Moving From Out of State

Welcome to the Beehive State!

Welcome to Utah, where the slots are mountains, the grid system reigns, the lakes are salty, and fry sauce runs through our veins. We are glad you’re here! Utah is known for its family-friendly atmosphere and industrial vision. Also recognized for its unique geography -- sporting everything from snowy mountains to arid desert -- southern Utah has five national parks, each with extremely different trails and picture-perfect views. According to a study conducted by WalletHub, Utah is also home to the most charitable people in the country, as it ranked first in volunteer rates among residents, first in percentage of donated income, and first in median contribution to charity. The resources on this page are aimed to help you acclimate to life in Utah. From housing, to transportation, weather, and even Utah jargon, we hope this will be a valuable tool in your move to the greatest state in America.

Housing

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KSL

Check out KSL
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HOMIE

Go to Homie
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Zillow

go to zillow

Transportation

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Lyft

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Uber

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UTA

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E-Scooters

Utah County's Best of Everything

2018 Best of Utah Valley Results


Demographics

Population (as of 2018): 622,213

Income & Poverty

  • Median Household Income (as of 2017): $67,042
  • Percent of Persons in Poverty: 10.5%

Religion

  • Christian-Based: 73%
  • Non-Christian-Based: 9%
  • Not Affiliated: 18%

Age

  • Percent under 5 years: 9.5%
  • Percent under 18 years: 33.4%
  • Percent 19-65 years: 49.4%
  • Percent over 65 years: 7.7%

Race/Ethnicity

  • Percent White: 82.1%
  • Percent Black or African American: .8%
  • Percent American India or Alaska Native: .8%
  • Percent Asian: 1.8%
  • Percent Pacific Islander: .9%
  • Percent Hispanic or Latino: 12%
  • Percent Other: 1.6%

Weather Averages

Month High/Low(*F) Rain
January 36/20 7 days
February 43/24 7 days
March 54/31 7 days
April 63/37 7 days
May 73/44 6 days
June 85/52 3 days
July 92/59 3 days
August 89/58 3 days
September 79/49 4 days
October 65/39 5 days
November 49/30 6 days
December 37/21 7 days

Utah Jargon

Fry Sauce:

It’s like ketchup, but mixed with mayonnaise and sometimes pickle relish. Only in Utah. Get the recipe here.

The Grid System:

Basically the best thing that has been invented since television (oh yeah, that was invented by a Utahn too). Utah's street naming and numbering system is based on a grid system with the Salt Lake Temple as the center of town. Utah County (where UVU's main campus is located) has also adopted this model, but with their own center being located in the middle of each city. This system makes for some unique addresses. Where else do you see an address such as 2150 East 13400 South? From the center (grid point 0,0), the streets are incremented by 100, and are named by the position relative to the center. The names of streets running north/south and positioned to the east of Main Street are named 200 East, 300 East, and so on. The same logic applies to the streets on the other three sides. So, if you are looking for 300 South and 500 East, you know that the location will be three blocks south and five blocks east of the center of town. Confusion comes into play because the streets that run north/south are called either an "east" street or a "west" street. Remember, they are named after their positions relative to the center, and not the direction they run. Also, residents tend to say "1st South" when they are referring to "100 South." This gets interesting as you go "way south" and you need to refer to 100th South (Do you mean 100 South or 10000 South??). The way to tell here is the inclusion (or elimination) of the "th " 100th South is 10000 South. 100 South (note no "th") is 100 South or 1st South. The first number in an address is the house or business and the second number is the street. You’ll get used to it and love it. We promise.

Inversion:

No, things are not upside-down. Because Salt Lake and Utah counties are surrounded by mountains, pollution gets trapped in the valley. When there’s an inversion, it means that you'll likely have difficulty breathing and an air purifier will be your best friend. You can go up in the mountains to get out of the inversion.

Jazz:

While jazz music has a way of relaxing you, the Utah Jazz will have you on your feet. Utah's NBA team is competitive in the Western Conference and provides entertainment for sports enthusiasts and less-enthusiastic spouses alike. If we are being honest, Donovan Mitchell’s heart is the real MVP of the team.

Lagoon:

Lagoon is Utah’s amusement park, with roller coasters, food, a water park, and pioneer village (get a cinnamon roll or two, just trust us).

