Boom Towns

Representative community:

Eagle, CO ( Learn about this community | Read Eagle, CO blog )

The kinds of places where cranes and backhoes are a common sight, these 160 counties are growing, changing, and diversifying. Their 38.5 million residents are, on the whole, thriving economically.

These are relatively affluent communities that many professionals call home. But they are also experiencing some growth at the other end of the income spectrum as their minority populations grow, in part to fill construction jobs. They are nearly 10 percent Hispanic, well above the national country average of 7.5 percent. They gave their vote to President Bush in 2004, but very slightly. They will be a battleground in 2008.

Boom Towns and their politics are represented by Eagle, Colo., in Patchwork Nation.