New population report shows Utahns struggling with health, depression and housing costs.
Hits & Misses
By Katharine Biele @kathybiele
Unhealthy Levels
It's not like we don't know what our population looks like. But the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute is giving us another shot at caring about it. A new demographic report shows a number of troubling trends. "Utah's minority populations suffer higher rates of chronic conditions including diabetes, asthma, depression and obesity. Women self-report higher rates of diagnosed depression, at 32.1%, compared to men, at 16.3%." Things like that—and Black homeowners and renters are spending more than half of their incomes on housing costs. It's no secret that depression is a major problem in Utah—especially among youths. The state ranks no. 48 in adult depression. While there are programs to help, finding the causes and addressing them requires a commitment to policy changes that should involve the populations that are affected. Otherwise, Utah is only offering lip service from a place of condensation.
Cracked and Packed
The Gardner Institute had some other old news for us, too. For instance, most of us live in urban areas along the Wasatch Front. Given that the state has a large percentage of federal lands, that's probably not surprising. But when you look at how the Legislature gerrymandered the state, it should give you pause. Congressional districts were drawn from north to way down south, scooping up large expanses of rural Utah because rural Utah needed a voice—or so they thought. Former U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop quit the independent redistricting commission because it had created two urban districts (and two rural ones). Now all four congressional districts have major rural components. But the Gardner Institute notes that 90% of Utahns live in urban districts. Political candidates like Celeste Maloy and Phil Lyman tout their rural roots. Still, rural Utahns aren't facing the housing crisis in the same way that urbanites are. And rural Utahns often lack good health care and schools. Ask yourself who's not being represented and why.
Rage Gauge
For the past few years, KUTV2 has been highlighting incidents of road rage, and recent federal data shows why we need to pay attention. It's something that lawmakers have acted to make road rage a criminal offense, especially when "Drivers in Utah—and elsewhere—have become increasingly prone to road rage, with 47 encounters involving guns in the past decade," Axios reported. On the brighter side, Utah also saw one of the nation's biggest year-to-year drops in traffic fatalities in 2023, and pedestrian deaths dropped more than 25%—even though they generally appear to be increasing in the state. It's hard to process traffic deaths going down while road rage is hitting a high and pedestrians and bicyclists are in the crosshairs. Axios calls this "the intrigue." "The decline came while the state was reeling from a huge spike in 2022 in pedestrian deaths in particular."
About The Author
Katharine Biele
A City Weekly contributor since 1992, Katharine Biele is the informed voice behind our Hits & Misses column. When not writing, you can catch her working to empower voters and defend democracy alongside the League of Women Voters.
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