Utah adds 10 people per hour

Utah added a record 10 people per hour over the past year, bringing the state's population to slightly less than 2.7 million.

The state grew by a record 84,425 — roughly the number of residents in Ogden — from July 1, 2006, to July 1, 2007, according to estimates released Thursday by the Utah Population Estimates Committee.

Much of that growth was in Utah County and Salt Lake County, which both surpassed population benchmarks. Utah County's population now totals more than 500,000 and Salt Lake County's is more than 1 million.

"We have hit a major milestone," said Shawn Eliot, transportation planner for the Mountainland Association of Governments. "It just puts us at a different level. ... It tells us we're growing up."

Roughly half of the growth statewide was due to natural increase and half to a net in-migration.

Washington County's growth rate of 4.5 percent continued to surpass the overall state growth rate of 3.2 percent, but it is no longer Utah's fastest growing county.

Utah County saw the state's greatest numerical and percentage increase, adding some 26,000 people and growing by 5.5 percent.

Eliot said the growth seemed high, until he saw the county's 7 percent job growth. Still, he added, "I think we're hitting a peak or a spike."

In Utah County, which continues to have the state's highest raw birthrate, the estimates show that roughly six in 10 of the county's new residents were the result of a net in-migration.

Eliot said the influx is a combination of construction workers, Latino immigrants and high-tech workers attracted to computer jobs, at growing small companies and at larger firms such as Micron in Lehi.

State demographer Juliette Tennert said the influx into Utah County is adding a "different ethnic mix" as well as a different religious element. Still, she added, "I don't think it's a drastic change."

"I think we are seeing a shift as Utah's economy as a whole, and particularly the economic opportunities in Utah County, attract new people to the state," Tennert said. "Those people may not look the same as the traditional Utah County folks."

Still, the committee decided that two of its four indicators — LDS Church membership and school enrollment — were artificially low for the county, so members opted against including them. The committee also uses housing data and federal income tax information.

Jesse Soriano said even so the estimates likely miss thousands of Latino immigrants, many undocumented, across Utah. He said many of the new residents are single men, drawn to construction jobs, who don't have children and aren't members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.