"But we are starting to see real interest in firms that could develop out here and provide real jobs. ... Land is less expensive, and we are still near to the Salt Lake metro area."

He said Eagle Mountain, which is 50 square miles in size, has the land to someday support a population of 200,000 people — or more than present-day Salt Lake City.

"When you're growing 20 or 30 percent a year, like we had been, it was a challenge to keep up with water, power, gas and other demands," he said. "Some years, we had to limit water use in the summer" if a well had problems.

But Hendrickson said a silver lining from the current recession is that slower growth allowed the city to catch up with demands, and, for example, solve problems with water supply by obtaining additional sources.

The new census estimates released Wednesday show no change from last year in the rank order of Utah's Top 10 largest cities.

Salt Lake City was No. 1 with 181,698 residents. The others were; 2. West Valley City, 123,447; 3. Provo, 118,581; 4. West Jordan, 104,447; 5. Sandy, 96,660; 6. Orem, 93,250; 7. Ogden, 82,865; 8. St. George, 72,718; 9. Layton, 65,514; and 10. Taylorsville, 58,785.

Some of those Top 10 cities had virtually no growth since 2000. Salt Lake City, for example, lost an estimated 75 people for virtually no change. Taylorsville gained just 68 or so people, for an estimated increase of 0.1 percent. (Population data for all 243 towns and cities in Utah is online at deseretnews.com).

In sheer numbers — not percentage — Lehi has had the greatest growth of any Utah city since the 2000 Census, growing by an estimated 27,421 people through July 1, 2008.

Other cities with large increases in sheer numbers include: West Jordan, 25,735; St. George, 25,735; South Jordan, 21,694; Eagle Mountain, 19,845; Draper, 17,101; Herriman, 15,430; and Saratoga Springs, 14,891.

The cities with the largest one-year numerical growth between 2007 and 2008 included: South Jordan, 3,085 people; Lehi, 3,048; Eagle Mountain, 2,419; and Salt Lake City, 2,265 (which helped it recover from earlier population losses in recent years).

New estimates show that Salt Lake City is the nation's 125th largest city. West Valley City is the nation's 197th largest. Provo ranks No. 209 and West Jordan ranks No. 246. They are the only Utah cities with populations greater than 100,000, and among 273 cities nationally that have at least that many residents.

On the other end of the spectrum, tiny Scofield in Carbon County is the state's smallest town with an estimated population of just 26. Right behind it is Ophir in Tooele County with a population of 28.

Others that round out the list of 10 smallest towns and cities in Utah are: Bryce Canyon City (Garfield County), 59; Antimony (Garfield), 114; Hatch (Garfield), 118; Lynndyl (Millard), 120; Brian Head (Iron), 127; Kingston (Piute), 136; Cannonville (Garfield), 138; and Alton (Kane), 140.

E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com