Salt Lake County's distinctive demographics: implications for the aging population

Salt Lake County is the economic, political, and cultural center of Utah. The county is currently home to nearly 40 percent of Utah residents and generates about half of all jobs in the state. It remains the most populous county, with a million of the state's 2.6 million residents,1 and its daytime population swells by more than 50,000 to accommodate in-commuters from surrounding counties. Salt Lake County has maintained a central yet evolving role within the state since its inception. Because of its relative size, Salt Lake County dominates all standard state-level demographic and economic metrics. The truly distinctive character of Salt Lake County within Utah becomes particularly evident when it is compared to the rest of the state, rather than to the state as a whole. This paper first focuses on key population characteristics-age and sex structure, race and ethnic composition, and household sizes of Salt Lake County, and examines how these compare to the balance of Utah. What emerges from this analysis is that the county is much more similar to the nation than is the rest of the state, which truly embodies the more classic "Utah demographics." These differences have significant implications for the future of Salt Lake County. This analysis begins with an identification and comparison of historical demographic characteristics of Salt Lake County with those elsewhere in Utah. Next is an exploration of how these differential patterns and trends will impact the future of the county. The third section of the paper identifies the spatial distribution of demographic characteristics within the county. In the fourth and final section of the paper, current population distributions are combined with small-area population projections to illustrate possible scenarios for the future distribution of the retirement-age population within Salt Lake County.