, FY2025
The agencies that obligated the most to Aurora, and the largest federal programs. Programs are federal Assistance Listings (formerly CFDA numbers); contracts have no listing number, so they do not appear there.
Top awarding agencies
| Agency | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | $462.8 million | 47.6% |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $262.5 million | 27.0% |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $117.9 million | 12.1% |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $46.0 million | 4.7% |
| Department of Education | $41.6 million | 4.3% |
| Department of the Treasury | $5.7 million | 0.6% |
| National Science Foundation | $5.6 million | 0.6% |
| Federal Communications Commission | $4.8 million | 0.5% |
| Department of Homeland Security | $4.5 million | 0.5% |
| Corporation for National and Community Service | $3.8 million | 0.4% |
Top programs
| Program | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Pell Grant Program Assistance Listing 84.063 | $38.8 million | 4.0% |
| Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers Assistance Listing 14.871 | $35.5 million | 3.7% |
| Cardiovascular Diseases Research Assistance Listing 93.837 | $28.6 million | 2.9% |
| Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research Assistance Listing 93.847 | $27.0 million | 2.8% |
| Veterans State Nursing Home Care Assistance Listing 64.015 | $21.6 million | 2.2% |
| Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research Assistance Listing 93.855 | $20.2 million | 2.1% |
| Trans-NIH Research Support Assistance Listing 93.310 | $17.8 million | 1.8% |
| Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research Assistance Listing 93.865 | $16.4 million | 1.7% |
| Biomedical Research and Research Training Assistance Listing 93.859 | $15.1 million | 1.5% |
| Aging Research Assistance Listing 93.866 | $14.7 million | 1.5% |
Nearby on this site
Universities in Aurora
Questions and answers
- How much federal money does Aurora get?
- $972.3 million in FY2025 in awards performed in Aurora, CO, according to USAspending.gov. That excludes most payments to individuals, which are published only by county.
- How much is that per resident?
- About $2,371 per resident, using the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate of 410,053 people.
- Which agency spends the most in Aurora?
- The Department of Defense, with $462.8 million in FY2025.
Sources and notes
- USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), API endpoints spending_over_time and spending_by_category, filtered by place of performance city (AURORA) in CO, fiscal years 2018–2026. Amounts are obligations in nominal dollars. Data retrieved 2026-10-04. Public domain.
- U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 city estimates (Aurora city).
- How the figures are built, and what they leave out: sources and methods.