Compare Utah counties
Two counties. One honest, side-by-side look.
The county line is where the real decisions live: the property tax bill, the sales tax, the school district map, and the trails that start at the end of the road. Pick any two of Utah's 20 largest counties and see population, growth, home values, commutes, and the ranked things-to-do list for every town in both, on one page.
Popular comparisons
Start with a real matchup.
These are the pairings people actually weigh: the two counties that hold most of the Wasatch Front, the two that share Hill Air Force Base, the two that make up Southern Utah. Each one is a full side-by-side with the same table, the same sources, and a verdict that takes a position.
Not seeing the pair you want? Build any two counties with the matchup tool up top. A pair that is not built yet routes you to the county page instead of a dead end.
The 20 at a glance
Utah's 20 largest counties, ranked.
Utah has 29 counties, and these 20 hold almost everyone in the state. The table is the same one every county page runs on: the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate, how much each county has grown since the 2020 count, where the 2020 to 2025 trend puts it in 2026 if it simply continues, and the county's median home value. Salt Lake County is the anchor of the bar; every other county is drawn against it.
How to read it
- Population is the official Census estimate, unrounded.
- Since 2020 is the change from the April 2020 count. Utah County added more people than the next four counties combined.
- 2026 outlook is a straight line drawn through the 2020 count and the 2025 estimate, one year forward, because the Census Bureau does not project county totals. It is a trend, not a forecast.
- Median home value is the American Community Survey county median, one source for all 20.
| Rank | County | Population | Since 2020 | 2026 outlook | Median home value | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salt Lake CountySeat: Salt Lake City | 1,220,916 | +3.0% | 1,228,052 | ~$525,700 | Salt Lake County |
| 2 | Utah CountySeat: Provo | 759,859 | +15.2% | 779,952 | ~$538,700 | Utah Valley |
| 3 | Davis CountySeat: Farmington | 381,227 | +5.1% | 384,937 | ~$505,500 | Davis County |
| 4 | Weber CountySeat: Ogden | 278,174 | +6.1% | 281,364 | ~$426,700 | Weber & Morgan Counties |
| 5 | Washington CountySeat: St. George | 213,670 | +18.5% | 220,347 | ~$510,700 | Southern Utah |
| 6 | Cache CountySeat: Logan | 145,000 | +8.9% | 147,368 | ~$444,400 | Cache Valley |
| 7 | Tooele CountySeat: Tooele | 87,461 | +20.3% | 90,413 | ~$431,600 | Tooele County |
| 8 | Iron CountySeat: Parowan | 67,141 | +17.2% | 69,115 | ~$379,000 | Southern Utah |
| 9 | Box Elder CountySeat: Brigham City | 65,320 | +13.3% | 66,850 | ~$403,600 | Box Elder County |
| 10 | Summit CountySeat: Coalville | 43,141 | +1.9% | 43,298 | ~$1,067,700 | Wasatch Back |
| 11 | Wasatch CountySeat: Heber City | 38,514 | +10.7% | 39,260 | ~$787,300 | Wasatch Back |
| 12 | Uintah CountySeat: Vernal | 38,278 | +7.5% | 38,811 | ~$298,600 | Eastern Utah |
| 13 | Sanpete CountySeat: Manti | 31,453 | +10.6% | 32,056 | ~$347,200 | Central Utah |
| 14 | Sevier CountySeat: Richfield | 22,827 | +6.1% | 23,091 | ~$311,200 | Central Utah |
| 15 | Duchesne CountySeat: Duchesne | 20,856 | +6.4% | 21,106 | ~$283,700 | Eastern Utah |
| 16 | Carbon CountySeat: Price | 20,680 | +1.3% | 20,733 | ~$228,500 | Eastern Utah |
| 17 | San Juan CountySeat: Monticello | 14,542 | +0.2% | 14,548 | ~$224,200 | Eastern Utah |
| 18 | Millard CountySeat: Fillmore | 14,057 | +8.3% | 14,273 | ~$284,700 | Central Utah |
| 19 | Juab CountySeat: Nephi | 13,567 | +15.2% | 13,924 | ~$425,400 | Central Utah |
| 20 | Morgan CountySeat: Morgan | 13,383 | +8.8% | 13,600 | ~$654,900 | Weber & Morgan Counties |
Population: Census Bureau county population estimates, Vintage 2025 (July 1, 2025). Growth measured from the April 1, 2020 estimates base in the same Census table. 2026 outlook: a straight-line outlook from the 2020 to 2025 Census trend (the Census Bureau does not project county totals). Home values and income: American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year, county medians. Sales tax: Utah State Tax Commission, combined rate at the county seat, first quarter 2026. Federal and private land: Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Utah Land Ownership, July 2025. Figures checked September 2026 and rounded; the population figures are exact.
