In 2023, the population of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area in the United States was about 1.27 million people. This represented a slight increase when compared to the previous year.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Salt Lake City metro area from 1950 to 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Employed Persons in Salt Lake City, UT (MSA) (LAUMT494162000000005) from Jan 1990 to Apr 2025 about Salt Lake City, UT, household survey, employment, persons, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate in Salt Lake City, UT (MSA) (LAUMT494162000000003A) from 1990 to 2024 about Salt Lake City, UT, household survey, unemployment, rate, and USA.

In 2023, the metropolitan area of New York-Newark-Jersey City had the biggest population in the United States. Based on annual estimates from the census, the metropolitan area had around 19.5 million inhabitants, which was a slight decrease from the previous year. The Los Angeles and Chicago metro areas rounded out the top three. What is a metropolitan statistical area? In general, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a core urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants – the smallest MSA is Carson City, with an estimated population of nearly 56,000. The urban area is made bigger by adjacent communities that are socially and economically linked to the center. MSAs are particularly helpful in tracking demographic change over time in large communities and allow officials to see where the largest pockets of inhabitants are in the country. How many MSAs are in the United States? There were 421 metropolitan statistical areas across the U.S. as of July 2021. The largest city in each MSA is designated the principal city and will be the first name in the title. An additional two cities can be added to the title, and these will be listed in population order based on the most recent census. So, in the example of New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York has the highest population, while Jersey City has the lowest. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts an official population count every ten years, and the new count is expected to be announced by the end of 2030.

Every four years, the Wasatch Front’s two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), collaborate to update a set of annual small area -- traffic analysis zone and ‘city area’, see descriptions below) -- population and employment projections for the Salt Lake City-West Valley City (WFRC), Ogden-Layton (WFRC), and Provo-Orem (MAG) urbanized areas.

These projections are primarily developed for the purpose of informing long-range transportation infrastructure and services planning done as part of the 4 year Regional Transportation Plan update cycle, as well as Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, 2023-2050. Accordingly, the foundation for these projections is largely data describing existing conditions for a 2019 base year, the first year of the latest RTP process. The projections are included in the official travel models, which are publicly released at the conclusion of the RTP process.

Projections within the Wasatch Front urban area ( SUBAREAID = 1) were produced with using the Real Estate Market Model as described below. Socioeconomic forecasts produced for Cache MPO (Cache County, SUBAREAID = 2), Dixie MPO (Washington County, SUBAREAID = 3), Summit County (SUBAREAID = 4), and UDOT (other areas of the state, SUBAREAID = 0) all adhere to the University of Utah Gardner Policy Institute's county-level projection controls, but other modeling methods are used to arrive at the TAZ-level forecasts for these areas.

As these projections may be a valuable input to other analyses, this dataset is made available here as a public service for informational purposes only. It is solely the responsibility of the end user to determine the appropriate use of this dataset for other purposes.

Wasatch Front Real Estate Market Model (REMM) Projections

WFRC and MAG have developed a spatial statistical model using the UrbanSim modeling platform to assist in producing these annual projections. This model is called the Real Estate Market Model, or REMM for short. REMM is used for the urban portion of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. REMM relies on extensive inputs to simulate future development activity across the greater urbanized region. Key inputs to REMM include:

Demographic data from the decennial census
County-level population and employment projections -- used as REMM control totals -- are produced by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute (GPI) funded by the Utah State Legislature
Current employment locational patterns derived from the Utah Department of Workforce Services
Land use visioning exercises and feedback, especially in regard to planned urban and local center development, with city and county elected officials and staff
Current land use and valuation GIS-based parcel data stewarded by County Assessors
Traffic patterns and transit service from the regional Travel Demand Model that together form the landscape of regional accessibility to workplaces and other destinations
Calibration of model variables to balance the fit of current conditions and dynamics at the county and regional level

‘Traffic Analysis Zone’ Projections

The annual projections are forecasted for each of the Wasatch Front’s 3,546 Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) geographic units. TAZ boundaries are set along roads, streams, and other physical features and average about 600 acres (0.94 square miles). TAZ sizes vary, with some TAZs in the densest areas representing only a single city block (25 acres).

‘City Area’ Projections

The TAZ-level output from the model is also available for ‘city areas’ that sum the projections for the TAZ geographies that roughly align with each city’s current boundary. As TAZs do not align perfectly with current city boundaries, the ‘city area’ summaries are not projections specific to a current or future city boundary, but the ‘city area’ summaries may be suitable surrogates or starting points upon which to base city-specific projections.

Summary Variables in the Datasets

Annual projection counts are available for the following variables (please read Key Exclusions note below):

Demographics

Household Population Count (excludes persons living in group quarters) 
Household Count (excludes group quarters) 

Employment

Typical Job Count (includes job types that exhibit typical commuting and other travel/vehicle use patterns)
Retail Job Count (retail, food service, hotels, etc)
Office Job Count (office, health care, government, education, etc)
Industrial Job Count (manufacturing, wholesale, transport, etc)
Non-Typical Job Count* (includes agriculture, construction, mining, and home-based jobs) This can be calculated by subtracting Typical Job Count from All Employment Count 
All Employment Count* (all jobs, this sums jobs from typical and non-typical sectors).

• These variables includes REMM’s attempt to estimate construction jobs in areas that experience new and re-development activity. Areas may see short-term fluctuations in Non-Typical and All Employment counts due to the temporary location of construction jobs.

