Issue #8: Dealing with growth in Utah

• Read our Research Brief on growth: Dealing with Growth in Utah (published May 13, 2004).

Dealing with growth in Utah is issue number eight. Of those surveyed, 30% gave this issue a “5.”

To better understand Utahns' concerns, we asked several follow up questions. First, respondents were asked if overall, they thought population growth in Utah was good or bad. 63% thought it was good (most saying probably good), and 25% thought it was bad (most saying probably bad).

Overall, would you say population growth in Utah is good or bad?

Another question was asked about the growth rate, and in this question, 41% of respondents thought Utah was growing too fast, which is significantly higher than the 25% who thought Utah's population growth was bad in the question above. 55% of respondents thought Utah is growing at about the right pace. Perhaps omitting the phrase "population growth" changes the focus more to economic growth or the influx of people from other states and countries. This is probably the case, since another question found that those polled were more concerned about new move-ins to the state than Utah’s birth rate.

The majority of respondents, 66%, felt that accommodating the growth through building schools, roads and other infrastructure was of greater concern than trying to control growth.

Utah Foundation will release a Research Brief on this issue this year as part of the Utah Priorities project. Subscribe to our email list, using the form on the left side of this page, to ensure you receive this and other reports and briefs on the top ten issues.