Monday, April 16, 2012

Share of Utah's Mormon residents holds steady

For nearly two decades, Utah’s population continued to rise while the percentage of its people who are Mormon slowly and steadily declined. The Salt Lake Tribune tracks the Mormon population using county-level membership numbers the church gives to state officials for demographic purposes. The census estimates that Utah added 40,800 residents in 2011, but less than 10 percent of them were people moving here. Then the recession hit, jobs dried up and people hunkered down. Utah’s population is 62.2 percent LDS and that percentage hasn’t moved much in the past three years. Salt Lake Tribune
According to the Salt Lake Tribune's calculations, the counties with the highest share of LDS population include Morgan (86 percent), Rich (83 percent), Utah (81 percent), Sevier (77 percent), and Box Elder (77 percent). The counties with the smallest share of LDS population included Grand (27 percent), Summit (31 percent), San Juan (40 percent), Carbon County (46 percent), and Salt Lake (51 percent).