Key Exclusions from TAZ and ‘City Area’ Projections

As the primary purpose for the development of these population and employment projections is to model future travel in the region, REMM-based projections do not include population or households that reside in group quarters (prisons, senior centers, dormitories, etc), as residents of these facilities typically have a very low impact on regional travel. USTM-based projections also excludes group quarter populations. Group quarters population estimates are available at the county-level from GPI and at various sub-county geographies from the Census Bureau.

Statewide Projections

Population and employment projections for the Wasatch Front area can be combined with those developed by Dixie MPO (St. George area), Cache MPO (Logan area), and the Utah Department of Transportation (for the remainder of the state) into one database for use in the Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM). While projections for the areas outside of the Wasatch Front use different forecasting methods, they contain the same summary-level population and employment projections making similar TAZ and ‘City Area’ data available statewide. WFRC plans, in the near future, to add additional areas to these projections datasets by including the projections from the USTM model.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployed Persons in Salt Lake City, UT (MSA) (LAUMT494162000000004A) from 1990 to 2024 about Salt Lake City, UT, household survey, unemployment, persons, and USA.

Every four years, the Wasatch Front’s two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), collaborate to update a set of annual small area -- traffic analysis zone and ‘city area’, see descriptions below) -- population and employment projections for the Salt Lake City-West Valley City (WFRC), Ogden-Layton (WFRC), and Provo-Orem (MAG) urbanized areas.

These projections are primarily developed for the purpose of informing long-range transportation infrastructure and services planning done as part of the 4 year Regional Transportation Plan update cycle, as well as Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, 2023-2050. Accordingly, the foundation for these projections is largely data describing existing conditions for a 2019 base year, the first year of the latest RTP process. The projections are included in the official travel models, which are publicly released at the conclusion of the RTP process.

Projections within the Wasatch Front urban area ( SUBAREAID = 1) were produced with using the Real Estate Market Model as described below. Socioeconomic forecasts produced for Cache MPO (Cache County, SUBAREAID = 2), Dixie MPO (Washington County, SUBAREAID = 3), Summit County (SUBAREAID = 4), and UDOT (other areas of the state, SUBAREAID = 0) all adhere to the University of Utah Gardner Policy Institute's county-level projection controls, but other modeling methods are used to arrive at the TAZ-level forecasts for these areas.

As these projections may be a valuable input to other analyses, this dataset is made available here as a public service for informational purposes only. It is solely the responsibility of the end user to determine the appropriate use of this dataset for other purposes.

Wasatch Front Real Estate Market Model (REMM) Projections

WFRC and MAG have developed a spatial statistical model using the UrbanSim modeling platform to assist in producing these annual projections. This model is called the Real Estate Market Model, or REMM for short. REMM is used for the urban portion of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. REMM relies on extensive inputs to simulate future development activity across the greater urbanized region. Key inputs to REMM include:

Demographic data from the decennial census
County-level population and employment projections -- used as REMM control totals -- are produced by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute (GPI) funded by the Utah State Legislature
Current employment locational patterns derived from the Utah Department of Workforce Services
Land use visioning exercises and feedback, especially in regard to planned urban and local center development, with city and county elected officials and staff
Current land use and valuation GIS-based parcel data stewarded by County Assessors
Traffic patterns and transit service from the regional Travel Demand Model that together form the landscape of regional accessibility to workplaces and other destinations
Calibration of model variables to balance the fit of current conditions and dynamics at the county and regional level

‘Traffic Analysis Zone’ Projections

The annual projections are forecasted for each of the Wasatch Front’s 3,546 Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) geographic units. TAZ boundaries are set along roads, streams, and other physical features and average about 600 acres (0.94 square miles). TAZ sizes vary, with some TAZs in the densest areas representing only a single city block (25 acres).

‘City Area’ Projections

The TAZ-level output from the model is also available for ‘city areas’ that sum the projections for the TAZ geographies that roughly align with each city’s current boundary. As TAZs do not align perfectly with current city boundaries, the ‘city area’ summaries are not projections specific to a current or future city boundary, but the ‘city area’ summaries may be suitable surrogates or starting points upon which to base city-specific projections.

Summary Variables in the Datasets

Annual projection counts are available for the following variables (please read Key Exclusions note below):

Demographics

Household Population Count (excludes persons living in group quarters) 
Household Count (excludes group quarters) 

Employment

Typical Job Count (includes job types that exhibit typical commuting and other travel/vehicle use patterns)
Retail Job Count (retail, food service, hotels, etc)
Office Job Count (office, health care, government, education, etc)
Industrial Job Count (manufacturing, wholesale, transport, etc)
Non-Typical Job Count* (includes agriculture, construction, mining, and home-based jobs) This can be calculated by subtracting Typical Job Count from All Employment Count 
All Employment Count* (all jobs, this sums jobs from typical and non-typical sectors).

• These variables includes REMM’s attempt to estimate construction jobs in areas that experience new and re-development activity. Areas may see short-term fluctuations in Non-Typical and All Employment counts due to the temporary location of construction jobs.

Key Exclusions from TAZ and ‘City Area’ Projections

As the primary purpose for the development of these population and employment projections is to model future travel in the region, REMM-based projections do not include population or households that reside in group quarters (prisons, senior centers, dormitories, etc), as residents of these facilities typically have a very low impact on regional travel. USTM-based projections also excludes group quarter populations. Group quarters population estimates are available at the county-level from GPI and at various sub-county geographies from the Census Bureau.

