Iron County · County profile
Iron County, Utah
I am Scott Buehler, a Southern Utah resident of more than twenty years, licensed in real estate and lending, and this is the Iron County read from the inside. The county is the high country of Southern Utah, a mountain valley where Cedar City carries the market, Parowan holds the county offices, and a ski town sits up on the plateau above both. Here is what the place costs, how it moves, what the elevation and the seasons do to daily life, and what there is to do across all seven towns.
Iron County is a high-desert mountain valley strung along I-15 between the Wasatch Front and the St. George corner, with the Markagunt Plateau rising along its east edge. Cedar City is the big town at the south end and the market center; Parowan, the courthouse town, sits to the north; with Enoch, Summit, Kanarraville, and Paragonah strung along the freeway near them, and Brian Head up on the plateau above them. About 67,141 people live here across ~3,297 sq mi, and nearly all of the housing sits in that narrow freeway corridor, because most of the county is federal land, ranch ground, and mountain. The towns sit close enough that the county reads as one place, and the best of what it offers, from the university to the ski slopes, is a short drive from any of them.
The fact that explains the rest is elevation, and it is the thing that sets Iron County apart from the rest of Southern Utah. The valley floor sits at ~6,000 ft, mountain valley, high enough to give the county a true four-season year instead of the mild winters its neighbors to the southwest enjoy: cold, snowy winters with January lows ~14 °F, July afternoons that still reach ~88 °F, and nights that cool off the way a high valley does. That altitude is why the county has a ski resort where St. George has a golf season, and it reaches into nearly every home-buying decision here, from how the house handles snow to whether the mountain is a short errand or a planned day.
This page is the county in one place: the at-a-glance table, the towns largest first, what a budget buys in the valley and up on the mountain, how the county moves, the ranked things to do in all seven towns, and how Iron County stacks up against its neighbors. I write it in my own voice for a reason, because this is my home market rather than a referral: I live in Cedar City, I work Southern Utah as both an agent and a lender, and when you are ready to see the towns in person, I am the one who will take you around.
In one line
The high country of Southern Utah: Cedar City's university, a ski mountain, and small towns on I-15
At a glance
Iron County at a glance
The same thirty facts every county page on this site carries, so any two counties can be set side by side without a number changing between pages. Open any matchup in the Compare section to see them in two columns.
County offices in: Parowan · Land area: ~3,297 sq mi · Density: ~20 per sq mi
- Population
- 67,141
- #8 of 29 counties
- Growth since 2020
- +17.2%
- 9,869 people · 2026 outlook 69,115
- Median home value
- ~$379,000
- #13 of 20 profiled
- Household income
- ~$66,200
- #18 of 20 profiled
- Property tax
- ~0.42%
- effective, primary home
- Sales tax
- ~6.75%
- combined, at the seat
Climate and land ~6,000 ft, mountain valley
Four seasons, cold snowy winters, cool nights. ~40 to 50 inches of snow a year at the seat. ~300 sunny days a year.
Getting around
- Interstates
- I-15
- Transit
- CATS city bus (Cedar City); no rail
- Airport
- Cedar City Regional Airport (CDC), limited commercial service; SLC ~3.5 hr
- Drive to SLC
- ~3.5 hr from Parowan
Outdoors
- Ski areas
- Brian Head Resort
- State parks
- Frontier Homestead State Park (Cedar City)
- National parks
- Cedar Breaks National Monument ~40 min; Bryce Canyon ~1.5 hr
Schools
- Districts
- Iron County School District
- Colleges
- Southern Utah University, Southwest Technical College
Health and work
- Hospitals
- Cedar City Hospital (Intermountain)
- Largest employers
- Southern Utah University, Iron County School District, Intermountain Health, Walmart
On MovingUtah
Everything this site holds for the county, one level down.
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 in the town that holds the county offices, 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.
