SALT LAKE CITY — When it comes to focusing on future generations and ensuring their prosperity, how is Utah doing? Is it lagging behind other states in the Mountain West?
These are questions the Utah Foundation’s latest report dug into, and what it discovered is that most states in the Mountain West (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona) have seen a “rapid” decrease in their focus on future generations since 2013 — and Utah is no different.
The Utah Foundation used four indicators to compare states in terms of their focus on future generations:
- Parks and recreation funding effort – Utah is the third highest in the nation.
- Public school funding effort – Utah is the 13th lowest.
- Birth rate – Utah has the highest rate in the nation.
- Youth organization funding effort – Utah is the fifth lowest.
Despite the decrease, the report said Utah’s focus on future generations is still the fifth-highest in the nation.
“Even with a 60% decline since 2013, Utah is still fifth in the nation, and well above the national average in its focus on future generations,” Christopher Collard, research director of the Utah Foundation, said in a statement. “However, the gap between Utah and the U.S. is closing.
While much of Utah’s high ranking is driven by the state’s highest-in-the-nation birth rates in 2023, the state’s birth rate — along with the nation’s — is still declining.
“Utah’s birth rate dropped rapidly from 2008 to 2023, from 21 births per 1,000 residents to a little over 13. This represents a major reconfiguring of Utah’s population that will manifest in countless ways during the coming years, in areas ranging from education to public health to employment,” said the report.
Along with its strong but declining birth rate, Utah’s investment in parks and recreation funding is another key factor in the state’s ranking.
The report called this investment a “critical indicator” for public health and defines the funding effort as the amount spent by state and local governments on parks and recreation in terms of the state’s level of personal income.
For every $1,000 earned by a Utahn, $3.89 was collected by a state or local government and spent on parks and recreation in 2023, the report shows.
“Utah has consistently outspent the nation on parks and recreation funding effort. Over the past decade, the national effort stabilized just above $2, while Utah’s funding effort has typically been below $4 per $1,000 of personal income since 2014. Still, as of 2023, Utah ranks third in terms of relative parks and recreation funding effort,” said the report.
When it comes to education funding, an amount the report said may be the “most direct investment a society can make in its children,” $37.91 for every $1,000 earned by a Utahn, was spent on the K-12 education system.
This puts Utah in the bottom third of states for school funding efforts. The report noted that the Utah Foundation uses the education spending effort based on income, rather than the popular method of per-pupil spending, “because it provides a more direct indication of a state’s relative focus on education spending.”
“While Utah is spending a lot on parks and rec, we continue to slide in public school funding effort,” Shawn Teigen, president of the Utah Foundation, said in a statement. “We are blessed with a comparatively high, though declining, birth rate, but we are slipping further and further down on the other side of that coin — paying to educate those kids.”
As far as funding for youth organizations, Utah had the lowest funding effort among Mountain West states and the fifth-lowest in the nation. On average, youth organizations in Utah receive just 22 cents for every $1,000 of personal income. From 2008 to 2022, the funds per $1,000 of personal income decreased by 60%.
Overall, Utah’s sub-index score for focus on future generations has declined by 60% over the past 12 years. The Utah Foundation standardized the four indicators to create an index score measuring focus on future generations from zero to 14.
The scale was standardized to 2016 levels, meaning if states improve or decline over time, they can achieve index scores outside this range.
Despite a 60% decrease (from 17.9 to 7.2), Utah still ranks fifth in the nation for its focus on future generations.
When looking at a focus on future generations, Utah performs well, ranking fifth among states. This ranking is largely driven by its high birth rate (first in the nation) and its high parks and recreation funding effort (third in the nation), which more than offset its low school funding effort (13th lowest in the nation) and its funding effort on youth organizations (fifth lowest in the nation), said the report.
The full report can be read here.
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