Statewide Projections

Population and employment projections for the Wasatch Front area can be combined with those developed by Dixie MPO (St. George area), Cache MPO (Logan area), and the Utah Department of Transportation (for the remainder of the state) into one database for use in the Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM). While projections for the areas outside of the Wasatch Front use different forecasting methods, they contain the same summary-level population and employment projections making similar TAZ and ‘City Area’ data available statewide. WFRC plans, in the near future, to add additional areas to these projections datasets by including the projections from the USTM model.

A dataset listing Utah cities by population for 2024.

Graph and download economic data for Civilian Labor Force in Salt Lake City, UT (MSA) (LAUMT494162000000006A) from 1990 to 2024 about Salt Lake City, UT, civilian, labor force, labor, household survey, and USA.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset presents the median household income across different racial categories in Salt Lake City. It portrays the median household income of the head of household across racial categories (excluding ethnicity) as identified by the Census Bureau. The dataset can be utilized to gain insights into economic disparities and trends and explore the variations in median houshold income for diverse racial categories.

Key observations

Based on our analysis of the distribution of Salt Lake City population by race & ethnicity, the population is predominantly White. This particular racial category constitutes the majority, accounting for 70.50% of the total residents in Salt Lake City. Notably, the median household income for White households is $79,485. Interestingly, despite the White population being the most populous, it is worth noting that Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander households actually reports the highest median household income, with a median income of $83,426. This reveals that, while Whites may be the most numerous in Salt Lake City, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander households experience greater economic prosperity in terms of median household income.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Racial categories include:

• White
• Black or African American
• American Indian and Alaska Native
• Asian
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
• Some other race
• Two or more races (multiracial)

Variables / Data Columns

• Race of the head of household: This column presents the self-identified race of the household head, encompassing all relevant racial categories (excluding ethnicity) applicable in Salt Lake City.
• Median household income: Median household income, adjusting for inflation, presented in 2023-inflation-adjusted dollars

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for Salt Lake City median household income by race. You can refer the same here

Every four years, the Wasatch Front’s two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), collaborate to update a set of annual small area -- traffic analysis zone and ‘city area’, see descriptions below) -- population and employment projections for the Salt Lake City-West Valley City (WFRC), Ogden-Layton (WFRC), and Provo-Orem (MAG) urbanized areas.

These projections are primarily developed for the purpose of informing long-range transportation infrastructure and services planning done as part of the 4 year Regional Transportation Plan update cycle, as well as Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, 2023-2050. Accordingly, the foundation for these projections is largely data describing existing conditions for a 2019 base year, the first year of the latest RTP process. The projections are included in the official travel models, which are publicly released at the conclusion of the RTP process.

Projections within the Wasatch Front urban area ( SUBAREAID = 1) were produced with using the Real Estate Market Model as described below. Socioeconomic forecasts produced for Cache MPO (Cache County, SUBAREAID = 2), Dixie MPO (Washington County, SUBAREAID = 3), Summit County (SUBAREAID = 4), and UDOT (other areas of the state, SUBAREAID = 0) all adhere to the University of Utah Gardner Policy Institute's county-level projection controls, but other modeling methods are used to arrive at the TAZ-level forecasts for these areas.

As these projections may be a valuable input to other analyses, this dataset is made available here as a public service for informational purposes only. It is solely the responsibility of the end user to determine the appropriate use of this dataset for other purposes.

Wasatch Front Real Estate Market Model (REMM) Projections

WFRC and MAG have developed a spatial statistical model using the UrbanSim modeling platform to assist in producing these annual projections. This model is called the Real Estate Market Model, or REMM for short. REMM is used for the urban portion of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. REMM relies on extensive inputs to simulate future development activity across the greater urbanized region. Key inputs to REMM include:

Demographic data from the decennial census
County-level population and employment projections -- used as REMM control totals -- are produced by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute (GPI) funded by the Utah State Legislature
Current employment locational patterns derived from the Utah Department of Workforce Services
Land use visioning exercises and feedback, especially in regard to planned urban and local center development, with city and county elected officials and staff
Current land use and valuation GIS-based parcel data stewarded by County Assessors
Traffic patterns and transit service from the regional Travel Demand Model that together form the landscape of regional accessibility to workplaces and other destinations
Calibration of model variables to balance the fit of current conditions and dynamics at the county and regional level

‘Traffic Analysis Zone’ Projections

The annual projections are forecasted for each of the Wasatch Front’s 3,546 Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) geographic units. TAZ boundaries are set along roads, streams, and other physical features and average about 600 acres (0.94 square miles). TAZ sizes vary, with some TAZs in the densest areas representing only a single city block (25 acres).

‘City Area’ Projections

The TAZ-level output from the model is also available for ‘city areas’ that sum the projections for the TAZ geographies that roughly align with each city’s current boundary. As TAZs do not align perfectly with current city boundaries, the ‘city area’ summaries are not projections specific to a current or future city boundary, but the ‘city area’ summaries may be suitable surrogates or starting points upon which to base city-specific projections.

Summary Variables in the Datasets

Annual projection counts are available for the following variables (please read Key Exclusions note below):

Demographics

Household Population Count (excludes persons living in group quarters) 
Household Count (excludes group quarters) 

Employment

Typical Job Count (includes job types that exhibit typical commuting and other travel/vehicle use patterns)
Retail Job Count (retail, food service, hotels, etc)
Office Job Count (office, health care, government, education, etc)
Industrial Job Count (manufacturing, wholesale, transport, etc)
Non-Typical Job Count* (includes agriculture, construction, mining, and home-based jobs) This can be calculated by subtracting Typical Job Count from All Employment Count 
All Employment Count* (all jobs, this sums jobs from typical and non-typical sectors).

