Utah, Then and Now (Mostly Now, Almost 2021)

 

Intro

    I wanted to write about the make up and people of Utah, because I feel like I myself would like to get a better grasp of it (knowing a region, state, or population in any part of the world is worthwhile, really) and to possibly help others know more about what this state is and is not.

 

    I have personal interests in the composition and identity of the state of Utah and areas of it, which I will explain. Because of my personal and family religious affiliation and loyalties, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been and likely always will be part of who I am and what I aspire to. The Church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, and has dominated its modern history as a force and mover of the population. I lived in the state for over a period of five years, I have friends and family in it, my religious leaders and co-members live there and look to it and them as a source of reference and guidance, as a base for the past, present, and future. It is the stronghold of my faith and much of my hopes and dreams.

    Through the Church and its people and vision (perspectives and trajectories), the prosperity, influence, and reach of its members, I believe Utah is part and parcel to the Church of Jesus Christ's successes and failures not only in the United State but worldwide, and this is no small thing.

    Anyway, my interests in this matter are not all simply in the members or presence and future of my faith and where its stronghold is, or even just population trends in my own country, but I am extremely interested in demographics of all peoples, and how things change over time. I would like to break down Kunduz Province of Afghanistan or Rajasthan State of India, or Shandong State (Province?) or China, or all of China, Indonesia, Nigeria, or Brazil, etcetera.

 

Further Explanation and Context 

    Some of the things going through my mind at the end of the 2020 pandemic year, probably not unlike many others, is the deeper thoughts of the United States or other environments with accusations and debates of systemic racism, white supremacy, financial inequalities, police brutality, misuse or abuse of law enforcement powers and its policies, and things that many celebrities and common folk have clamored to change.

    Also, while spending much more time at home quarantined and teleworking most of this year, I became more connected and aware of social media and streaming than ever before. I began watching one feature on FaceBook called Dry Bar comedy, which features comedians who go to Provo, Utah, where the comedy acts that they share (and I believe pays good money) is clean for the most part.  This brings into question culture in the sense that even though it seems that most successful comedians have a dirty part to their acts, there are times, places, and even cultures where it needs to be clean, rid of the the overtly sexual or profane language that becomes the norm, especially in 2020. (For younger audiences, there still were dirty routines and language used 50 or more used ago. George Carlin and Richard Pryor were big in the seventies, and I know there were blue comics before them).

    So, to many across the comedy scene, and a few others in the United States and elsewhere, like Hollywood, who has fought CleanFlix and other Utah-driven businesses that edit the rot and filth out of many other-wise entertaining films, know that the demand of this people is pushing a cleaner content, a more wholesome supply. This is very interesting to see how some of the comics, some or most of differing backgrounds, choose to approach their routines in Provo. Some engage in a little of the local culture, which means they either know about some of the cultural climate of Provo and the main faith, or they choose to have some fun with it. Some have reacted in new ways, like a Mennonite who announced that he was going to talk about his baptism as a youth and the crowd applauded. He responded with some incredulity that he had never gotten such a celebratory response before. Utahns, for the most part, like baptism. Of course you can find plenty that think it is an empty covenant, or others that condemn it for being coercive...

    But this post is not about beliefs and less actives and anti-Mormons, this is about demographics according to the sources which I will share. Much of it has to do with Utah's "whiteness" and the changes with that over time. I have friends or associates of color remark that watching Utah Jazz games seemed too white to them, which is a valid impression, if that is their perspective and feeling.

Statistics and Figures

    First of all, Utah has grown in population a lot more than many other states over the course of the last few decades. Part of that is because it has a higher birth rate than many other states, but I think the bigger reason is that the work and job market has been excellent, by and large. I worked there for a few years in the 1990s; I was always observing dynamic businesses and industries blooming, which has continued in the last 20 plus years.

    In terms of population growth rate since 1950: it has been 29.3 percent in the decade of Eisenhower, 18.9 percent in the time of the Vietnam War era, 37.9 percent in the decade of Nixon to Carter, 17.9 percent in the decade of Reagan, a large 29.6 percent in the 90s of Clinton, a whopping 23.8 n the 2000s of Bush, and an as to be determined percentage in the last decade, but estimated to be around 16 percent. This is still large and fast growth.

    Utah is now at 3.2 million residents, which is substantial, surpassing many older traditional states that were part of the Civil War and have been states for 8 or 9 decades longer than Utah. Noted that Utah was slower to become a state because of the Church and polygamy issue before and after the Civil War. It could have been a state by sheer population at least during the Civil War in the administration of Lincoln. Instead it waited till 1896, when plural marriage was confirmed as ended.

 

    But the babies and missionaries sent kept coming, many attracting some more converts back to Zion, a spiritual magnet to thousands around the world. It was the gathering place for acolytes, and still has its pull for many.

 

    But back to the "whiteness": equations.

    Here is the percentage of the white population in Utah since 1970, skipping 1980, close to when Salt Lake City attracted the Jazz, quite a coup for a smaller market, a smaller city:

1970       97.4 White

 

1990       93.8 white 

2000       89.2 white

2010       86.1 white

    As you can see by the consistent downward trend, like much of the rest of the United States, the white population has diminished. If trends continue in Utah as seen above the 2020 census would show white populations in the low 80 percentile. What has accounted for the change in biggest numbers?

