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Place dossier plate
SheetUT-SALT-LAKE-CITY-UT · Salt Lake City, UT 203,888 pop · income 56th pct · 251 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Salt Lake City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Salt Lake City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Augusta-Richm… · lowest
53,134
Augusta-Richm… · lowest
53,134 median HH income
44.2% of the leader · rank #1
Leland · near
74,911
Leland · near
74,911 median HH income
62.3% of the leader · rank #2
St. Bernard · near
74,911
St. Bernard · near
74,911 median HH income
62.3% of the leader · rank #3
Central Garage · near
74,911
Central Garage · near
74,911 median HH income
62.3% of the leader · rank #4
Bethel Manor · near
74,918
Bethel Manor · near
74,918 median HH income
62.3% of the leader · rank #5
Salt Lake City · this city
74,925
Salt Lake City · this city
74,925 median HH income
62.3% of the leader · rank #6
McKinney · highest
120,273
McKinney · highest
120,273 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Salt Lake City on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 203,888.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Salt Lake City - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Salt Lake City places in the 56th percentile for household income and the 2nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
56th
percentile, household income
85th
percentile, home value
60th
percentile, median rent
2nd
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Salt Lake City, UT
Utah's Salt Lake City is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 203,888 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $74,925 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.5%. Typical homes in Salt Lake City are valued around $495,700, and the median resident age is 33.0 years. Educational attainment runs 50.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 70.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1,283 residential building permits were authorized in Salt Lake City (Construction Slowdown), down 63% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Salt Lake City's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 6064.2 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Salt Lake City's yearly average temperature at 54.7°F with 15.5 inches of precipitation per year and 51.9 inches of snowfall.
Utah tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 98.9 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,313 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Utah run around $178, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 16.0 minutes, with 60.2% driving alone and 18.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 36.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Salt Lake City's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to population change to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Salt Lake City, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Salt Lake City?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 50.9% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
How far does income reach against housing in Salt Lake City?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Which cities make useful reference points for Salt Lake City?
Within Utah, the closest population matches are West Valley City (137,955 residents, $88,604 income); West Jordan (116,277 residents, $103,960 income); Provo (114,303 residents, $62,800 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Columbus, GA (204,383 residents); Little Rock, AR (202,739 residents); McKinney, TX (202,314 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What can 251 Census tracts reveal inside Salt Lake City?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 251 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Salt Lake City?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 60.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.0 minutes.
Public transit
5.2%
Work from home
18.5%
Drive alone
60.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 118,747 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Salt Lake City?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 6064.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 166% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
5200.0
Violent rate
864.2
Total reported rate
6064.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Salt Lake City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +17,709 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,283 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+8.8%
2025 estimate
218,428
2020 estimate
200,719
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What physical conditions frame life in Salt Lake City?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 54.7°F, with 15.5 inches of precipitation and 51.9 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Utah is 36.2 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
54.7°F
Annual precipitation
15.5 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
36.2
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Above median income · poverty 6.5% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.9 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Utah average
D
City profile score · Salt Lake City, UT
46/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share A
50.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C
6.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C-
$74,925
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living D
98.9 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime F
864 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Salt Lake City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 85/100 (A) · 50.9%
Poverty rate: 56/100 (C) · 6.5%
Household income: 54/100 (C-) · $74,925
Cost of living: 44/100 (D) · 98.9 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 864 /100k
Where Salt Lake City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Salt Lake City's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Salt Lake City highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Salt Lake City, UT (this city): home $495,700, crime 6,064/100k
Columbus, GA : home $182,300, crime 2,839/100k
Little Rock, AR : home $221,200, crime 6,886/100k
McKinney, TX : home $439,500, crime 933/100k
Worcester, MA : home $339,500, crime 17/100k
West Jordan, UT : home $454,700, crime 1,653/100k
Provo, UT : home $437,100, crime 1,477/100k
St. George, UT : home $456,900, crime 1,213/100k
Orem, UT : home $439,000, crime 1,534/100k
How does Salt Lake City compare to other US cities?
Where Salt Lake City sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income56% higher than other cities
Home value85% pricier than other cities
Median rent60% pricier than other cities
Safety2% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Utah, Salt Lake City ranks #66 of 67 Utah cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Salt Lake City against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Utah only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Utah-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Salt Lake City near the bottom of Utah's cities
Among the 310 Utah cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Salt Lake City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Salt Lake City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#195 of 293
33rd percentile in Utah
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 310
0th percentile in Utah
Median Home Value
#84 of 301
72nd percentile in Utah
Poverty Rate
#96 of 310
68th percentile in Utah
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#33 of 310
89th percentile in Utah
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Utah only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
56th percentile nationally for median household income · 2nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Salt Lake City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Salt Lake City's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Salt Lake City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$495,70015th percentilemore affordable than 15% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Salt Lake City's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,484 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#100 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 6.6×, Salt Lake City sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,484 of 15,516 and #100 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$74,925Salt Lake City, UT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Salt Lake City, UT median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Salt Lake City, UT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)70.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
203,888
Median Income
$74,925
Median Home Value
$495,700
Median Age
33.0
Poverty Rate
6.5%
Labor force participation
70.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
6064.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
864.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
5200.0
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
54.7°F
Annual Precipitation
15.5"
Annual Snowfall
51.9"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Salt Lake City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
200,719 residents
2021
201,169 residents
2022
208,818 residents
2023
212,428 residents
2024
217,834 residents
2025
218,428 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1,283
housing units authorized
Single-Family
397
detached homes
Multifamily
886
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3,486
127
3,359
$532.1M
2020
2,667
168
2,499
$359.9M
2021
3,691
172
3,519
$511.0M
2022
3,633
144
3,489
$496.0M
2023
3,172
243
2,929
$468.4M
2024
1,283
397
886
$267.6M
Permit volume decreased 63% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.0 minutes
Drive Alone
60.2%
Carpool
8.1%
Public Transit
5.2%
Walk
4.8%
Work from Home
18.5%
Other
3.2%
Based on 118,747 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Utah statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $178
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Utah at $178 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Utah statewide averages, not a meter reading for Salt Lake City. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Utah's BEA cost-of-living index is 98.9 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Salt Lake City is $1,313/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Utah statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 36.2 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Utah statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Salt Lake City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Salt Lake City compares to similar-size Utah cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.