Report: Utah’s growth rate to fall, but population will still increase 66% in the next 40 years

A construction worker walks along the top of an apartment complex under construction in Washington City, Utah, Feb. 18, 2020 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is already the nation’s fastest-growing state and a new report published Wednesday finds there are really no signs that’ll change anytime soon, even if the rate might slow down slightly quicker than originally projected.

Construction at the Desert Color development in St. George, Utah, March 1, 2021 | Photo by David Dudley, St. George News

Utah’s population is projected to reach close to 5.5 million by 2060, an increase of about 2.2 million people or a 66% increase over the next 40 years, according to Utah Long-Term Planning Projections, a report released Wednesday by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. The institute says the state is on track to reach 4 million residents by 2033 and 5 million by 2051.

It also projects about 1.3 million more jobs over the next four decades, with construction jobs leading the way in new work opportunities.

“These changes will be experienced differently throughout the state, with Salt Lake and Utah counties continuing to be dominant drivers for both the population and the economy,” Mallory Bateman, director of demographic research at the Gardner Institute, said in a statement. “Demographic shifts impact our statewide characteristics of age and households throughout these projections.”

Read the full story here:  KSL News.

Written by CARTER WILLIAMS, KSL.com.

Copyright KSL.com.

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