The center of population of Utah is located in Utah County in the city of Lehi.As of July 1, 2009 the Census Bureau estimated Utah had a population of 2,784,572. In 2008, the US Census Bureau determined Utah was the fastest growing state in the country.
Much of the population lives in cities and towns along the Wasatch Front, a metropolitan region that runs north-south with the Wasatch Mountains rising on the eastern side. Growth outside the Wasatch Front is also increasing. The St. George metropolitan area is currently the second-fastest growing in the country after the Las Vegas metropolitan area, while the Heber micropolitan area is also the second-fastest growing in the country (behind Palm Coast, Florida).
Utah contains 5 metropolitan areas (Logan, Ogden-Clearfield, Salt Lake City, Provo-Orem, and St. George), and 5 micropolitan areas (Brigham City, Heber, Vernal, Price, and Cedar City).
Race and ancestry
The largest ancestry groups in the state are:
- 27.7% English
- 14.9% Scandinavian: (5.9% Danish, 4.3% Swedish, & 2.4% Norwegian)
- 12.4% German
- 7.0% American
- 6.1% Irish
- 4.7% Scottish
- 2.9% Italian
- 2.2% French
- 2.2% Welsh
- 1.4% Scotch Irish
- 1.3% Swiss
Most Utahns are of Northern European descent.
Religion
A majority of the state's residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormons or the LDS Church. As of 2007, the percentage of Utahns that are counted as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was 60.7 percent of the state's population, although only 41.6 percent of them are "active" members. Mormons now make up about 34%—41% of Salt Lake City, while rural areas tend to be overwhelmingly Mormon.Though the LDS Church officially maintains a policy of neutrality in regards to political parties, the church's doctrine has a strong regional influence on politics. Another doctrine effect can be seen in Utah's high birth rate (25 percent higher than the national average; the highest for a state in the U.S.). The Mormons in Utah tend to have conservative views when it comes to most political issues and the majority of voter-age Utahns are unaffiliated voters (60%) who vote overwhelmingly Republican. John McCain polled 62.5% in the 2008 Presidential Election while 70.9% of Utahns opted for George W. Bush in 2004.In 2000 the Religious Congregations and Membership Study reported that the three largest denominational groups in Utah are Mormon, Catholic, and Evangelical Protestant. The Mormon church has the highest number of adherents in Utah (at 1,493,612 members), followed by the Catholic Church with 97,085 members reported and the Southern Baptist Convention, reporting 13,258 adherents.According to a report produced by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life the self-identified religious affiliations of Utahns over the age of 18 as of 2008 are:
- Latter Day Saint movement 58% (labeled as Mormon on survey)
- Unaffiliated 16%
- Catholic 10%
- Evangelicals 7%
- Mainline Protestants 6%
- Black Protestant Churches 1%
- No Answer 1%
- Other Faiths 1%
- Buddhism
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Utah government, like most U.S. states, is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The current governor of Utah is Gary Herbert, who was sworn in on August 11, 2009. The governor is elected for a four year term. The Utah State Legislature consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives. State senators serve four year terms and representatives two year terms. The Utah Legislature meets each year in January for an annual forty-five day session. The Utah Supreme Court is the court of last resort in Utah. It consists of five justices, who are appointed by the governor, and then subject to retention election. The Utah Court of Appeals handles cases from the trial courts. Trial level courts are the district courts and justice courts. All justices and judges, like those on the Utah Supreme Court, are subject to retention election after appointment.
Counties
Utah is divided into political jurisdictions designated as
counties. As of 1918 there were 29 counties in the state, ranging from to .
- Total Counties: 29
- Total 2009 population est.: 2,784,572
- Total state area:
Women's rights
Utah granted full voting rights to women in 1870, 26 years before becoming a state. Among all U.S. states, only Wyoming granted suffrage to women earlier. However, in 1872 the initial Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed by Congress in an effort to curtail excessive Mormon influence in the territorial government. One of the provisions of the Act was the repeal of women's suffrage; full suffrage was not returned until Utah was admitted to the Union in 1896.
Utah is one of the 15 states that has not ratified the U.S. Equal Rights Amendment.
Constitution
The constitution of Utah was enacted in 1895. Notably, the constitution outlawed polygamy, as requested by Congress when Utah had applied for statehood, and reestablished the territorial practice of women's suffrage. Utah's Constitution has been amended many times since its inception.
