A new study estimated that the nearly 43,000 immigrants who have come to Denver over the past two years have cost $356 million.

Conducted by the Common Sense Institute (CSI), the estimate examined the outlays by the city of Denver, as well as associated health care and education costs across the region.

Founded in 2010, the institute is a nonprofit organization in Greenwood Village that conducts fiscal and economic research.

Here is a breakdown of the costs, according to CSI:

• Hospitals – $228 million

• City of Denver – $79 million

• Schools – $49 million

To calculate the healthcare costs, CSI researchers extrapolated using UCHealth data, which estimated uncompensated care had cost roughly $2,931 per immigrant.

“The costs have never remained simply in Denver,” said DJ Summers, CSI’s director of policy and research.

This total spending equates to roughly $8,000 for each arriving immigrant.

In December 2022, 90 immigrants were dropped off downtown to wander in the cold, leaving city officials scrambling to respond.

Since then, nearly 42,827 immigrants — mostly from South and Central America who crossed the southern border illegally — have come. Many of them are from Venezuela, which has been in the throes of economic and political chaos since President Nicolás Maduro assumed power.

Plane, train and bus tickets to send immigrants to the final destination of their choice suggest about half have stayed in Denver, although no one knows with certainty.

If accurate, that’s roughly the equivalent of adding a city the size of Golden within two years.

Last year, The Denver Gazette conducted a similar study, finding a boon from immigrant workers who pump roughly $2 billion into the Colorado economy, while costing taxpayers nearly $200 million annually. The analysis examined the largest cost drivers: health care, education and incarceration.

Jon Ewing, a Denver Human Services spokesperson, noted Wednesday that it was expected the costs would drop as the city moved from “a short-term emergency response to a more long-term, sustainable model.”

“While the expense has been great, we should also note that immigrants have a long, proud and documented history of contributing to our economy,” Ewing has said previously.

Denver Human Services has managed the response since the city lifted its emergency declarations.

The CSI study did not assess incarceration costs, which are largely invisible in Denver because law enforcement does not inquire about nation of origin.

The results from both studies reflect the limitations inherent in examining the economic impact of the roughly 43,000 new immigrant arrivals in two years.

The estimated $356 million in spending eclipsed The Denver Gazette’s cost assessment largely because this surge in immigration is markedly different. The droves of Venezuelans heading north is uncharacteristic of prior waves, largely from Mexico. Venezuelans have largely lacked the network of financial support that often comes from friends and family already established in the country.

Additionally, the newspaper’s analysis relied on a 2021 Pew Research Center estimate of 160,000 unauthorized immigrants — before the influx two years ago.

The CSI estimate is significantly greater than what Denver officials originally projected.

Earlier this year, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston estimated the crisis would be $180 million. While that estimate did not reflect education and healthcare costs, it prompted the mayor to call for and enact budget cuts, such as hiring freezes.

“It’s really exploded across the Denver metro area,” Summers said. “Denver doesn’t have walls around it.”

A Johnston spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

CSI last calculated the costs in May with a study that estimated the cost at $340 million.