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Utah

 

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2009 CB est.): 2,784,572
Population (2000 Census): 2,233,169
Foreign-Born Population (2009 CB est.) 218,148
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census): 158,664
Share Foreign-Born (2009): 7.8%
Share Foreign-Born (2000): 7.1%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2009 CB est.): 72,473
Share Naturalized (2009): 33.2%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 2000- 2009): 49,827
Refugee Admission (HHS 2000-2009): 8,336
Illegal Alien Population (2010 FAIR est.): 100,000
Costs of Illegal Aliens (2010 FAIR): $452,900,000
Projected 2050 Population - (2006 FAIR): 4,268,000

Utah : General Data

 

STATE POPULATION

Using the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2009 Utah’s population had increased to 2,784,572 residents, i.e., an increase of 551,403 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 2.5 percent per year. The comparable national annual rate of increase was 1.0 percent.

Utah Population 1900-2008

 

The 2000 Census found 2,233,169 persons resident in Utah. This was an increase of 100,064 persons above the 1990 Census. The annual average increase of 2.6 percent was higher than the national annual average of 1.2 percent population increase.

The 2000 population was about 25,000 more persons than the Census Bureau had expected to find in the state in 2000 when it issued its state population projections in 1996. The significance of this is that the Census Bureau concluded that much of the shortfall in their population estimates during the 1990s was due to an underestimation of the illegal alien population.

Between the 1980 and 1990 Censuses, the population of Utah grew by 17.9 percent (from about 1,461,037 to 1,722,850). That was an annual rate of increase of 1.7 percent. The national rate of change was 1.0 percent.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of Utah was 218,148 persons in 2009. This meant a foreign-born population share of 7.8 percent.

 

Net International Migration (NIM)

Based on the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Census Bureau estimated that between the 2000 Census and July 2009 the state’s population increased by about 65,960 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 7,095 residents, i.e., nearly one-eighth (12%) of the total increase (not including the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

 

 

FOREIGN-BORN CHANGE

The amount of change since the 2000 Census found in the ACS indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 6,395 people, which is more than one-tenth (10.8%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 37.5 percent compared to a 23.7 percent increase in the native-born population.

Immigration also contributes to population growth through the children born to immigrants in this country. Nationally the share of births to the foreign-born is about double their share of the population. A 15.6 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 8,080 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 14,475 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., nearly one-fourth (24.4%) of the state’s overall population increase.

FOREIGN-BORN CHARACTERISTICS

An indicator of the change in Utah's immigrant population may be seen in data on the share of the population over five years of age that speaks a language other than English at home. Between 1990 and 2000, the share of non-English speakers increased from 7.8 percent to 11.5 percent. More than two-fourths (41.7%) of those persons in 2000 also said they spoke English less than very well. In the 2009 ACS, the share had increased to 13.8 percent and of those 33.2 percent spoke English less than very well. Spanish speakers were 66.6 percent of those who spoke other than English at home, and 72.3 percent of those who spoke English less than very well.

Speakers of Foreign Languages
(at home in Utah in the 2000 Census)
Spanish 150,245
German 12,095
Navaho 9,375
French 7,875
Portuguese 5,715
Vietnamese 5,200
Tongan 5,180
Japanese 5,030
Chinese 5,015
Korean 3,215
(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

The chart above shows the foreign-born population increasing by 37.5 percent since 2000 and the share of that population from Latin America and the Caribbean increasing by 47 8 percent. That region’s share of the state’s immigrant population grew from 55.4 percent to 59.6 percent in 2009.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 62,083 residents, or 29.5 percent, of the foreign-born population in Utah were citizens, compared to 48,178 residents, or 30.4 percent, in 2000.

Nationally, 40.3 percent of the foreign-born population was citizens in 2000 and 42.0 percent were citizens in 2006.

REFUGEES

Utah received 8,336 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'00-'09).

 

LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY STUDENTS


In Utah overall enrollment in 2008 (576,224) was 26.2 percent above enrollment in 1999. LEP enrollment was 41.2 percent higher than a decade earlier.

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2009/2010 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign students attending post-secondary school in Utah as 7,562. Five schools in the state are listed as having a majority of these students: 

  • Brigham Young U. – 2,536.
  • U. Utah – 2,359
  • Utah State U. – 944
  • Utah Valley U. – 456
  • Salt Lake C.C. – 349

Those schools represented more than seven-eighths (87.9%) of the total foreign students in the state.