Compare by region
Utah is several markets, not one.
The 20 counties sort themselves into six groups, and most real decisions happen inside one group. Someone taking a job in Lehi is choosing between Utah County and the south end of Salt Lake County, not between Utah County and Uintah. Someone moving to St. George is weighing Washington County against Iron County, forty minutes up I-15, where the same budget buys more house and four real seasons. The blocks below group the counties the way people actually compare them, with the matchups that exist and a link into The Local for what a weekend looks like in each.
One warning before you start. County lines in Utah do not follow the things people care about. The Wasatch Front is one continuous city from Ogden to Payson that happens to cross four county lines, and the school district you would send a kid to, the commute you would drive, and the canyon you would hike on Saturday all ignore the line. What the line does change is the tax bill, the assessor who values your home, the sales tax at the register, and how much of the county is public land. Those are the things this section is built to show.
Where I fit on the map
I live and work in Southern Utah, so Washington and Iron counties are home ground and I write those pages from the inside. For the other 18, I am the connector: I have spent twenty-plus years in this state, I know the markets, and when you are ready to tour I introduce you to a partner agent who works that county every week and I stay involved through your move. If you work with that agent, their brokerage pays my brokerage a referral fee out of the agent's compensation. It is not an added cost to you, and you are always free to choose your own agent.
Utah at a glance
A lot of state to weigh.
29
counties; these 20 hold nearly everyone
4
county lines inside one Wasatch Front commute
64%
of Utah is federal land; 4% in Morgan, 90% in Garfield
350
miles north to south, the Arizona line to Idaho
The Wasatch Front
Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, and Morgan. Four of the five are one continuous valley city along I-15 and the FrontRunner line; Morgan is the small county over the ridge behind Ogden that commutes in. Salt Lake County has the airport, the rail, and the biggest employers. Utah County has the growth. Davis and Weber share Hill Air Force Base and the lake shore.
Built matchups: Salt Lake County vs Utah County
Things to do: Salt Lake County Utah Valley Davis County Weber and Morgan
Southern Utah
Washington and Iron, my home ground. Washington County is the warm low desert around St. George with Zion at the back door and one of the fastest growth rates in the state. Iron County sits three thousand feet higher around Cedar City and Parowan, with four seasons, a university, and a lower median home value. Forty minutes apart, and they could not feel more different.
Things to do: Southern Utah on The Local
The northern valleys
Cache, Box Elder, and Tooele. Cache Valley is the university town of Logan and a ring of farm towns in a valley that runs into Idaho. Box Elder is Brigham City, the fruit stands along the old highway, and the bay of the Great Salt Lake. Tooele is over the Oquirrh Mountains from the Salt Lake Valley, a huge county that is mostly federal land with a fast-growing string of towns along its east edge.
Things to do: Cache Valley Box Elder County Tooele County
The Wasatch Back
Summit and Wasatch, the two counties over the mountains from Salt Lake. Summit is Park City's county, with the highest median home value in the state and a county seat, Coalville, that most visitors never see. Wasatch is Heber City and Midway in the valley below Jordanelle, growing fast as the spillover from both Park City and Provo Canyon.
Things to do: The Wasatch Back on The Local
Central Utah
Sanpete, Sevier, Millard, and Juab. Farm valleys and small county seats an hour or two south of Provo: Manti and Ephraim, Richfield, Fillmore and Delta, Nephi. These are the counties where the median home value drops well under the Wasatch Front and where most of the land is public. Juab, at the north end, is starting to catch commuters from Utah County.
Things to do: Central Utah on The Local
Eastern Utah
Uintah, Duchesne, Carbon, and San Juan. The Uinta Basin counties, Uintah and Duchesne, run on energy and ranching around Vernal and Roosevelt. Carbon is Price and Helper, the old coal county in the canyon on US-6. San Juan is the biggest county in the state by land and the emptiest, with Monticello, Blanding, and a quarter of its land under tribal government.
Things to do: Eastern Utah on The Local
Why compare counties
What the county line actually changes.
Cities get the attention, but four things that touch your money and your weekends are set at the county level.
Property tax and the assessor
Your home is valued by the county assessor, and the certified rate is a stack of county, city, district, and special-service levies. Utah taxes a primary residence on 55 percent of its value, so two counties with different levies can still land close together. The table on every pair page shows the effective rate at each seat.
School district boundaries
Some counties are one district, some are five, and a few district lines cross county lines. The pair pages name every district in both counties and link the city guides where the boundaries fall. No ratings, ever: state the district, link the facts, and let you decide.
