FILE – Rows of houses are shown in suburban Salt Lake City, April 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
SALT LAKE CITY – Water restrictions, the drying up of the Great Salt Lake and the Utah drought are all issues of concern for Utahans. Is the solution to slow Utah’s population growth?
Maybe. But that doesn’t seem like a possibility, at least not any time soon. According to US Census data, Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the country. With Utah on track to have 4 million in about a decade and 5 million by 2051, should population growth be regulated?
Director of Demographic Research and Coordinator of the State Data Center at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Mallory Bateman, tried to answer these questions with Dave and Dujanovic of KSL NewsRadio.
Utah’s population growth
Bateman said long-term projections show continued growth for Utah, but it appears to have slowed.
“It’s at a more moderate pace than what we’ve had since the ’90s, when we had a big wave of migration that changed the way we grew up a bit,” Bateman said.
And Utah’s fertility rate has fallen every year since the Great Recession, according to Bateman. The state topped the list with the highest total fertility rate in the country. With our slow but steady decline, Utah now ranks fourth on that same list.
General Ideas to Curb Utah’s Growth
Hosts as well as callers had ideas to curb growth. Debbie Dujanovic suggested an extra for those buying homes in Utah with the intention of living elsewhere. That would apply, she said, to people buying properties like vacation homes or even investment properties.
In recent years many homes have been built in Utah. Dujanovic said charging extra people to buy a house they don’t plan to use as their primary residence may cause some investors to look elsewhere, which, in turn, may have a slight impact on the population of the country. Utah.
A caller suggested more rental properties in Utah. Since rental prices are so high, more rental options could potentially lower the average price. Dave Noriega disagreed, saying that since rentals are (almost) always cheaper than owning a home, a “solution” to population growth that raises the price of rentals may not be. not be the solution.
Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app, as well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.