St. George Fastest Growing Metro Area

Many of you maybe saw the news last week from the U.S. Census Bureau announcing St. George City as the fastest growing metro area in the nation. St. George area great by 39.8% between 2000 and 2006, this rate is almost 9% higher than the second metro area (Greeley Colorado at 31%). St. George is not the only Utah metro area to make this list...Provo-Orem metro area grew by 26% since 2000, ranking them 6th nationally. You can read and watch the KSL news story here or read the Census Bureau press release here.

On another note I'm looking forward to spending this coming week in the fastest growing metro area in nation for our 2007 Midyear Conference.

2007 Economic Report to the Governor

The Council of Economic Advisors to Governor Huntsman recently released the 2007 Economic Report to the Governor. We all know the economy in Utah has been good in 2006...but just how good? This report provides important data and details regarding demographic changes, tourism, jobs and wages, and overall growth in Utah. If you don't have time to read the full 226 page report I at least recommend a review of the 4 page Executive Summary. Here are a few highlights.

• 5.2% -- job growth in 2006 (compared to 1.4% nationally)
  
• 2.7% -- population growth (67,714 new residents = a city the size of St. George)
  
• 18.1% -- construction job growth led all other sectors in 2006
  
• 5.4% -- non agricultural wages increase exceeded inflation for the 3rd consecutive year
  
• 5.4 million residents are expected to live in Utah by 2050...doubling our population in the next 44 years.
  

300 Million Americans -- 2.42 Million Utahns

America reached a milestone at the end of October, 300 million Americans. TIME magazine provided a recent breakdown of America "by the numbers." Their data provided some interesting descriptions on who we are today as Americans. For example FOR EVERY 1000 AMERICANS...

• 568 live in the state they were born
  
• 455 are employed
  
• 341 drive to work alone
• 173 speak a language other than English at home
• 126 live in poverty
  
• 122 are 65 and older
  
• 1 are in kindergarten
  

But what about here in Utah? FOR EVERY 1000 UTAHNS...

• 900 are white
• 630 were born in Utah
• 140 speak a language other than English at home
• 100 live in poverty
  
• 80 are over the age of 65
• 2 are in kindergarten