Posted Jun 26, 2017, 4:28 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2013
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Salt Lake County is becoming less Mormon — Utah County is headed in the other direction
http://www.sltrib.com/home/5403049-1...-becoming-less
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The 3 million-strong Beehive State, as a whole, remains roughly 62.8 percent Mormon.
But Salt Lake County, home to the headquarters of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, continues to see its portion of residents on LDS membership rolls decline. As of Sept. 30, it stood at 50.07 percent. In neighboring Utah County, which includes the faith's flagship school, Brigham Young University, Mormons make up 84.7 percent of the population, an increasing share from recent years.
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"Salt Lake County ... has become increasingly more cosmopolitan, housing has become more expensive, and the church has overall really struggled in urban areas," said Martinich, who lives in Colorado. Whereas, Utah County has bigger homes that often are cheaper, attracting younger Mormon families who also may want to live near others from the same religion.
For Mormons deciding where to live, Martinich suggests that Salt Lake County "is just culturally less attractive, economically less attractive, socially less attractive."
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When combined with census estimates, the new data show that Utah was 62.8 percent Mormon in 2016, the same percentage it was in 2009. But during those years, Salt Lake County dipped from 51.5 percent LDS in 2009 to 50.07 percent last year. If the trend holds, Salt Lake County soon may join the ranks of Utah's minority Mormon counties. That group includes Carbon (49.9 percent), San Juan (35.5 percent), Summit (29.4 percent) and Grand (26.5 percent).
Salt Lake County has a population of 1.12 million people, and 561,433 were on the LDS rolls in 2016. In most years, the county added at least a few thousand Mormons as it continues to grow, but not in 2016. The county saw a total population spurt of 16,732 people but a decrease of 318 in the actual number of Mormons.
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In contrast, Utah County rose from 83.6 percent LDS in 2009 to 84.7 percent in 2016. It has a total population of 592,299, slightly more than half Salt Lake County's size, of which 501,725 are Mormons. At this pace, it is possible that Utah County, though much smaller overall, would have more Mormons numerically than Salt Lake County within the next 10 years.
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"Salt Lake County and Utah County are so different but are becoming one big metro area," said Morgan Lyon Cotti, a political scientist at the U. Part of the religious divide is driven by housing costs, but she suggests some of it also might come from workers more willing to commute, especially those who have relocated from more crowded states like California.
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