For information on foreign student issues see: Foreign Students in the United States

Population Projection  

We projected Utah’s population in 2050 likely would be between 4.17 million and 4.27 million depending on what happens with immigration policy. See “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050: Four Immigration Scenarios,” FAIR 2006.

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Utah : Immigrant Admissions

 

Utah Immigrant Admissions
by Fiscal Year
2000 3,710
2001 5,247
2002 4,889
2003 3,174
2004 4,255
2005 5,082
2006 5,749
2007 5,168
2008 6,087
2009 6,466
Total 49,827

Recent immigrant admissions are at 648 percent of admissions just after adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 880 immigrants. During the most recent five years, admissions averaged about 5,710 persons.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 747 in FY'68 to 6,466 in FY’09. The cumulative total of admissions to Utah between fiscal years 1965 and 2009 was about 119,390 immigrants.

INS DATA BY NATIONALITY: FY'93 - FY'02

The INS data below are furnished for nationals of the countries with the largest number of immigrants admitted or adjusted to legal residence each year since 1993. The absence of data means that the total number of admissions to the United States by nationals of that country was not enough to merit detailed reporting in that year.

The nationalities may change each year, so the totals in some cases will not reflect all the immigrants of that nationality who have become legal immigrants in Utah during this period.

Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
Country FY'93 FY'94 FY'95 FY'96 FY'97 FY'98 FY'99 FY'00 FY'01 FY'02 Total
Bangladesh - - - 6 2 5 1 1 - 1 16
Canada 239 259 197 223 109 117 85 140 229 153 1,751
China * 620 362 162 279 227 171 128 209 307 267 2,732
Colombia 24 24 37 32 19 25 21 30 55 50 317
Cuba 0 3 1 7 4 17 22 7 12 6 79
Dom. Rep. 9 10 15 13 9 5 11 13 12 15 112
Ecuador 14 - 11 19 15 17 23 16 31 29 175
El Salvador 25 22 32 54 49 49 67 52 71 71 492
Germany 40 49 30 - 19 45 34 69 89 89 464
Guatemala 28 22 37 45 37 51 44 52 59 66 441
Guyana 3 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 - 1 8
Haiti 3 2 3 7 0 0 1 3 8 11 38
Honduras 10 - - - 26 20 13 31 - 15 115
India 103 68 74 134 44 101 69 57 122 102 874
Iran 44 49 46 89 39 85 44 49 62 73 628
Ireland 16 41 - - 12 5 2 5 - 3 84
Jamaica 6 0 3 1 5 6 6 1 12 3 43
Japan - 60 - - 35 46 40 58 69 58 366
Korea 49 48 64 66 39 39 45 49 61 59 519
Mexico 297 322 565 1,036 878 1,035 1,157 1,036 1,103 1,288 8,717
Nicaragua - - - - 3 8 11 30 27 28 107
Nigeria - - 10 21 14 12 7 11 - 13 88
Pakistan 34 29 41 41 36 29 31 25 30 39 335
Peru 77 66 59 118 76 96 74 66 123 95 850
Philippines 82 106 59 79 84 72 69 79 99 99 828
Poland 27 22 13 13 11 7 5 10 17 13 138
Sov. Un. * 255 260 174 147 164 161 216 237 219 229 2,062
Trin.& Tob. - 2 - - 1 1 5 0 - 0 9
U. Kingdom 120 93 87 100 49 52 44 74 116 73 808
Vietnam 395 270 255 280 160 133 180 152 205 146 2,176
Yugo. * - - 67 176 30 255 288 356 548 797 2,517
Other 746 761 788 1,262 644 695 821 792 1,561 997 9,067
Total 3,266 2,951 2,831 4,250 2,840 3,360 3,564 3,710 5,247 4,889 36,908

A dash (-) indicates that the data for that year were not published for that country in the INS Statistical Yearbook.
* China data include Hong Kong and Taiwan. Former USSR data continued since break-up (except FY'96-'97 and ‘01 includes only Russia and Ukraine). Former Yugoslavia data continued since break-up.

The 31 nationalities above represent more than three-quarters (75.4%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in Utah during this ten-year period. The largest sources of the new immigrants (Mexico, China, Vietnam and the former Soviet Union) account for over two-fifths (42.5%) of the ten-year total. Mexico alone accounted for nearly one-quarter (23.6%) of the total.