Where the people are
A university in Cedar City, a courthouse town, and the small towns on I-15 between them
The seat and the biggest towns
Cedar City is the largest town and the market center, and it is the natural place to start any Iron County search, because it holds most of what makes the county work: Southern Utah University at its core, the county's main hospital, its airport, and the largest share of its jobs and shopping. The county offices are actually in Parowan, a smaller town about twenty minutes north on the freeway that carries the county government but not the market. That split, seat in one town and center in another, is the first thing to understand about Iron County, and it is why both towns show up throughout this page.
Between and around those two, the county sorts into a few clear kinds of place. Enoch sits on Cedar City's north side and has taken much of the newer construction, with neighborhoods spreading across the flat between the two bigger towns. Summit is a small freeway town on the road north and Kanarraville sits just south of Cedar City, each with a handful of homes and open ground around them, and Paragonah is the quiet farming town on the far side of the seat. Up on the plateau to the east, Brian Head is the county's mountain town, a ski resort built at the base of its own peak rather than a commuting suburb, and it carries a genuinely different market from the valley.
Seven towns, but not seven markets. The valley reads as one continuous community along I-15, with Cedar City providing the jobs, the hospital, and the university while the towns around it absorb the housing; you can live in Parowan and work in Cedar City without thinking twice about the drive. Brian Head runs on its own economy of snow, summer visitors, and mountain property. What binds the county together is the school district, which serves all seven towns, the county government in Parowan, and the honest truth that most daily errands in any of these towns eventually point at Cedar City.
Every city guide in the county
Each of the seven towns has a full guide on this site: what the place is like, what it costs, its current listings, its price pages, and its communities. Largest first.
| School district | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cedar City | ~41,900 | $458,000 | ~0.42% effective | ~5,846 ft | Iron County School District |
| Enoch | ~8,850 | ~$386,200 | ~0.42% effective | ~5,500 ft | Iron County School District |
| Parowan | ~3,280 | ~$343,400 | ~0.42% effective | ~6,000 ft | Iron County School District |
| Paragonah | ~578 | ~$244,800 | ~0.42% effective | ~5,900 ft | Iron County SD (Parowan schools) |
| Kanarraville | ~491 | ~$360,000 | ~0.42% effective | ~5,565 ft | Iron County School District |
| Brian Head | ~162 | ~$470,000 | ~0.42% effective | ~9,800 ft | Iron County School District (schools in Parowan) |
| Summit | ~170 | ~0.42% effective | ~6,000 ft | Iron County School District |
Population, value, tax, and elevation figures come from each city's own guide on this site; click a column to sort. Largest city first by default. A blank cell means the town is too small for a reliable published figure.
Before the freeway
Iron ore drew the first settlers here. Church leaders organized the Iron Mission in 1850 to mine and smelt local deposits, the first attempt at ironworks in the Great Basin, and the county itself was created that same year, on January 31, 1850, named for that ore. Parowan was settled in January 1851 as the county's first town, still known as the Mother Town of Southern Utah, and Cedar City followed in November 1851, built where the mission's blast furnace stood and named for junipers the settlers mistook for cedars. The ironworks never turned a profit, so the economy shifted to farming and ranching, with iron mining reviving later once rail reached the district. Cedar City's Branch Normal School, founded in 1897, grew into Southern Utah University, now the county's largest employer alongside tourism at Cedar Breaks and Brian Head.
How the county grows now
- The corridor. Cedar City and Enoch take nearly all of the new building, with the ground along I-15 and between the two towns filling first.
- The mountain. Brian Head keeps a smaller building market of its own up at the ski area, cabins and condominiums rather than daily housing.
- The university. Southern Utah University anchors the south end of Cedar City and keeps the local market moving with its students, its staff, and the visitors its festival season draws.
- The number. A straight line through the 2020 count and the 2025 estimate puts the county near 69,115 in 2026, and that growth stacks into the same narrow corridor, because the county is 58% federal and most of its open ground is public.