• These variables includes REMM’s attempt to estimate construction jobs in areas that experience new and re-development activity. Areas may see short-term fluctuations in Non-Typical and All Employment counts due to the temporary location of construction jobs.

Key Exclusions from TAZ and ‘City Area’ Projections

As the primary purpose for the development of these population and employment projections is to model future travel in the region, REMM-based projections do not include population or households that reside in group quarters (prisons, senior centers, dormitories, etc), as residents of these facilities typically have a very low impact on regional travel. USTM-based projections also excludes group quarter populations. Group quarters population estimates are available at the county-level from GPI and at various sub-county geographies from the Census Bureau.

Statewide Projections

Population and employment projections for the Wasatch Front area can be combined with those developed by Dixie MPO (St. George area), Cache MPO (Logan area), and the Utah Department of Transportation (for the remainder of the state) into one database for use in the Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM). While projections for the areas outside of the Wasatch Front use different forecasting methods, they contain the same summary-level population and employment projections making similar TAZ and ‘City Area’ data available statewide. WFRC plans, in the near future, to add additional areas to these projections datasets by including the projections from the USTM model.

Important Dataset Update 6/24/2020:Summit and Wasatch Counties updated.Important Dataset Update 6/12/2020:MAG area updated.Important Dataset Update 7/15/2019:This dataset now includes projections for all populated statewide traffic analysis zones (TAZs).Projections within the Wasatch Front urban area ( SUBAREAID = 1) were produced with using the Real Estate Market Model as described below.Socioeconomic forecasts produced for Cache MPO (Cache County, SUBAREAID = 2), Dixie MPO (Washington County, SUBAREAID = 3), Summit County (SUBAREAID = 4), and UDOT (other areas of the state, SUBAREAID = 0) all adhere to the University of Utah Gardner Policy Institute's county-level projection controls, but other modeling methods are used to arrive at the TAZ-level forecasts for these areas.As with any dataset that presents projections into the future, it is important to have a full understanding of the data before using it. Before using this data, you are strongly encouraged to read the metadata description below and direct any questions or feedback about this data to analytics@wfrc.org.Every four years, the Wasatch Front’s two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), collaborate to update a set of annual small area -- traffic analysis zone and ‘city area’, see descriptions below) -- population and employment projections for the Salt Lake City-West Valley City (WFRC), Ogden-Layton (WFRC), and Provo-Orem (MAG) urbanized areas.These projections are primarily developed for the purpose of informing long-range transportation infrastructure and services planning done as part of the 4 year Regional Transportation Plan update cycle, as well as Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, 2019-2050. Accordingly, the foundation for these projections is largely data describing existing conditions for a 2015 base year, the first year of the latest RTP process. The projections are included in the official travel models, which are publicly released at the conclusion of the RTP process.As these projections may be a valuable input to other analyses, this dataset is made available at http://data.wfrc.org/search?q=projections as a public service for informational purposes only. It is solely the responsibility of the end user to determine the appropriate use of this dataset for other purposes.Wasatch Front Real Estate Market Model (REMM) ProjectionsWFRC and MAG have developed a spatial statistical model using the UrbanSim modeling platform to assist in producing these annual projections. This model is called the Real Estate Market Model, or REMM for short. REMM is used for the urban portion of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. REMM relies on extensive inputs to simulate future development activity across the greater urbanized region. Key inputs to REMM include:Demographic data from the decennial census;County-level population and employment projections -- used as REMM control totals -- are produced by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute (GPI) funded by the Utah State Legislature;Current employment locational patterns derived from the Utah Department of Workforce Services;Land use visioning exercises and feedback, especially in regard to planned urban and local center development, with city and county elected officials and staff;Current land use and valuation GIS-based parcel data stewarded by County Assessors;Traffic patterns and transit service from the regional Travel Demand Model that together form the landscape of regional accessibility to workplaces and other destinations; andCalibration of model variables to balance the fit of current conditions and dynamics at the county and regional level.‘Traffic Analysis Zone’ ProjectionsThe annual projections are forecasted for each of the Wasatch Front’s 2,800+ Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) geographic units. TAZ boundaries are set along roads, streams, and other physical features and average about 600 acres (0.94 square miles). TAZ sizes vary, with some TAZs in the densest areas representing only a single city block (25 acres).‘City Area’ ProjectionsThe TAZ-level output from the model is also available for ‘city areas’ that sum the projections for the TAZ geographies that roughly align with each city’s current boundary. As TAZs do not align perfectly with current city boundaries, the ‘city area’ summaries are not projections specific to a current or future city boundary, but the ‘city area’ summaries may be suitable surrogates or starting points upon which to base city-specific projections.Summary Variables in the DatasetsAnnual projection counts are available for the following variables (please read Key Exclusions note below):DemographicsHousehold Population Count (excludes persons living in group quarters)Household Count (excludes group quarters)EmploymentTypical Job Count (includes job types that exhibit typical commuting and other travel/vehicle use patterns)Retail Job Count (retail, food service, hotels, etc)Office Job Count (office, health care, government, education, etc)Industrial Job Count (manufacturing, wholesale, transport, etc)Non-Typical Job Count* (includes agriculture, construction, mining, and home-based jobs) This can be calculated by subtracting Typical Job Count from All Employment Count.All Employment Count* (all jobs, this sums jobs from typical and non-typical sectors).* These variable includes REMM’s attempt to estimate construction jobs in areas that experience new and re-development activity. Areas may see short-term fluctuations in Non-Typical and All Employment counts due to the temporary location of construction jobs.Population and employment projections for the Wasatch Front area can be combined with those developed by Dixie MPO (St. George area), Cache MPO (Logan area), and the Utah Department of Transportation (for the remainder of the state) into one database for use in the Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM). While projections for the areas outside of the Wasatch Front use different forecasting methods, they contain the same summary-level population and employment projections making similar TAZ and ‘City Area’ data available statewide. WFRC plans, in the near future, to add additional areas to these projections datasets by including the projections from the USTM model.Key Exclusions from TAZ and ‘City Area’ ProjectionsAs the primary purpose for the development of these population and employment projections is to model future travel in the region, REMM-based projections do not include population or households that reside in group quarters (prisons, senior centers, dormitories, etc), as residents of these facilities typically have a very low impact on regional travel. USTM-based projections also excludes group quarter populations. Group quarters population estimates are available at the county-level from GPI and at various sub-county geographies from the Census Bureau.

