Projecting and Connecting

Salt Lake City is at the forefront of the ongoing demographic, cultural, and economic transformation of Utah. As is true for the nation, we are becoming increasingly multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual and will eventually become a “minority-majority” population. The dynamics driving these changes originate from our increasing interconnectedness with the rest of the world, principally through markets, technology, and migrations of people. It is widely recognized that Salt Lake City is the financial and economic epicenter of the state, as well as home to Utah State Government, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the University of Utah. It is perhaps less well recognized that Salt Lake City, and especially the River District, have re-emerged as a gateway for newly arriving immigrant populations.

Salt Lake City’s population peaked in 1960 and declined for the next three decades until rebounding in the 2000s. This population turnaround is the result of the recent migration of relatively young ethnic minorities who subsequently have had children once they have become established in the city. Not only did the coming of immigrants reverse a thirty-year population decline in Salt Lake City, but they have also contributed to the youthfulness and diversity of the city. Over one-third (34.4 percent in 2010) of Salt Lake City’s population is minority, compared to 36.3 percent nationally, and 19.6 percent for the state. Salt Lake City is on pace to match the national path of minority population shares. This trend is a generational shift that is concentrated in our youth. Half of the preschoolers in Salt Lake City are minorities and the Salt Lake School District is “minority majority.” This increased ethnic diversity is coincident with rising economic inequality.

Importantly, patterns of this emerging demographic and socioeconomic diversity vary dramatically by neighborhood and community. Figure 1 shows the geographic concentration of minority populations in the River District as well as the growth in diversity across the city from 2000 to 2010. Minorities are two-thirds of the River District population, as compared to just over one-fifth in the rest of the city. And these measures do not recognize many of the new residents who are ethnic minorities that are not captured by official statistics.

A more accurate assessment of diversity emerges from the Salt Lake School District student data, which reports more than 100 languages spoken in the homes of its students. Again, the geographic distribution of this linguistic diversity is striking, with the majority of households in the River District speaking languages other than English and the rest of the city being primarily native English speakers. The increasing socioeconomic inequality in the city also varies geographically. Once again, the Salt Lake City School District data reveal the high proportion of households eligible for lunch assistance being concentrated in the River District, which are the same neighborhoods of the newly arriving residents. (Figure 2)

The urgent need to understand these evolving conditions at small-area geographies is coupled with an ongoing dearth of detailed neighborhood-level data from national sources due to the loss of the U.S. Census long form. The Utah Community Data Project has just been launched at the University of Utah and will, when built out, provide a suite of data, profiles, community indicators, and neighborhood-focused research projects to fill this void. This work will allow us to uncover insights into our changing communities and to “democratize data.” The Utah Community Data Project was highlighted in the Carpe Datum Summit, which was sponsored by the Capital City Education Alliance on April 25, 2013. While much of the technical work of the UCDP is being done by analysts at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, it involves an ever-expanding collaboration between University and community partners.