The News found that 100 percent of major drug stores it contacted are open Sundays; 97 percent of convenience stores; 91 percent of larger food supermarkets; 82 percent of major retailers; 82 percent of stores in malls; and 53 percent of small grocers.

(The Deseret Morning News researched Sunday opening data for all grocery and convenience chains and stores listed in the online Utah Food Industry Directory; all stores listed in directories of major shopping malls; retailers listed in state Yellow Pages; and other well-known, major retailing chains.)

Little difference was found between rural and urban areas. About 86 percent of rural stores contacted were open Sundays, and 84 percent of urban stores were.

But going against statewide trends is Utah County, part of the urban Wasatch Front. About half of the stores contacted there — 47 percent — are closed on Sunday.

That is four to six times more than in other urban counties. For example, only 11 percent of major stores contacted in Davis County are closed Sundays; only 9 percent in Salt Lake County; and just 8 percent in Weber County.

Also in the new poll, 54 percent of Utah County residents say they never shopped on Sunday during the past year — far higher than the state average of 37 percent.

Why the difference?

Officials in Utah County, population 400,000, make some obvious guesses about why more stores are closed there on Sundays: Fewer residents seek to shop on Sunday because of strong religious convictions; and, as home of the LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University, it may also attract some of that church's more committed members.

"I had a variety of businessmen tell me through the years that they don't do well on Sundays in this market, so they close," Provo Mayor Lewis Billings said.

Utah County Commission Chairman Jerry Grover, in turn, says he believes fewer people shop there on Sundays "probably because they are religious, and Sunday is just not their shopping day. . . . I wouldn't guess it is anything beyond that."

Grover said a former Utah Valley State College president, who himself liked to shop on Sundays, actually liked living where large numbers do not. "He loved it because he could golf on Sunday without waiting in lines, and go shopping without lines." (However, most municipal recreation facilities in the county are also closed Sundays.)