Other laws
Utah is also one of only 2 states in the United States to outlaw all forms of gambling; the other is Hawaii. Utah is an alcoholic beverage control state. The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control regulates the sale of alcohol; wine and spirituous liquors may only be purchased at state liquor stores, and local laws may prohibit the sale of beer and other alcoholic beverages on Sundays. The state bans the sale of fruity alcoholic drinks at grocery stores and convenience stores. The law states that such drinks must now have new state-approved labels on the front of the products that contain capitalized letters in bold type telling consumers the drinks contain alcohol and at what percentage.
Politics
Historically, politics in Utah have been controversial, such as the Federal government versus the LDS Church on the issue of polygamy. The LDS Church discontinued plural marriage in 1890, and in 1896 Utah gained admission to the Union. Many new people settled the area soon after the Mormon pioneers. Relations have often been strained between the LDS population and the non-LDS population. These tensions played a large part in Utah's history, such as (Liberal Party vs. People's Party).
Both of Utah's U.S. Senators, Orrin Hatch and Robert Foster Bennett, are Republican. Two more Republicans, Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, as well as one member of the Democratic Party, Jim Matheson, represent Utah in the United States House of Representatives. After Jon Huntsman, Jr., resigned to serve as U.S. Ambassador to China, Gary Herbert was sworn in as governor on August 11, 2009.
While the LDS Church maintains an official policy of neutrality in regards to political parties and candidates, Utah votes predominately Republican. Self-identified Latter-day Saints are more likely to vote for the Republican ticket than non-Mormons, and Utah is one of the most Republican states in the nation. The connection between the LDS Church and the Republican Party of Utah is controversial.
In the 1970s, then-Apostle Ezra Taft Benson was quoted by the Associated Press that it would be difficult for a faithful Latter-day Saint to be a liberal Democrat. Although the LDS Church has officially repudiated such statements on many occasions, Democratic candidates...including LDS Democrats...believe that Republicans capitalize on the perception that the Republican Party is doctrinally superior. Political scientist and pollster Dan Jones explains this disparity by noting that the national Democratic Party is associated with liberal positions on gay rights and abortion, both of which the LDS Church is against. The Republican Party in heavily Mormon Utah County presents itself as the superior choice for Latter-day Saints. Even though Utah Democratic candidates are predominantly LDS, socially conservative, and pro-life, no Democrat has won in Utah County since 1994. David Magleby, dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Brigham Young University, a lifelong Democrat and a political analyst, asserts that the Republican Party actually has more conservative positions than the LDS Church. Magleby argues that the locally conservative Democrats are in better accord with LDS doctrine. For example, the Republican Party of Utah opposes almost all abortions while Utah Democrats take a more liberal approach, although more conservative than their national counterparts. On Second Amendment issues, the state GOP has been at odds with the LDS Church position opposing concealed firearms in places of worship.
In 1998 the Church expressed concern that Utahans perceived the Republican Party as an LDS institution and authorized lifelong Democrat and Seventy Marlin Jensen to promote LDS bipartisanship.
Utah is much more conservative than the United States as a whole, particularly on social issues. Compared to other Republican-dominated states in the Mountain West such as Wyoming, Utah politics have a more moralistic and less libertarian character according to David Magleby.
About 80% of Utah's Legislature are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while they account for 61 percent of the population. Since becoming a state in 1896, Utah has had only two non-Mormon governors.
In 2006, the legislature passed legislation aimed at banning joint-custody for a non-biological parent of a child. The custody measure passed the legislature and was vetoed by the governor, a reciprocal benefits supporter.
Carbon County's Democrats are generally made up of members of the large Greek, Italian, and Southeastern European communities, whose ancestors migrated in the early 1900s to work in the extensive mining industry. The views common amongst this group are heavily influenced by labor politics, particularly of the New Deal Era.
The Democrats of Summit County are the by-product of the migration of wealthy families from California in the 1990s to the ski resort town of Park City; their views are generally supportive of the economic policies favored by unions and the social policies favored by the liberals.
The state's most Republican areas tend to be Utah County, which is the home to Brigham Young University in the city of Provo, and nearly all the rural counties. These areas generally hold socially conservative views in line with that of the national Religious Right.
The state has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964. Historically, Republican presidential nominees score one of their best margins of victory here. Utah was the Republicans' best state in the 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, and 2004 elections. In 1992, Utah was the only state in the nation where Democratic candidate Bill Clinton finished behind both Republican candidate George H. W. Bush and Independent candidate Ross Perot. In 2004, Republican George W. Bush won every county in the state and Utah gave him his largest margin of victory of any state. He won the state's five electoral votes by a margin of 46 percentage points with 71.5% of the vote. In the 1996 Presidential elections the Republican candidate received a smaller 54% of the vote while the Democrat earned 34%.