Salt Lake County, UT

County Profile

1,196,523 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Salt Lake County, UT.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 43% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 12% of 1,255 counties78
Schools791st of 973 counties26
GrowthTop 23% of 1,226 counties64
Housing affordability1050th of 1,255 counties72
Climate1130th of 1,254 counties55
Physical resilience667th of 1,255 counties59
AccessTop 1% of 1,255 counties99
Economic stabilityTop 6% of 1,255 counties93
The quick read

Salt Lake County ranks in the top 12% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.6% and median household income of $97,494.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 7,251 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 24% on the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.4 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 20% of it.

At a glance

Population
1,196,523
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$97,494
Top 6% nationally
Density
1,589/sq mi
752.9 sq mi of land
Median age
34.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Salt Lake County
Utah
Metro area
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT
Nearest major airport
SLC
9 mi · Salt Lake City Intl
Median home value
$525,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 75% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment held steady over the past year, at 674,049 employed residents.

39% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 91% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 94% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,272$97,494Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$494$45,106Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.1%Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.1 minBottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.4%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment674,049Top 2%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.3%Top 38%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.0%Top 32%June 2026
Labor force699,323Top 2%June 2026
Labor force participation72.2%Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 25%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.91.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.6% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202497k82k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $97,494 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Salt Lake City-Murray, UT
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Customer Service Representatives26,620$45,410
General and Operations Managers20,870$103,710
Retail Salespersons20,330$34,420
Fast Food and Counter Workers19,590$29,070
Software Developers19,040$129,600
Office Clerks, General16,260$45,220

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

38% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 39% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 21.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
298
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
21.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
37.8%
Bottom 27% in Utah
Reading proficiency
39.4%
Bottom 36% in Utah
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Granger HighGranite District3,26725.5
Copper Hills HighJordan District2,83723.4
Cyprus HighGranite District2,76226.1
Mountain Ridge HighJordan District2,73824.2
Taylorsville HighGranite District2,68526.3
Herriman HighJordan District2,52225.2
West HighSalt Lake District2,50323.067%82%
Hunter HighGranite District2,48024.6
Bingham HighJordan District2,46125.1
Corner Canyon HighCanyons District2,43726.5
Brighton HighCanyons District2,43526.5
Hillcrest HighCanyons District2,42124.7

33.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Utah’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,592 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.4 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
19.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,592
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$525,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.39Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate66.1%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±178449,662Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$16$1,592Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,369$525,700Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.6%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.2%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
64/ 100
Top 23% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 2% since 2020, reaching 1,216,274 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

60% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 6.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
7,251
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
6.1
Top 23% nationally
Year over year
+24%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
60.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
202020212022202320241216k1187k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20202021202220232024202510k5k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−29%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 94°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 15.5 inches, including 51.9 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 54, in the Moderate band, and about 43 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SALT LAKE CITY INTL AP, 8.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index101.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation15.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall51.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100432024 calendar year
Median air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
54
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
101
90th percentile index
Days above 100
43
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

59 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, wildfire and avalanche.

EarthquakeModerate
AvalancheModerate
WildfireElevated

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, lightning, inland flooding, heat wave, landslide, volcanic activity, tornado, strong wind, hail, drought, cold wave, ice storm.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Salt Lake County records 3.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 14.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.4 per 100,000 residents in Salt Lake County.

Homicide
3.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
20.4
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
20.7
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Salt Lake County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Salt Lake County rather than Salt Lake County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 9 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Salt Lake City IntlSLC9 mi12,002 ft
Provo MuniPVU33 mi8,603 ft
Ogden-HinckleyOGD37 mi8,107 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
64
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.