New homes, where they still exist
What a budget buys
What a budget buys in the valley and up on the mountain
Home values
The county median sits at ~$379,000, and the useful number is the spread around it. Cedar City carries the main market and spans the widest range, from older homes near the university core to new neighborhoods on its edges, with much of the older valley housing listing under the county line. Enoch, immediately north, holds a large share of the newer stock and lists accordingly. The smallest freeway towns, Kanarraville, Summit, and Paragonah, stay quiet and modest, while Parowan layers historic town homes, newer subdivision edges, and canyon cabins into one market. Brian Head is its own price story entirely, because a cabin at the ski area is a different purchase from a valley home, and the county median does not describe it.
The price pages show the spread town by town. Cedar City under $400K and Cedar City under $500K cover the county's main market, Enoch under $450K and Parowan under $600K show the newer and the northern ends of the valley, and Brian Head under $500K is where the mountain market starts. Every town guide carries its own set of these pages, so the search begins with the town that fits the budget.
The trade in this county is snow and age. Cedar City has genuine older neighborhoods with mature trees and steady new construction on the edges, so a buyer choosing between them is choosing between established ground and a fresh build rather than between two versions of the same thing. Winter changes the housing conversation here: a garage that fits the vehicles and a driveway that faces the afternoon sun matter more than they do in most of Southern Utah, and the county's newer stock is built for that reality. The cost-of-living guide puts the rest of the county's costs in context, and the affordability calculator turns any of these medians into a monthly picture you can plan around.
Taxes in this county
Property tax in Iron County runs ~0.42% effective on a primary home, with a primary residence taxed at 55 percent of its market value under Utah law, and the valley towns land within a few tenths of one another. Brian Head is the exception, because most of what sells there is a second home, and a second home is taxed on 100 percent of its value instead of the 55 percent basis a primary residence gets. The exact figure for any address depends on the town and any recent bonds, so check the county assessor's record before you write an offer rather than trusting a neighbor's bill.
Sales tax at the register runs ~6.75% in the valley towns, a combined state and local rate that shifts only by a few tenths from one city to the next, and it runs higher up in Brian Head, where the resort town levies its own taxes. It is a small part of the monthly story. The bigger numbers are the house itself and the winter heating season, and both vary more by the age of the home and where it sits than by which town it is in, which is why each city guide pairs its place with its own price and tax pages.
Listings, largest markets first
Browse the county by budget
Pick the price range, then the town. Every link is a live price page on this site, and each town's link stays inside the budget you chose.
Getting around
One freeway and two mountain roads, with the towns strung between
Interstates and transit
I-15 is the county's spine, and it does more work here than in most of Utah, because the towns are strung along it rather than spread around it. The freeway enters from the south at the Cedar City end, runs north past Enoch, Summit, and Parowan, and leaves the county beyond Paragonah, carrying the traffic between St. George and the Wasatch Front through the middle of the county's housing. The roads that matter for the county's character run up the Markagunt Plateau on the east: State Route 143 climbs from the Parowan side to Brian Head, and State Route 14 leaves Cedar City and climbs Cedar Canyon toward Cedar Breaks and the high country beyond.
Transit is minimal and honest about it. The Cedar Area Transportation System runs city buses in Cedar City, there is no rail anywhere in the county, and outside those routes the car is the only way to move. That is less of a burden than it sounds, because nearly every town sits on or right off the same freeway and the whole developed valley runs only about half an hour end to end, so a daily drive here is measured in minutes rather than in freeway lanes.
The airport and the drive
The county has its own small airport, Cedar City Regional, with a limited schedule of commercial flights, and it is genuinely convenient for the trips it covers. When the itinerary needs a bigger schedule, the drive north is the trade, and it is the one long drive most residents plan for: Salt Lake City International is ~3.5 hr from Parowan, a straight run up I-15. St. George, about an hour down the same freeway, is where many people point for a day trip, which is how this county manages to feel small and connected at once.