Sales tax and county services
The combined sales tax at the register is a state rate plus county and city pieces, and it ranges by more than a full point across these 20 counties. The county also runs the recorder, the health department, and the library system you will actually use.
Where the public land starts
Federal land runs from 4 percent of Morgan County to 90 percent of Garfield. That share decides where trails start, where a subdivision can be built, and how far the town can spread. Every county page shows the federal and private shares side by side.
How it works
Same questions, asked of every county.
What the pages weigh
Every pair page runs the same thirty rows: population and growth, land and elevation, home values and taxes, districts and hospitals, transit and the drive to the airport, parks and ski areas. Then it goes deeper on the five things that decide a county choice: cost, growth, climate, what there is to do, and the services you will lean on.
Sourced and dated
Population is the Census Bureau's own estimate. Home values and income are the American Community Survey county medians, the one published index used for all 20 so the counties can actually be compared. Tax rates come from the Utah State Tax Commission, land shares from the Gardner Institute's inventory. Every table carries its vintage and the month it was checked.
A balanced verdict
No county is ranked as a better place to live. Each page ends with a "lean this way if" for both sides, framed by budget, climate, commute, land, and the kind of place you want to walk out into. Then the ranked things-to-do lists from The Local show you what a Saturday looks like in every town in both counties.
Keep going
More ways to weigh the state.
A county is the first cut. These are the pages that take you from a county to a city, from a city to a budget, and from a budget to a weekend.
City vs city
Compare Utah cities
Once the county is settled, put two towns head to head: price, climate, size, schools, and commute, 250-plus pairings built out.
Compare citiesBy budget
The real cost of living in Utah, by region
Housing is the line that moves. This guide shows how far the same money goes from the Wasatch Front to the red rock.
Read the guideThings to do
The Local: every town, ranked
One hundred thirty-eight towns, each with a ranked things-to-do list and the reads a local would hand you. The county pages pull from here.
Open The LocalRun the numbers
Utah home affordability calculator
Turn a county's median into a budget you can actually shop with. Ten more calculators sit next to it, from rent-versus-buy to a seller net sheet.
Open the calculatorsFrom out of state
Moving to Utah: the relocation guide
The whole move in order: choosing the region, timing the market, licensing, registration, and the first year on the ground.
Read the guideCity directory
All 138 cities, by region
Every city guide on the site, grouped the same way the counties are here, each with its listings, price pages, and communities.
Browse the citiesTalk it through
Still torn between two counties?
Tell me the two you are weighing and what matters most: the commute, the budget, the seasons, or the trailhead. I will give you the honest read, and if you are ready to tour, I will connect you with the partner agent who works that county every week.
If you buy or sell outside Southern Utah, I connect you with a trusted local partner agent and stay involved through your move. If you work with that agent, their brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. It comes out of the agent's compensation, not as an added cost to you, and you are always free to choose your own agent.
Common questions
Comparing Utah counties, answered.
Which is the largest county in Utah by population?
Salt Lake County, with 1,220,916 people in the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate, more than a third of the state. Utah County is second at 759,859, and it is the one adding people fastest: +15.2% since the 2020 count, against +3.0% for Salt Lake. Davis, Weber, and Washington round out the top five.
Which of the 20 counties is the least expensive to buy a home in?
By the American Community Survey county median, San Juan and Carbon counties sit lowest, both under a quarter of a million, with Duchesne, Millard, and Uintah close behind. The trade is distance: those are two to four hours from the Wasatch Front, with smaller job markets and fewer services. Among the counties inside a Wasatch Front commute, Weber and Tooele carry the lowest medians. The ranking table above shows every county's figure.
Does the county I buy in change my property tax?
Yes, though less than people expect. Utah taxes a primary residence on 55 percent of its market value, and the rate is a stack of county, city, school district, and special-service levies certified each year. Two homes of the same value in different counties usually land within a few tenths of a percent of each other, but a city or district with a big bond can push one higher. The pair pages show the effective rate at each county seat, and the county assessor's site shows the exact rate for any address.
Why only 20 of Utah's 29 counties?
These 20 are every county with more than about 13,000 people, and together they hold nearly the whole state. The other nine, from Emery and Grand down to Daggett, have fewer homes for sale in a year than one Salt Lake County suburb, so a county-level comparison would rest on a handful of sales. Their towns are still covered: Moab, Kanab, Beaver, Panguitch, and Huntington each have a full city guide and a things-to-do list on The Local.
Where do the things-to-do lists come from?
From The Local, the part of this site that covers every one of the 138 towns as a place rather than a listing. Each town has a ranked list, researched and written for that town, and the county pages gather those lists by county so you can see the whole weekend bench in one place. The counts in the tables are the number of ranked lists, not a score.