Blog Posts
Insight: New Population Estimates by County, Age, and Sex
By: Mike Hollingshaus We are excited to publish annual population estimates by age and sex for Utah and each of its counties. These numbers cover each year since the 2010 decennial Census through 2018, and are consistent with the total population estimates produced by the Utah Population Committee (UPC). While the total UPC numbers have long been available, the new age and sex detail permits planners and researchers to address additional needs. […]
Insight: Getting to Know the New Ivory-Boyer Construction Database
By: DJ Benway On May 1st, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute officially launched a modernized interface for the Ivory-Boyer Construction Database. For those unfamiliar with the Ivory-Boyer Construction Database, the Gardner Institute, in partnership with the Ivory-Boyer Real Estate Center, tracks building permit activity in Utah. The Gardner Institute collects and maintains monthly building permit data for 201 cities and 29 counties across the state. The database includes historical permit data back to 1994 and covers 27 data categories: nine for Dwelling Units, 16 for Non-Dwelling Unit Construction, and two for Additions, Alterations, & Repairs. […]
Insight: Recreation: Antidote to Rural Population and Job Loss?
By: Jennifer Leaver A recent Headwaters Economics (HWE) study found that during the Great Recession recovery (2010–2016), rural U.S. counties with recreational assets—or “recreation counties”—attracted new residents, reported higher incomes, and generated faster earnings growth compared with rural non-recreation counties.[i] Specific report findings include: Rural recreation counties gained 1 person per 1,000 residents while rural non-recreation counties lost 20 people per 1,000 residents. The average annual income of households moving into rural recreation counties was $8,700 higher than those moving into rural non-recreation counties. Recreation appears to draw tourism-related businesses and attract new residents who may be business owners, entrepreneurs,[...]
Insight: First ever Race/Ethnicity Projections for Utah Reveal that Utah will Continue to Diversify
By: Pamela Perlich Today we are publishing Utah’s first ever state-level race and ethnicity population projections. We project single year of age and sex for 2016 to 2065 for seven population groups: six non-Hispanic race groups and Hispanics. These new projections provide a more detailed view of the future that can potentially inform a wide range of policy planning and evaluation applications. This work builds on 2017 baseline Utah projections. […]
Insight: Utah’s quality of life depends on transportation investment
By: Natalie Gochnour First published in the Deseret News I’ve been sharing a simple statistic to illustrate the magnitude of Utah’s recent population growth. If you combine natural increase (births minus deaths) and net in-migration over the last five years, Utah has added a population larger than the population of Weber County, Utah’s fourth largest county. […]
Insight: Medical Inflation in Utah: The Ups and Downs of Data and Measurement
By: Laura Summers Curbing the cost of medical care is one of the hottest health care topics right now—and with good reason. Surprise medical bills, the rising cost of prescription drugs, and a lack of price transparency in the health care market have frustrated the public and have policymakers looking for solutions. And while our collective pocketbooks have all experienced the squeeze of health care costs, what does the rise in these costs look like from a national and state perspective? […]
Insight: Utah’s Top-20 Homebuilder Sentiment Survey
By: Dejan Eskic In late 2018, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute was invited to participate in a survey of the top-20 homebuilders in Utah. The goal of the survey was to understand homebuilders market outlook, sentiment, and overall challenges and solutions. […]
Insight: Town hall in Price shows the value of political engagement
By: Natalie Gochnour Originally published in the Deseret News Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — commonly referred to by her initials AOC — attracts significant attention among political commentators because of her views on Medicare for all, a Green New Deal, a federal jobs guarantee, and a 70 percent tax rate on incomes over $10 million. I’m used to people talking about AOC on college campuses, but wasn’t expecting to hear about her at a town hall this week hosted by Rep. John Curtis in Price. It shows just how far the political battle grounds in this country have stretched — from[...]
Insight: 2018 Subcounty Estimates Share City, Tract Population Changes
By: Natalie Young Our new subcounty report provides annual population and housing estimates from 2010 to 2018 for every city and census tract in Salt Lake and Utah counties. Both counties experienced their largest and most rapid growth in housing units (2017-2018) of any year this decade. Population growth in the past year was highest in Herriman, Vineyard, Lehi, Eagle Mountain, and South Jordan—cities in the core growth area of southwestern Salt Lake County and northwestern Utah County, with the exception of Vineyard. These cities grew through strong owner-occupied housing construction. However, renter-occupied/apartment construction dominated the housing growth in Salt[...]
Insight: Using Medicaid to Pay for What?
By: Laura Summers, Senior Health Care Analyst During the 2019 legislative session, Utah confirmed that it will soon become one of 37 states to adopt Medicaid expansion. This means the state is expanding Medicaid eligibility to uninsured, low-income, childless adults and raising the mandatory income eligibility level for jobless and working parents. As part of this expansion, Utah is planning to submit a waiver to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking several permissions and additions to its Medicaid expansion program. The state is requesting that CMS allow it to develop behavioral and physical health integration pilot programs[...]