…Thanks in large part to the work done in the decades before and after 2002, this time around, Utah can claim seven “major achievements in the state’s economic success story,” the report said. Dubbed “Utah’s Magnificent Seven” achievements, they are:
- Economic dynamism and diversity. “Utahns have built the most impressive economy in the nation,” the report said, highly diversified with more than double the national average real GDP growth over the past decade
- High household income and low poverty. Adjusted for regional price parity, Utah’s 2023 household income ranks the nation’s highest while the state’s three-year average poverty rate from 2021 to 2023 is the lowest, at 6.7%
- Upward mobility. Utah is one of only three states nationwide to hit top levels of upward mobility in every county, according to Opportunity Insights at Harvard University estimates
- Widespread prosperity. Utah “exhibits the most equal distribution of income in the nation,” according to a Census Bureau measurement
- Well-trained and educated workforce. Utah had the nation’s third highest share in 2023 of adults aged 25-64 with postsecondary training, including from trade and technical schools
- Fast growing population and youthfulness. Utah’s population increased 18.4% between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, a faster rate than any state in the nation. With a median age of 32.4 in 2024, Utah also has the nation’s youngest population.
- Social cohesion. Utah had the highest level of social capital among the state in a 2021 Utah Foundation study of more than 30 measures “in the broad categories of family structure, community participation, and economic mobility.”…