Disclaimer: These data are updated by the author and are not an official product of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.This project provides two sets of migration estimates for the major US metro areas. The first series measures net migration of people to and from the urban neighborhoods of the metro areas. The second series covers all neighborhoods but breaks down net migration to other regions by four region types: (1) high-cost metros, (2) affordable, large metros, (3) midsized metros, and (4) small metros and rural areas. These series were introduced in a Cleveland Fed District Data Brief entitled “Urban and Regional Migration Estimates: Will Your City Recover from the Pandemic?"The migration estimates in this project are created with data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel (CCP). The CCP is a 5 percent random sample of the credit histories maintained by Equifax. The CCP reports the census block of residence for over 10 million individuals each quarter. Each month, Equifax receives individuals’ addresses, along with reports of debt balances and payments, from creditors (mortgage lenders, credit card issuers, student loan servicers, etc.). An algorithm maintained by Equifax considers all of the addresses reported for an individual and identifies the individual’s most likely current address. Equifax anonymizes the data before they are added to the CCP, removing names, addresses, and Social Security numbers (SSNs). In lieu of mailing addresses, the census block of the address is added to the CCP. Equifax creates a unique, anonymous identifier to enable researchers to build individuals’ panels. The panel nature of the data allows us to observe when someone has migrated and is living in a census block different from the one they lived in at the end of the preceding quarter. For more details about the CCP and its use in measuring migration, see Lee and Van der Klaauw (2010) and DeWaard, Johnson and Whitaker (2019). DefinitionsMetropolitan areaThe metropolitan areas in these data are combined statistical areas. This is the most aggregate definition of metro areas, and it combines Washington DC with Baltimore, San Jose with San Francisco, Akron with Cleveland, etc. Metro areas are combinations of counties that are tightly linked by worker commutes and other economic activity. All counties outside of metropolitan areas are tracked as parts of a rural commuting zone (CZ). CZs are also groups of counties linked by commuting, but CZ definitions cover all counties, both metropolitan and non-metropolitan. High-cost metropolitan areasHigh-cost metro areas are those where the median list price for a house was more than $200 per square foot on average between April 2017 and April 2022. These areas include San Francisco-San Jose, New York, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Miami, Sacramento, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, and Washington-Baltimore. Other Types of RegionsMetro areas with populations above 2 million and house price averages below $200 per square foot are categorized as affordable, large metros. Metro areas with populations between 500,000 and 2 million are categorized as mid-sized metros, regardless of house prices. All remaining counties are in the small metro and rural category.To obtain a metro area's total net migration, sum the four net migration values for the the four types of regions.Urban neighborhoodCensus tracts are designated as urban if they have a population density above 7,000 people per square mile. High density neighborhoods can support walkable retail districts and high-frequency public transportation. They are more likely to have the “street life” that people associate with living in an urban rather than a suburban area. The threshold of 7,000 people per square mile was selected because it was the average density in the largest US cities in the 1930 census. Before World War II, workplaces, shopping, schools and parks had to be accessible on foot. Tracts are also designated as urban if more than half of their housing units were built before WWII and they have a population density above 2,000 people per square mile. The lower population density threshold for the pre-war neighborhoods recognizes that many urban tracts have lost population since the 1960s. While the street grids usually remain, the area also needs su