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Utah : Illegal Aliens

 

FAIR Estimate - FAIR estimated the state’s illegal alien population as of 2010 was as many as 100,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 12 million persons.

INS/DHS Estimate - The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated that the resident illegal population in Utah was 65,000 as of 2000. This was 50,000 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate.

Other Estimates - The Pew Hispanic Center estimated the illegal alien population of the state at 110,000 as of 2010.

COST OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR’s 2010 fiscal cost study, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers” estimated the following cost outlays and tax receipts:

Utah Fiscal Costs In 2009
     Due to Illegal Aliens ($M)       (Pct.)
K-12 educ. $239.2   52.8%
LEP educ. $48.1 10.6%
University educ. $2.9 0.6%
Medicaid $57.7 12.7%
SCHIP $9.9 2.2%
Justice $53.8 11.9%
Welfare+ $14.8 3.3%
General $26.5 5.9%
Total $452.9  
Tax Receipts $31.1  
Net Cost $421.8  

Source: “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers,” FAIR 2010.

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Utah : Immigration Impact

 

Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Water: Water is already a scarce resource in this desert state, and the increased demand generated by population growth is exacerbating the problem. The state's frequent water shortfalls means farmers' irrigation is cut when water is scarce.1 In 2001, some farmers faced harvest yields of up to 40 percent less than normal as a result. In response to the growing crisis, Utah's governor has asked residents to reduce their water use by 25 percent in the next several decades.2 The Jordan Valley District projects it will be unable to meet water needs by 2009. Weber Basin won't be able to meet its water needs by 2015. Salt Lake and Sandy Counties could run out of water by 2025.3

Hundreds of the state's waterways are polluted with silt and runoff from urban storm sewers, often killing wildlife and causing floods.4

Traffic: Utah highway traffic increased by 74 percent between 1990 and 2008, more than double the national average. Four in ten (40%) of its major urban highways are congested.5 As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Utah residents increased from 19 minutes in 1990 to 20.8 minutes in 2008.6

Salt Lake City commuters each lost about 27 hours and 18 gallons of fuel due to congestion-related traffic delays in 2007.7 The average Salt Lake rush-hour commuter spent 20 hours in gridlock during 2000—versus three hours in 1980.8 About 9 percent of Utah commuters had a commute of 45 minutes or longer in 2008.9

Road maintenance in Utah has not fully kept up with increased traffic. More than one-quarter (28%) of the state’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and 15 percent of its bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The typical Utah driver pays $197 each year in extra maintenance and operating costs due to road conditions.10

Disappearing open space: The amount of developed land in Utah increased by 310,900 acres from 1982 to 2007, growing at a pace of 14,350 acres per year over the last ten years of that period.11 Utah's open spaces are being paved over to accommodate population growth; between 1990 and 1998, the state saw a 22 percent increase in housing construction, the second highest rate in the nation.12

Experts say that much of Utah's wilderness and its native species will vanish if conservation of resources and open space is not made an immediate priority.13

A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 91.9 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the Ogden metropolitan area, and 59.7 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase. In the Salt Lake City area sprawl consumed an additional 69.8 square miles and population increase accounted for 100 percent of the increase.14

Crowded Housing: An estimated 29,015 of Utah’s housing units were classified as crowded in 2008, defined as units with more than one occupant per room. This amounted to 3.5 percent of the state’s housing units. In addition, 4,390 were severely crowded, with at least 1.5 occupants per room.15 Nationwide, children in immigrant families were three times as likely to live in crowded conditions as children in native families (27 percent to 9 percent). In the state, 23 percent of children in immigrant families live in crowded housing, compared to just 10 percent of children with native-born parents.16

Air Pollution: As population increases, pollution usually rises along with it. Air along Utah's Wasatch Front is visibly polluted most days. Even the New York-New Jersey metro area has better air quality than the Salt Lake Valley when measured for carbon monoxide, one of the main components of unhealthy air.17 Utah County is not allowed to add any new roads because its air quality is already in violation of federal standards.18 Officials say that unless Salt Lake acts to limit sprawl and curb auto emissions, the city could soon be "obscured by a soup of pollutants."19

