Utah Population Boom: Where are People Coming From and Going To?

A new report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah shows that Utah's population growth is being driven by in-state and out-of-state migration. The report found that Utah's population has grown by nearly 120,000 people between 2020 and 2022. This includes both natural growth and a net gain of residents from migration.

"Migration represents an increasingly important contributor to Utah's population growth as fertility rates and births decline," wrote the report's authors, Emily Harris and Heidi Prior. "When a county proliferates, it's almost certainly due to high levels of net in-migration."

The report found that Clark County in Nevada and Maricopa County in Arizona are the top two counties sending the most people to Utah. These counties are home to Las Vegas and Phoenix, respectively.

The report also found that Utahns are moving to other western states, including California, Washington, and Idaho. The top five destinations for Utahns who are moving out of state are Maricopa County, Clark County, King County (Washington), Los Angeles County (California), and Ada County (Idaho).

The report's authors noted that interstate migration is only a piece of a county's growth in population. Many residents migrate within a state, from county to county. According to in-state migration data, Utah County and Salt Lake County have the highest in-state migration levels, with more than 10,000 residents traveling in each direction each year. Tooele County saw the highest in-state migration growth, with a yearly net gain of roughly 2,077 residents from other Utah counties between 2015 and 2019.