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Place dossier plate
SheetUT-SOUTH-SALT-LAKE-UT · South Salt Lake, UT 26,277 pop · income 47th pct
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 South Salt Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest South Salt Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Eureka · lowest
60,253
Eureka · lowest
60,253 median HH income
32.5% of the leader · rank #1
South Salt La… · this city
68,035
South Salt La… · this city
68,035 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #2
Clay City · near
68,036
Clay City · near
68,036 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #3
Flagstaff · near
68,041
Flagstaff · near
68,041 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #4
Foothill Farms · near
68,042
Foothill Farms · near
68,042 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #5
Forreston · near
68,042
Forreston · near
68,042 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #6
Plainview · highest
185,531
Plainview · highest
185,531 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 South Salt Lake 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: 26,277.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
South Salt Lake - the verdict
South Salt Lake ranks in the 47th percentile for household income and the 2nd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
47th
percentile, household income
76th
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: South Salt Lake, UT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 26,277 residents in South Salt Lake, a small city within Utah. Households in South Salt Lake report a median income of $68,035 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.3%. South Salt Lake's housing stock carries a median value of $390,400, and the median resident age is 31.5 years. About 33.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 72.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 125 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 36% from five years earlier. South Salt Lake's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 6641.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,313 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $178 across Utah, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 16.8 minutes, with 64.7% driving alone and 14.8% 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 South Salt Lake'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 population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For South Salt Lake, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for South Salt Lake?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 33.9% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
How far does income reach against housing in South Salt Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.3%, 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.
Is South Salt Lake growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +219 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 125 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for South Salt Lake?
Within Utah, the closest population matches are Farmington (24,934 residents, $120,432 income); Clinton (23,492 residents, $109,915 income); North Salt Lake (23,239 residents, $106,885 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are South Pasadena, CA (26,297 residents); Holbrook, NY (26,256 residents); Eureka, CA (26,302 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in South Salt Lake?
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 6641.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 191% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
5873.5
Violent rate
767.5
Total reported rate
6641.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in South Salt Lake?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 64.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.8 minutes.
Public transit
2.5%
Work from home
14.8%
Drive alone
64.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 15,205 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 10.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.9 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Utah average
F
City profile score · South Salt Lake, UT
38/100
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 B-
33.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$68,035
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.
Poverty rate F
10.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
768 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
South Salt Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 65/100 (B-) · 33.9%
Household income: 46/100 (D) · $68,035
Cost of living: 44/100 (D) · 98.9 index
Poverty rate: 38/100 (F) · 10.3%
Violent crime: 3/100 (F) · 768 /100k
Where South Salt Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
South Salt Lake'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 - South Salt Lake highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
South Salt Lake, UT (this city): home $390,400, crime 6,641/100k
South Pasadena, CA : home $1,545,100, crime 2,723/100k
Eureka, CA : home $375,800, crime 4,187/100k
Leland, NC : home $358,800, crime 1,080/100k
Hercules, CA : home $741,200, crime 842/100k
Farmington, UT : home $618,400, crime 1,119/100k
Clinton, UT : home $412,200, crime 859/100k
North Salt Lake, UT : home $469,800, crime 1,029/100k
Payson, UT : home $388,200, crime 826/100k
Washington, UT : home $511,100, crime 999/100k
How does South Salt Lake compare to other US cities?
Where South Salt Lake sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income47% higher than other cities
Home value76% 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, South Salt Lake ranks #67 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 South Salt Lake 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 South Salt Lake near the bottom of Utah's cities
Among the 310 Utah cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, South Salt Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares South Salt Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#226 of 293
23rd percentile in Utah
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 310
0th percentile in Utah
Median Home Value
#146 of 301
51st percentile in Utah
Poverty Rate
#60 of 310
81st percentile in Utah
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#124 of 310
60th 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
47th percentile nationally for median household income · 2nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
South Salt Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
South Salt Lake'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 South Salt Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$390,40024th percentilemore affordable than 24% 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
South Salt Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,846 of 15,516
More affordable than 11% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,893 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.7×, South Salt Lake sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,846 of 15,516 and #2,893 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$68,035South Salt Lake, UT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context South Salt Lake, 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 South Salt Lake, UT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)33.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)72.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
26,277
Median Income
$68,035
Median Home Value
$390,400
Median Age
31.5
Poverty Rate
10.3%
Labor force participation
72.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
33.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
6641.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
767.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
5873.5
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.
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
South Salt Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
26,715 residents
2021
26,039 residents
2022
26,152 residents
2023
26,487 residents
2024
26,559 residents
2025
26,934 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
125
housing units authorized
Single-Family
40
detached homes
Multifamily
85
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
92
66
26
$27.3M
2020
203
85
118
$49.9M
2021
250
10
240
$69.3M
2022
206
10
196
$50.8M
2023
197
10
187
$54.3M
2024
125
40
85
$86.3M
Permit volume increased 36% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.8 minutes
Drive Alone
64.7%
Carpool
13.4%
Public Transit
2.5%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
14.8%
Other
2.4%
Based on 15,205 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 South Salt Lake. 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 South Salt Lake 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 South Salt Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How South Salt Lake 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, 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.