Of the nine Utah counties graded by the American Lung Association in 2010 for risk of high ozone exposure, six received an "F." Among these were Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, and Weber counties.20

Poverty: Utah’s immigrants are more likely to be poor than their native-born counterparts. In 2007, 16.2 percent of foreign-born households were below the poverty line, compared to 9.1 percent of native households. An additional 16.8 percent of the foreign-born and 7.9 percent of native households were not in poverty but had incomes less than 1.5 times the poverty level.21 31.4 percent of children in immigrant families were poor in 2006, compared to 10.3 percent of native children.22

Solid Waste: Utah generates 1.07 tons of solid waste per capita every year.23 If this rate does not change, projected population growth between 2008 and 2050 will add about 2 million tons of solid waste to the state’s annual output.

Schools: Between 1990 and 2009, public school enrollment in Utah increased by an estimated 126,348 students, or 28.3 percent.24 Enrollment is projected to grow by an additional 98,716 students between 2009 and 2018.25 Utah's student-teacher ratio of 22.1 ranks last in the U.S.26

The Alpine school district alone opened three new elementary schools in 2000. By the next year, those new schools already had seven portable classrooms and the district was beginning further construction to meet the still-increasing enrollment.27

Illegal Immigration in Utah

According to police records, illegal aliens were involved in 80 percent of Utah's arrests for felony-level narcotics violations in 1995.28

Endnotes:

  1. Brent Istaelsen, "Running on Empty, Utah's Dry Spell Likely to Linger," Salt Lake Tribune, October 22, 2001.
  2. Lynn Arave, "Leavitt Says Save Water, Pray For Rain," Deseret News, August 12, 2001.7. Ibid.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Brent Istaelsen, "Running on Empty, Utah's Dry Spell Likely to Linger," Salt Lake Tribune, October 22, 2001.
  5. The Road Information Project (TRIP), "Key Facts about Utah’s Surface Transportation System and Federal Funding," May 2010.
  6. Table R0801, "Mean Travel Time to Work of Workers 16 Years and Over Who Did Not Work at Home (Minutes)," American Community Survey, 2008 estimates.  "Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000," Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.
  7. Texas Transportation Institute, "Urban Mobility Report 2009."
  8. Zack Van Eyck, "S.L. Ranks Low in Traffic Gridlock," Deseret News, June 22, 2002.
  9. American Community Survey, 2008 Estimates, Custom Data Table.
  10. The Road Information Project (TRIP), "Key Facts about Utah’s Surface Transportation System and Federal Funding," May 2010.
  11. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, "Summary Report: 2007 National Resources Inventory."
  12. Maria Titze, " Utah No. 2 Nationally in Housing Growth," Deseret Sun, December 9, 1999.
  13. Phil Miller, "Growth in Utah: It's Coming No Matter What," Salt Lake Tribune, November 11, 1998.
  14. Beck, Roy and Leon Kolankiewicz, "Weighing Sprawl Factors in Large U.S. Cities," NumbersUSA, March 2001.
  15. American Community Survey, Three-Year Estimates 2006-2008. Data retrieved using ACS Custom Table tool.
  16. Kids Count Data Center, Kids Count Data Center, 2008 American Community Survey Data.
  17. Timothy Egan, "Urban Sprawl Strains Western States," New York Times, December 29, 2001.
  18. "Smog Clogs Plan to Widen U.S. 6," Deseret News, April 27, 2001.
  19. Timothy Egan, "Urban Sprawl Strains Western States," New York Times, December 29, 2001.
  20. American Lung Association, "State of the Air 2010."
  21. Migration Information Source State Data (Migration Policy Institute)
  22. Urban Institute, Children of Immigrants Data Tool.
  23. Report Card for America 's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
  24. "Table 4. Actual and projected numbers for enrollment in grades PK12 in public elementary and secondary schools, by region and state: Fall 2000 through fall 2018," National Center for Education Statistics, Department of Education.
  25. "Table 34. Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, by state or jurisdiction: Selected years, fall 1990 through fall 2009," Digest of Education Statistics, Department of Education.
  26. "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
  27. Alpine Schools Expect Crowds," Daily Herald, August 18, 2001.
  28. Utah Gets Cash for Jailing, Salt Lake Tribune, December 6, 1996.

 

Other Resources  

State Local Reform Organizations

State Representatives Voting Record

 

Updated December 2011


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