Important Dataset Update 6/24/2020:Summit and Wasatch Counties updated.Important Dataset Update 6/12/2020:MAG area updated.Important Dataset Update 7/15/2019: This dataset now includes projections for all populated statewide traffic analysis zones (TAZs). Projections within the Wasatch Front urban area ( SUBAREAID = 1) were produced with using the Real Estate Market Model as described below. Socioeconomic forecasts produced for Cache MPO (Cache County, SUBAREAID = 2), Dixie MPO (Washington County, SUBAREAID = 3), Summit County (SUBAREAID = 4), and UDOT (other areas of the state, SUBAREAID = 0) all adhere to the University of Utah Gardner Policy Institute's county-level projection controls, but other modeling methods are used to arrive at the TAZ-level forecasts for these areas.As with any dataset that presents projections into the future, it is important to have a full understanding of the data before using it. Before using this data, you are strongly encouraged to read the metadata description below and direct any questions or feedback about this data to analytics@wfrc.org. Every four years, the Wasatch Front’s two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), collaborate to update a set of annual small area -- traffic analysis zone and ‘city area’, see descriptions below) -- population and employment projections for the Salt Lake City-West Valley City (WFRC), Ogden-Layton (WFRC), and Provo-Orem (MAG) urbanized areas. These projections are primarily developed for the purpose of informing long-range transportation infrastructure and services planning done as part of the 4 year Regional Transportation Plan update cycle, as well as Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, 2019-2050. Accordingly, the foundation for these projections is largely data describing existing conditions for a 2015 base year, the first year of the latest RTP process. The projections are included in the official travel models, which are publicly released at the conclusion of the RTP process. As these projections may be a valuable input to other analyses, this dataset is made available at http://data.wfrc.org/search?q=projections as a public service for informational purposes only. It is solely the responsibility of the end user to determine the appropriate use of this dataset for other purposes. Wasatch Front Real Estate Market Model (REMM) ProjectionsWFRC and MAG have developed a spatial statistical model using the UrbanSim modeling platform to assist in producing these annual projections. This model is called the Real Estate Market Model, or REMM for short. REMM is used for the urban portion of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. REMM relies on extensive inputs to simulate future development activity across the greater urbanized region. Key inputs to REMM include:Demographic data from the decennial census;County-level population and employment projections -- used as REMM control totals -- are produced by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute (GPI) funded by the Utah State Legislature;Current employment locational patterns derived from the Utah Department of Workforce Services; Land use visioning exercises and feedback, especially in regard to planned urban and local center development, with city and county elected officials and staff;Current land use and valuation GIS-based parcel data stewarded by County Assessors;Traffic patterns and transit service from the regional Travel Demand Model that together form the landscape of regional accessibility to workplaces and other destinations; andCalibration of model variables to balance the fit of current conditions and dynamics at the county and regional level.‘Traffic Analysis Zone’ ProjectionsThe annual projections are forecasted for each of the Wasatch Front’s 2,800+ Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) geographic units. TAZ boundaries are set along roads, streams, and other physical features and average about 600 acres (0.94 square miles). TAZ sizes vary, with some TAZs in the densest areas representing only a single city block (25 acres). ‘City Area’ ProjectionsThe TAZ-level output from the model is also available for ‘city areas’ that sum the projections for the TAZ geographies that roughly align with each city’s current boundary. As TAZs do not align perfectly with current city boundaries, the ‘city area’ summaries are not projections specific to a current or future city boundary, but the ‘city area’ summaries may be suitable surrogates or starting points upon which to base city-specific projections.Summary Variables in the DatasetsAnnual projection counts are available for the following variables (please read Key Exclusions note below):DemographicsHousehold Population Count (excludes persons living in group quarters)Household Count (excludes group quarters)EmploymentTypical Job Count (includes job types that exhibit typical commuting and other travel/vehicle use patterns)Retail Job Count (retail, food service, hotels, etc)Office Job Count (office, health care, government, education, etc)Industrial Job Count (manufacturing, wholesale, transport, etc)Non-Typical Job Count* (includes agriculture, construction, mining, and home-based jobs) This can be calculated by subtracting Typical Job Count from All Employment Count.All Employment Count* (all jobs, this sums jobs from typical and non-typical sectors).* These variable includes REMM’s attempt to estimate construction jobs in areas that experience new and re-development activity. Areas may see short-term fluctuations in Non-Typical and All Employment counts due to the temporary location of construction jobs.Population and employment projections for the Wasatch Front area can be combined with those developed by Dixie MPO (St. George area), Cache MPO (Logan area), and the Utah Department of Transportation (for the remainder of the state) into one database for use in the Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM). While projections for the areas outside of the Wasatch Front use different forecasting methods, they contain the same summary-level population and employment projections making similar TAZ and ‘City Area’ data available statewide. WFRC plans, in the near future, to add additional areas to these projections datasets by including the projections from the USTM model.Key Exclusions from TAZ and ‘City Area’ ProjectionsAs the primary purpose for the development of these population and employment projections is to model future travel in the region, REMM-based projections do not include population or households that reside in group quarters (prisons, senior centers, dormitories, etc), as residents of these facilities typically have a very low impact on regional travel. USTM-based projections also excludes group quarter populations. Group quarters population estimates are available at the county-level from GPI and at various sub-county geographies from the Census Bureau.

Every four years, the Wasatch Front’s two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), collaborate to update a set of annual small area -- traffic analysis zone and ‘city area’, see descriptions below) -- population and employment projections for the Salt Lake City-West Valley City (WFRC), Ogden-Layton (WFRC), and Provo-Orem (MAG) urbanized areas.

These projections are primarily developed for the purpose of informing long-range transportation infrastructure and services planning done as part of the 4 year Regional Transportation Plan update cycle, as well as Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, 2023-2050. Accordingly, the foundation for these projections is largely data describing existing conditions for a 2019 base year, the first year of the latest RTP process. The projections are included in the official travel models, which are publicly released at the conclusion of the RTP process.

Projections within the Wasatch Front urban area ( SUBAREAID = 1) were produced with using the Real Estate Market Model as described below. Socioeconomic forecasts produced for Cache MPO (Cache County, SUBAREAID = 2), Dixie MPO (Washington County, SUBAREAID = 3), Summit County (SUBAREAID = 4), and UDOT (other areas of the state, SUBAREAID = 0) all adhere to the University of Utah Gardner Policy Institute's county-level projection controls, but other modeling methods are used to arrive at the TAZ-level forecasts for these areas.

