Salt Lake County: demographic and economic overview

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 is a systematic review of historic and projected population and economic trends and characteristics of Salt Lake County. Beyond the dominant contribution of the county to the overall growth of the state, what emerges from this analysis is a more clear understanding of the distinctive age structure, racial and ethnic composition, and industrial and occupational distribution of Salt Lake County as compared to the rest of the state. The paper initially reviews past and current population trends, followed by a similar review of economic changes. The final major section of the paper is a consideration of the future of Salt Lake County.