Pioneer Day/24th of July:

Pioneer Day is an official holiday in Utah celebrated on July 24. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois, and other locations in the eastern United States. Parades, fireworks, rodeos, and other festivities help commemorate the event. Similar to July 4, many local and all state-run government offices and many businesses are closed on Pioneer Day, including UVU.

Powder:

In Utah, the powder is addictive but it’s not an illegal drug. "Powder" refers to Utah’s “Greatest Snow on Earth”.

Slots:

Canyons, not gaming machines, draw Utahns in after a stressful week. It costs a lot less money to do the slots in Utah than it does in Vegas. (Though, if you end up getting stuck and hacking your arm off to survive (true story), the pain is worse than losing your paycheck.)

Steel/Strawberry/Herriman/etc. Days:

Each summer, almost every city in Utah throws a large fair to celebrate the city's existence. These fairs usually include rodeos, concerts from local and national bands, competitions, booths, events unique to their city, fireworks, and more fair food than you could ever dream of. Almost all of these fairs are free, but check the city websites for more details.

While Utah is home to an array of people from a variety of backgrounds, over half of the population (62%) identifies as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Because of this, those not familiar with the faith may hear their colleagues or students use terms that are unfamiliar to them. To help with this, UVU’s Interfaith Student Council created a “Common Terminology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” document that can be found at the link below.

Common Terminology

10 Utah Fun Facts

  1. The town of Levan (which is "navel" spelled backwards) is located in the middle of Utah. According to local lore, the town got its name because it sits at what would be the belly-button of the state.
  2. Utah is where you can find one of the heaviest organisms on earth. The Trembling Giant, or Pando, in the Fishlake National Forest, is made up of 47,000 genetically identical trees that share a single root system. It is also old, like really old -- more than 80,000 years old.
  3. The Bonneville Salt Flats comprises 30,000 acres of desolate, densely packed salt pan. The spot’s incredibly flat and smooth terrain makes it a popular destination for speed-seeking land racers. In 1964, a man named Norman Craig Breedlove broke the record for the longest continuous tire skid when he lost control of his jet-powered Spirit of America on the flats. The resulting skid marks stretched for 6 miles.
  4. Utahns eat twice the amount of lime green Jell-O as the rest of the U.S population. A popular way to consume the sweet treat in Utah is to add shredded carrots to the mix.
  5. The location of the first-ever KFC wasn’t in Kentucky, but 1,500 miles west in Salt Lake City, Utah. The iconic fried chicken recipe was first served in the cafe of Colonel Sanders' friend (and Utah native) Leon W. "Pete" Harman. While paying a visit to his friend’s home in Salt Lake City, Sanders was able to convince him to put the chicken on his menu at the Harman Cafe. Harman agreed, and when Sanders returned to Utah a few weeks later he found customers lined up and down the street waiting to taste his product. His success at the Utah location inspired him to continue licensing his chicken recipe to restaurants across the country.
  6. Utah’s Arches National Park is known for containing more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches. In the past, hikers who have discovered undocumented arches have been given the honor of getting to name them.
  7. It’s illegal to modify the weather in Utah -- at least without a permit. The Utah Administrative Code defines weather modification, or “cloud seeding" as, “all acts undertaken to artificially distribute or create nuclei in cloud masses for the purposes of altering precipitation, cloud forms, or other meteorological parameters."
  8. Bryce Canyon is one of five national parks in the state. The most unique feature of the park is its sprawling forests of Hoodoos, or thin pillars of rock shaped by years of erosion. Nineteenth-century Mormon pioneer Ebenezer Bryce, for whom the park is named, apparently described it as "a hell of a place to lose a cow."
  9. The Utahraptor, one of the largest raptors ever known to exist, was discovered in Utah and named after the state. At around 18 feet long, it would have more closely resembled the raptors depicted in  "Jurassic Park"  than its measly cousin the Velociraptor. It was almost named after the movie’s director, but the paleontologist who discovered it was unsuccessful when he proposed the idea to Spielberg in exchange for fieldwork funds.
  10. The official state cooking vessel of Utah is the Dutch oven. Like the ax and the rifle, these cast iron cooking pots would have been considered precious necessities by westbound pioneers coming to the state in the 19th century. Utah recognized the Dutch oven as an official state symbol in 1997.