Drive times, off-peak
- Cedar City to Parowan
- About 20 minutes north on I-15.
- Cedar City to Brian Head
- About 45 minutes up the Parowan canyon road.
- Cedar City to Cedar Breaks National Monument
- About 40 minutes up SR-14 in season.
- Cedar City to St. George
- About an hour down I-15.
- Parowan to Salt Lake City
- About three and a half hours up I-15.
Things to do
Ski runs in winter, stage plays in summer, that is the Iron County weekend
Every town in Iron County has its own ranked things-to-do list on The Local, gathered below seat first, and the seven read the way the county does. Cedar City's runs the longest and leans on the university, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and the trails and canyons at its edge. Brian Head's is about the mountain in both of its seasons, snow and high-country summer. The small freeway towns, Parowan, Enoch, Kanarraville, Paragonah, and Summit, keep short, true lists of what is actually in each.
Region reads
The county-wide pages that no single town owns.
Everything in Southern Utah on The LocalThe honest read
The honest read is that this is a county of two seasons, and the weekend you get depends on the calendar. Summer belongs to Cedar City, where the Utah Shakespeare Festival runs and the high country above opens, Cedar Breaks National Monument about forty minutes up the mountain, a natural amphitheater that is also a dark-sky park. Winter belongs to Brian Head and its snow, with the valley towns quiet below. What Iron County does not offer is a big-city night, and nobody should move here expecting one; the trade is that the outdoors are deep, the county is 58% federal, and a Saturday can start on the valley floor and end on the rim of a national monument less than an hour later.
The county's year
The events that anchor the calendar here, month by month.
June through October
Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar CityA Tony Award-winning repertory theater on the Southern Utah University campus.
Early September
Iron County Fair in ParowanHeld over Labor Day weekend, with a parade, PRCA rodeo, and demolition derby.
December through March
Ski season at Brian Head ResortThe county's high-elevation ski area, one of Utah's highest.
Schools and services
One district, a university, and a hospital at the center of town
School districts
Iron County School District serves the whole county, a single district covering all seven towns from Cedar City north through Parowan and out to Brian Head, which keeps the school picture simple for someone moving between the county's towns. I do not rate schools, here or anywhere on this site: I name the district, point you to its own published data, and leave the judgment to you. Each town guide links to the schools that town feeds.
| District | Where it runs | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|
| Iron County School District | The whole county | ~14,125 students |
Enrollment: Utah State Board of Education, latest published fall count, rounded. Facts and official links only; I do not rate schools.
Colleges and hospitals
Southern Utah University, Southwest Technical College. Southern Utah University sits in the middle of Cedar City and is the county's largest single presence, a full public university that anchors the town's calendar and its workforce, and Southwest Technical College trains the trades beside it. Medical care centers in the same place: Cedar City Hospital (Intermountain) is the county's hospital, within a short drive of every town in the county. That concentration of campus and hospital in one town is the quiet reason Cedar City is the county's center even though it is not the seat.
The employment base follows the same center. The largest employers, by the state's list, are Southern Utah University, Iron County School District, Intermountain Health, Walmart, and education and healthcare lead the county's payroll, with the university, the school district, the hospital, and the retail around them carrying most of the jobs and construction riding the building cycle underneath. The result is a local economy that leans on steady institutions rather than on one industry, which has kept the county growing through the ups and downs of the wider market.
Guides for this move
- Relocating to Utah, an orientationFor the reader deciding from out of state.
- First-time buyers in Utah
- Retiring to Southern UtahThe cooler, four-season read on this part of the state.
- Moving up to your next homeOften the move from an older core home to a newer build on the valley edges.
- Moving to rural UtahFor the small-town and acreage listings outside the Cedar City market.
Moving here: the county offices
The offices and providers a new Iron County homeowner actually contacts, each linked at its official site.
- County government
- Iron CountyDepartments and county services; county offices are in Parowan.
