Utah 9th lowest in poverty in the U.S.

Utah's Morgan County has the 10th lowest poverty rate out of the 3,142 counties in America.

Just 4 percent of residents in the small communities scattered in the mountains there lived in poverty in 2008, according to estimates released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data are for a period just before the recession hit full force.

Morgan County's poverty rate was a mere third of the national poverty rate, and about half of Utah's rate.

County Council Chairman Sid Creager said he is not sure why the poverty rate is so low there. "But to be honest, it is not cheap to live here. Real estate is through the roof. So they (people who earn only poverty wages) likely can't afford to move here, or stay if they do."

He adds that while most residents commute to work outside the county, Morgan has no public transportation system. So those with lower incomes may choose to live where one exists or where work is closer. "It's probably a factor of location and cost of living," he said.

According to new estimates, Utah's overall poverty rate was 9.7 percent in 2008, up from 8.8 percent in 2000. Still, the state's overall poverty rate was ninth lowest in the nation, and a third lower than the national rate of 13.2 percent.

But poverty varied greatly across the state.

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Morgan County was San Juan County, where an estimated 28.1 percent of residents live in poverty.

That county, covered by the large and impoverished Navajo reservation, was in the bottom 3 percent of counties nationwide for poverty (ranking 105th lowest out of 3,142).

San Juan had by far the highest poverty rate in the state. In a distant second-worst was Piute, with a 16.7 percent rate. Other counties with high poverty rates are Iron and Sanpete, both 15.3 percent; Grand, 14.2 percent; and Carbon, 13.3 percent.

Joining Morgan with the lowest poverty rates in the state are Summit County (home of the upscale Deer Valley resort area), 5.4 percent; Wasatch, 5.9 percent; Davis, 6.1 percent; and Tooele, 7.2 percent.

New census estimates, which combine data from surveys, federal tax information and food assistance data, show that nearly 262,000 Utahns lived in poverty during 2008. About 92,000 of them, or one of every three, were children under age 18.

In San Juan County, an estimated 30.6 percent of all children lived in poverty, the worst such rate in the state. In Morgan County, 4.6 percent of children lived in poverty, the best rate in the state.