Blog Posts
Insight: 2020 Census Geographic Support Products Available
By: Mallory Bateman & Natalie Young Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Today the Census Bureau released the 2020 census redistricting geographic support products for Utah. The decennial census is known for producing demographic insights into communities across the nation by tallying both population and housing. Geography is a fundamental aspect of this once-a-decade operation. Your address determined how your household was invited to[...]
Insight: Big Oil and the Future of Energy
By: Thomas Holst Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. The global pandemic has challenged all sectors of the economy. Pandemic-induced shocks to the energy sector buffeted U.S. oil & gas companies once considered the bedrock of the economy. […]
Insight: Housing in 2020: What a Long, Strange Trip it’s Been
By: Dejan Eskic Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. A surge of buyers and historically low interest rates, combined with a record drop in housing inventory and a global pandemic ravaging its way through the economy, led Utah’s housing market to new heights in 2020. The year ended with a record number of new permitted units, passing the 30,000 milestone. The single-family median sales[...]
Insight: New 2020 Census Bureau Estimates
By Mallory Bateman Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. On December 22, the Census Bureau Population Division released their 2020 estimates for states and the nation. These estimates indicate that Utah’s population increased from 2,763,885 at the 2010 Census to 3,249,879 on July 1, 2020. Our overall growth rate across this period was the highest of any state at 17.6%. Growth Rate from April[...]
Insight: What’s on the Horizon for Health Care in 2021?
By: Laura Summers Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. I recently had an opportunity to sit down with a group of health care experts and ask them what they thought the key issues the state and Utah’s health care systems will be focusing on in 2021, besides COVID-19. I was thinking about health care issues that maybe got swept to the side in 2020[...]
Insight: Administration Changes
By: Thomas Holst Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. President-elect Joe Biden announced the United States would rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement (PCA) on the first day he enters office. What is the PCA and why is it important? The PCA, signed in 2015 by 189 countries, aims to curb greenhouse gas emissions, thereby keeping global average temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees[...]
Insight: What does the Gini coefficient show us?
By: Mallory Bateman Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. In the past several weeks, I have gotten a few data requests asking for Gini coefficients at various levels of geography. The Gini coefficient, which is a value from 0 to 1, represents the income inequality across a population, with lower values indicating less inequality and higher values indicating greater inequality. This focus on income[...]
Insight: New Demographic County Profiles, 2010-2019
By: Mike Hollingshaus Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Today, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute published Utah demographic state and county profiles that summarize our detailed population estimates for the period 2010 through 2019. These number were distilled come from our full online datasets. The updated profiles present each counties’ fundamental demographic information on a single streamlined page (front and back). We recommend them[...]
Insight: COVID-19 Spotlights Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Utah
By: Andrea Thomas Brandley Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. As COVID-19 continues to spread, data reveal unequal impacts across population groups. Communities of color nationwide have been hit hard by the coronavirus, and Utah is no exception. The Hispanic/Latino population is Utah’s largest minority group. While they make up 14.2% of the state’s population, they account for 29.5% of COVID-19 cases and 20.9%[...]
Insight: Record Number of Cash Buyers Are Adding Fire to Utah’s Hot Housing Market
By: Dejan Eskic Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. […]