As these projections may be a valuable input to other analyses, this dataset is made available here as a public service for informational purposes only. It is solely the responsibility of the end user to determine the appropriate use of this dataset for other purposes.

Wasatch Front Real Estate Market Model (REMM) Projections

WFRC and MAG have developed a spatial statistical model using the UrbanSim modeling platform to assist in producing these annual projections. This model is called the Real Estate Market Model, or REMM for short. REMM is used for the urban portion of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. REMM relies on extensive inputs to simulate future development activity across the greater urbanized region. Key inputs to REMM include:

Demographic data from the decennial census
County-level population and employment projections -- used as REMM control totals -- are produced by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute (GPI) funded by the Utah State Legislature
Current employment locational patterns derived from the Utah Department of Workforce Services
Land use visioning exercises and feedback, especially in regard to planned urban and local center development, with city and county elected officials and staff
Current land use and valuation GIS-based parcel data stewarded by County Assessors
Traffic patterns and transit service from the regional Travel Demand Model that together form the landscape of regional accessibility to workplaces and other destinations
Calibration of model variables to balance the fit of current conditions and dynamics at the county and regional level

‘Traffic Analysis Zone’ Projections

The annual projections are forecasted for each of the Wasatch Front’s 3,546 Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) geographic units. TAZ boundaries are set along roads, streams, and other physical features and average about 600 acres (0.94 square miles). TAZ sizes vary, with some TAZs in the densest areas representing only a single city block (25 acres).

‘City Area’ Projections

The TAZ-level output from the model is also available for ‘city areas’ that sum the projections for the TAZ geographies that roughly align with each city’s current boundary. As TAZs do not align perfectly with current city boundaries, the ‘city area’ summaries are not projections specific to a current or future city boundary, but the ‘city area’ summaries may be suitable surrogates or starting points upon which to base city-specific projections.

Summary Variables in the Datasets

Annual projection counts are available for the following variables (please read Key Exclusions note below):

Demographics

Household Population Count (excludes persons living in group quarters) 
Household Count (excludes group quarters) 

Employment

Typical Job Count (includes job types that exhibit typical commuting and other travel/vehicle use patterns)
Retail Job Count (retail, food service, hotels, etc)
Office Job Count (office, health care, government, education, etc)
Industrial Job Count (manufacturing, wholesale, transport, etc)
Non-Typical Job Count* (includes agriculture, construction, mining, and home-based jobs) This can be calculated by subtracting Typical Job Count from All Employment Count 
All Employment Count* (all jobs, this sums jobs from typical and non-typical sectors).

• These variables includes REMM’s attempt to estimate construction jobs in areas that experience new and re-development activity. Areas may see short-term fluctuations in Non-Typical and All Employment counts due to the temporary location of construction jobs.

Key Exclusions from TAZ and ‘City Area’ Projections

As the primary purpose for the development of these population and employment projections is to model future travel in the region, REMM-based projections do not include population or households that reside in group quarters (prisons, senior centers, dormitories, etc), as residents of these facilities typically have a very low impact on regional travel. USTM-based projections also excludes group quarter populations. Group quarters population estimates are available at the county-level from GPI and at various sub-county geographies from the Census Bureau.

Statewide Projections

Population and employment projections for the Wasatch Front area can be combined with those developed by Dixie MPO (St. George area), Cache MPO (Logan area), and the Utah Department of Transportation (for the remainder of the state) into one database for use in the Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM). While projections for the areas outside of the Wasatch Front use different forecasting methods, they contain the same summary-level population and employment projections making similar TAZ and ‘City Area’ data available statewide. WFRC plans, in the near future, to add additional areas to these projections datasets by including the projections from the USTM model.

There are three components of change: births, deaths, and migration. The change in the population from births and deaths is often combined and referred to as natural increase or natural change. Populations grow or shrink depending on if they gain people faster than they lose them. Looking at an area’s unique combination of natural change and migration helps us understand why its population is changing, and how quickly the change is occurring.Natural IncreaseNatural change is the difference between births and deaths in a population. Often times, natural change is positive, which means that more babies are being born than people are dying. This positive natural change is referred to as natural increase. Examples of natural increase exist across the United States, one being the Salt Lake City metro area in Utah. Between 2014 and 2015, Salt Lake City had around 19,100 births and 6,400 deaths. Since there were about 12,700 more births than deaths, Salt Lake City had a natural increase of about 12,700 people, making natural increase a key reason why its population grew over the year.The opposite of natural increase is called natural decrease, where more people are dying than babies being born, which can cause a population to shrink. Areas with aging populations often have natural decrease. Two states had natural decrease between 2014 and 2015, Maine and West Virginia. Between 2014 and 2015, Maine had 450 more deaths than births and West Virginia had 940 more deaths than births. In both cases, natural decrease was one of the reasons why their populations shrank between 2014 and 2015 in our latest estimates.MigrationMigration is the movement of people from one area to another. It is often expressed as net migration, which is the difference between how many people move into and out of an area. When net migration is positive, a population has more people moving in than out. We split migration into domestic migration and international migration.Domestic migration refers to people moving between areas within the United States, and is often one of the largest contributors to population change. Regionally, the South gains the most net domestic migrants, with roughly 440,000 more people moving into southern states than leaving them between 2014 and 2015. Sometimes net domestic migration is negative, in which case more people are moving away than are moving in. The Chicago metro area in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin lost about 80,000 people through migration between 2014 and 2015, which is consistent with a long-standing pattern of negative net domestic migration for the metro area.International migration refers to people moving into and out of the United States, and consists of a diverse group of people such as foreign-born immigrants from many countries around the world, members of the U.S. Armed Forces, and U.S. citizens working abroad. Some areas, like the Miami metro area in Florida, grow (in part) due to net international migration. Miami gained about 70,000 net international migrants between 2014 and 2015, making net international migration a major factor in Miami’s population growth.