- Assessor
- Iron County AssessorValues, the primary residence exemption, and parcel lookup.
- Recorder
- Iron County RecorderDeeds, ownership records, and plats.
- Treasurer
- Iron County TreasurerProperty tax billing and payment.
- Driver license and DMV
- Utah DMV office locationsNew residents register vehicles here; offices sit in Cedar City and Parowan.
- Voter registration
- Iron County ClerkElections and voter registration.
- Power
- Rocky Mountain PowerServes Cedar City, Brian Head, and the county's towns; Cedar City runs its own water and wastewater but not electric.
- Natural gas
- Enbridge Gas UtahThe former Dominion Energy Utah.
- Water
- City systems and the Cedar Valley Water Conservancy (formerly the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District)Cedar City and the towns run their own culinary water; the district manages regional supply and recharge.
Compare it
Iron County against its neighbors
The full side-by-side pages built so far for this county. The matchup tool on the county hub builds any other pair, and routes you here if the pair is not built yet.
Monthly market reports
I build monthly market reports for this county's cities by hand on my broker site, with the sold data this page deliberately leaves out.
Any two counties
The county matchup tool
Pick Iron County and any of the other 19 counties in the tool, and the same thirty rows line up side by side.
Build a matchupCity vs city
Compare the county's cities
Cedar City vs St. George, Cedar City vs Hurricane, and the other built pairings that put this county's towns head to head with towns elsewhere.
Compare citiesAlready own here?
What a Iron County home is worth
A value built by hand from real Iron County sales, not an algorithm, and a path to get featured where the county's buyers are already looking.
Start the valuationCommon questions
Iron County, answered
What cities are in Iron County?
Seven have full guides on this site: Cedar City, Enoch, Parowan, Paragonah, Kanarraville, Brian Head, and Summit. Cedar City is the largest town and the market center, where the university, the hospital, and most of the jobs sit; Parowan, about twenty minutes north on I-15, is where the county offices are. The rest spread along the freeway between them, with Brian Head up on the mountain to the east.
Where are the least expensive homes in Iron County?
The low end of the market is Cedar City's older core and the smallest freeway towns, Kanarraville, Summit, and Paragonah, which tend to sit at or below the county figure. Parowan spreads wider, historic town homes at one end and canyon cabins and valley acreage at the other, and new construction in Cedar City and Enoch runs above the county median. Brian Head is priced as a mountain market rather than a commuting one. Each town guide's price pages show what is actually listed today.
Is Iron County still growing?
Yes, steadily. The Census Bureau puts the county at 67,141 in July 2025, up +17.2% from the 2020 count, an addition of 9,869 people in five years. A straight line through those two points puts the county near 69,115 in 2026. The growth shows up as new neighborhoods in Cedar City and Enoch, with Brian Head building a smaller, separate market at the ski area.
What is the weather like in Iron County?
Four real seasons at elevation. The valley towns sit at ~6,000 ft, mountain valley, with cold, snowy winters, January lows ~14 °F, and July afternoons that reach ~88 °F before the high-desert nights cool off. The mountain town of Brian Head sits high above the valley and runs cooler still. That is the difference between Iron County and St. George an hour south: warmer summers, colder winters, and snow where the desert gets none.
What is there to do in Iron County on a weekend?
It depends on the season. Summer weekends center on Cedar City, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and the high country, where Cedar Breaks National Monument is about forty minutes up the mountain and Brian Head runs trails, biking, and cool air. Winter weekends belong to Brian Head Resort for skiing and snowboarding, with the valley towns quiet below. Every one of the county's seven towns has its own ranked things-to-do list on The Local, and all of them are gathered on this page.
Next step
Looking at Iron County? Let's find your valley
Tell me which part of the county has your attention: Cedar City, a small freeway town, or the mountain. Tell me what the budget looks like, and whether the snow is a feature or a problem for you. I live and work here, and I can take you around the valley and up to the plateau to see it for yourself.