    Despite the lack of the numbers by decade from the same graph as above, it has to be Latinos, who made up 13 percent in 2010, according to the U.S. census, and likely higher in 2020.

    Asians have increased over this time in Utah:

1970     0.6 percent Asian

1990     1.9 percent Asian

2000     1.7 percent Asian

2010     2.0 percent Asian

    Members of the Church of Jesus Christ have grown in many parts of Asia, to include Japan, South Korea, and most robustly in the Philippines. Even Burmese have been congregating in Utah, plus Vietnamese, some of whom I worked with in 1997 in Pleasant Grove, of Utah County. Some of the converts wind up moving to Utah, which is a religious, spiritual, sometimes academic, or cultural trend.  Other  Asians, to include Indians or other South Asians, may have nothing to do with the Church but come for work, the American way. Two percent in 2010, which has likely risen since then, for an Inter-Mountain West state, is relatively high, I would wager.

     The number of African-Americans, while small per national average, has grown steadily:

1970      0.6 percent African-American

 

1990      0.7 percent African-American

2000      0.8 percent African-American

2010      1.0 percent African-American

    I presume that the percentage of African-Americans has risen in Utah in the last ten years, so perhaps it will be closer to 1.5 percent in 2020. The LDS Church has permitted Blacks/African-Americans the priesthood since 1978. Numbers in the U.S. and more so externally have grown ever since as far as the people of the majority religion of Utah. Both American Blacks and international Black people would be attracted to living in Utah, despite some perceptions of past or even current racism. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 displaced many African-Americans from New Orleans; some made their way to the Beehive State; some never left. Some athletes who lived in Utah through BYU, the University of Utah, other schools like Utah State or Weber State, or the aforementioned Utah Jazz, have been exposed to the doctrine, practice, culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and either liked Utah or the faith itself and joined, or never left. Some African-American converts have emigrated to Utah, while some unrelated Black people have come for work, as has been the trend overall. 

 

    It is less than 10 percent the national average, but there are many states in the more rural West that have relatively sparse numbers of African-Americans, but those numbers are changing.

Native

1970      1.1 percent Native American

1990      1.4 percent Native American

2000      1.3 percent Native American

2010      1.2 percent Native American

     The one percent that rose from 1970 to 1990 might have been an aberration, or perhaps the Native American presence has steadily grown but the external and internal factors of others have out paced them.

    Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander is a significant part of the whole faith of the Church, and the state of Utah

1970     N/A

 

1990     N/A

 

2000     0.9 percent 

2010     0.9 percent 

    While that number, 0.9, seems low and even lower than the other minorities listed in Utah as of 2010, the Hawaiian and Polynesian have has a big influence on the Church of Jesus Christ as far as those that have converted in the islands of the South Pacific and those that have immigrated here, mostly to Western states and urban areas. It will be interesting to see what the 2020 census will bring.

    The "Other" race is very interesting as of late in the world altogether, which is substantial; except for the Latino or Hispanic count of 13 percent of recent times (estimated 2019 for Utah), a significant number of Utahns are counted as "Other". Does this mean Arabs, Indians, Persians, or some other combination of people who do not identify with the common labels? Could it be people who do not want to identify with anything?

Other race:

1970     0.2 percent

 

1990     2.2 percent

2000     4.2 percent

2010     6.0 percent

    Mixed race comes last, but not least, which is a newer but perhaps very accurate way of counting people. The United States has become a melting pot to so many people of mixed ancestry; it has occurred around the globe increasingly. Is Tiger Woods only African-American ? No. Is Barach Obama only Black? No. Me, being of white ethnic background, American, do not wish to proclaim upon others what their identity is or has to be, if there are fixed rules, but those who acknowledge their mixed-race heritage deserve every right to do so. We are not monolithic in our ethnic heritages.

1970      N/A

1990      N/A

2000      2.1 percent

2010      2.7 percent

    This trend will continue to grow as time goes on. People of different cultures, religions, nationalities, and races will continue to match up and marry. Their children will increasingly be more diverse and mixed: not only white, or Black, or Asian, etcetera.

Summary

    While some visiting comedians and others around the country and world, even to include native Utahns, may continue to cast Utah as "lily white" (a description that has somewhat bothered or at times offended me over the years, for any white dominated population, or a even a pale complected person), hopefully we can see from the data that Utah is currently diverse and is trending to be more so. 

    The percentage of Church of Jesus Christ members is lower than ever, while the population in Utah is higher than ever, with around 60 percent Latter-day Saints, which means about forty percent of Utah is non-Mormon, not members or affiliated with the majority religion. There are parts of Salt Lake City where the majority religion is the minority. Also, of note, within the 60 percent membership in Utah,  approximately a third of them that do not follow or tithe in the faith actively. Many of them participate in "normal" worldly activities that the Church advocates against, like smoking, drinking, and other pursuits that active or proscribed Latter-day Saints do not follow. That includes Sunday activity in purchasing and recreation. Although, not to be dismissed, there are plenty of active Mormons who participate in many of those things while very committed and active to the faith.

    The point of analyzing or scrutinizing this data is to show that while stereotypes and generalizations may be thrown around, there are obvious differences than what many would want us to believe. I wanted to understand the greater picture for myself and I was glad to look at it a little more in depth and comparison, and now have some more awareness.

    In 2020 it is safe to say that Utah is diverse racially and culturally and will continue to be so in the undetermined future.