Every four years, the Wasatch Front’s two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), collaborate to update a set of annual small area -- traffic analysis zone and ‘city area’, see descriptions below) -- population and employment projections for the Salt Lake City-West Valley City (WFRC), Ogden-Layton (WFRC), and Provo-Orem (MAG) urbanized areas.

These projections are primarily developed for the purpose of informing long-range transportation infrastructure and services planning done as part of the 4 year Regional Transportation Plan update cycle, as well as Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, 2023-2050. Accordingly, the foundation for these projections is largely data describing existing conditions for a 2019 base year, the first year of the latest RTP process. The projections are included in the official travel models, which are publicly released at the conclusion of the RTP process.

Projections within the Wasatch Front urban area ( SUBAREAID = 1) were produced with using the Real Estate Market Model as described below. Socioeconomic forecasts produced for Cache MPO (Cache County, SUBAREAID = 2), Dixie MPO (Washington County, SUBAREAID = 3), Summit County (SUBAREAID = 4), and UDOT (other areas of the state, SUBAREAID = 0) all adhere to the University of Utah Gardner Policy Institute's county-level projection controls, but other modeling methods are used to arrive at the TAZ-level forecasts for these areas.

As these projections may be a valuable input to other analyses, this dataset is made available here as a public service for informational purposes only. It is solely the responsibility of the end user to determine the appropriate use of this dataset for other purposes.

Wasatch Front Real Estate Market Model (REMM) Projections

WFRC and MAG have developed a spatial statistical model using the UrbanSim modeling platform to assist in producing these annual projections. This model is called the Real Estate Market Model, or REMM for short. REMM is used for the urban portion of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. REMM relies on extensive inputs to simulate future development activity across the greater urbanized region. Key inputs to REMM include:

Demographic data from the decennial census
County-level population and employment projections -- used as REMM control totals -- are produced by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute (GPI) funded by the Utah State Legislature
Current employment locational patterns derived from the Utah Department of Workforce Services
Land use visioning exercises and feedback, especially in regard to planned urban and local center development, with city and county elected officials and staff
Current land use and valuation GIS-based parcel data stewarded by County Assessors
Traffic patterns and transit service from the regional Travel Demand Model that together form the landscape of regional accessibility to workplaces and other destinations
Calibration of model variables to balance the fit of current conditions and dynamics at the county and regional level

‘Traffic Analysis Zone’ Projections

The annual projections are forecasted for each of the Wasatch Front’s 3,546 Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) geographic units. TAZ boundaries are set along roads, streams, and other physical features and average about 600 acres (0.94 square miles). TAZ sizes vary, with some TAZs in the densest areas representing only a single city block (25 acres).

‘City Area’ Projections

The TAZ-level output from the model is also available for ‘city areas’ that sum the projections for the TAZ geographies that roughly align with each city’s current boundary. As TAZs do not align perfectly with current city boundaries, the ‘city area’ summaries are not projections specific to a current or future city boundary, but the ‘city area’ summaries may be suitable surrogates or starting points upon which to base city-specific projections.

Summary Variables in the Datasets

Annual projection counts are available for the following variables (please read Key Exclusions note below):

Demographics

Household Population Count (excludes persons living in group quarters) 
Household Count (excludes group quarters) 

Employment

Typical Job Count (includes job types that exhibit typical commuting and other travel/vehicle use patterns)
Retail Job Count (retail, food service, hotels, etc)
Office Job Count (office, health care, government, education, etc)
Industrial Job Count (manufacturing, wholesale, transport, etc)
Non-Typical Job Count* (includes agriculture, construction, mining, and home-based jobs) This can be calculated by subtracting Typical Job Count from All Employment Count 
All Employment Count* (all jobs, this sums jobs from typical and non-typical sectors).

• These variables includes REMM’s attempt to estimate construction jobs in areas that experience new and re-development activity. Areas may see short-term fluctuations in Non-Typical and All Employment counts due to the temporary location of construction jobs.

Key Exclusions from TAZ and ‘City Area’ Projections

As the primary purpose for the development of these population and employment projections is to model future travel in the region, REMM-based projections do not include population or households that reside in group quarters (prisons, senior centers, dormitories, etc), as residents of these facilities typically have a very low impact on regional travel. USTM-based projections also excludes group quarter populations. Group quarters population estimates are available at the county-level from GPI and at various sub-county geographies from the Census Bureau.

Statewide Projections

Population and employment projections for the Wasatch Front area can be combined with those developed by Dixie MPO (St. George area), Cache MPO (Logan area), and the Utah Department of Transportation (for the remainder of the state) into one database for use in the Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM). While projections for the areas outside of the Wasatch Front use different forecasting methods, they contain the same summary-level population and employment projections making similar TAZ and ‘City Area’ data available statewide. WFRC plans, in the near future, to add additional areas to these projections datasets by including the projections from the USTM model.