Washington County · County profile
Washington County, Utah
I am Scott Buehler, a Southern Utah resident of twenty-plus years, licensed in real estate and lending, and this is the Washington County read from the inside. It is Utah's warm pocket, a low-desert basin of red rock and irrigated green around St. George, and it has grown +18.5% since the 2020 census. Here is what it costs to live here, how the county moves, and what a Saturday looks like in all seventeen towns.
Washington County is the corner of Utah where the desert wins. The high plateaus and mountain valleys that cover most of the state give way here to a low red-rock basin, and the towns sit on the valley floor and along the canyon bottoms instead of up on benches above them. St. George, the seat and the largest town, anchors the county at ~2,860 ft, low desert, with the Pine Valley Mountains rising to the north and the sandstone country of Zion National Park on the east. The county holds 213,670 people across ~2,426 sq mi, but most of that ground is open desert, canyon, and public land rather than town, which is exactly why the place still feels wild ten minutes past the last stoplight.
The fact that explains the rest is the winter. January nights at the seat run ~30 °F, the days warm well above freezing, and this is the one part of Utah where the cold season is genuinely mild. The downside is the summer, when afternoons run ~102 °F and the pavement radiates until well after dark. That mild winter is the county's calling card, and the growth numbers show it works: +18.5% since the 2020 count, 33,386 people in five years. The building has followed the people out from St. George along the interstate and up the canyon roads, which is how the county gets its shape: one growing hub and a ring of towns at the mouths of the valleys.
This page is the county in one place: the at-a-glance table, the cities and towns largest first, what a budget buys in each part of the basin, how the county moves, and the ranked things-to-do list for all seventeen towns, from St. George's twelve down to the honest handful the smallest can support. It is written in the first person for a reason, because I am the local agent here, not a referral from somewhere else. I have lived in Southern Utah for more than twenty years, and when you are ready to tour these towns I can take you around myself.
In one line
Utah's warm corner, where the market splits between the hub and the canyons
At a glance
Washington 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: St. George · Land area: ~2,426 sq mi · Density: ~88 per sq mi
- Population
- 213,670
- #5 of 29 counties
- Growth since 2020
- +18.5%
- 33,386 people · 2026 outlook 220,347
- Median home value
- ~$510,700
- #6 of 20 profiled
- Household income
- ~$80,600
- #12 of 20 profiled
- Property tax
- ~0.37%
- effective, primary home
- Sales tax
- ~6.75%
- combined, at the seat
Climate and land ~2,860 ft, low desert
Hot summers, mild winters, low desert. ~1 inch of snow a year at the seat. ~300 sunny days a year at the seat.
Getting around
- Interstates
- I-15
- Transit
- SunTran city bus (St. George); no rail
- Airport
- St. George Regional Airport (SGU), commercial service; Las Vegas ~2 hr
- Drive to SLC
- ~4.5 hr from St. George
Outdoors
- Ski areas
- None
- State parks
- Snow Canyon State Park, Sand Hollow State Park, Quail Creek State Park, Gunlock State Park
- National parks
- Zion National Park ~50 min
Schools
- Districts
- Washington County School District
- Colleges
- Utah Tech University, Dixie Technical College
Health and work
- Hospitals
- St. George Regional Hospital (Intermountain)
- Largest employers
- Intermountain Health, Washington County School District, SkyWest Airlines, Utah Tech University, 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
One hub city and sixteen towns in a red-rock basin
The seat and the biggest towns
St. George is both the seat and the largest town, which keeps the county simpler than most of Utah: the government, the hospital, the university, the airport, and the biggest share of the jobs all sit in the same city. The town grew up along the Virgin River and its red-bluff canyon, with an older walkable core downtown, mature neighborhoods to the east, and newer ground climbing the benches on every side. It is the county's market center, and most of what happens in Washington County happens within a short drive of it.
Ring St. George and the rest of the county sorts by geography. Washington City crowds the north side of the hub and is the second-largest town in the county; Santa Clara and Ivins sit to the northwest, with Snow Canyon State Park beginning at their north edge. East along the Virgin River, Hurricane and La Verkin make up the county's second market, and from La Verkin the canyon road climbs past Virgin, Rockville, and Springdale to the south entrance of Zion. Leeds and Toquerville sit on the road and the interstate between the two markets. The smaller towns spread out from there: Apple Valley on the bench, Dammeron Valley and Veyo on the road toward the Pine Valley Mountains, Pine Valley up in the pines, Enterprise out on the northwestern plateau, and New Harmony north on the interstate.
Those seventeen towns answer to one county government and, for the most part, one school district, but they do not act like one market. St. George, Washington City, Santa Clara, and Ivins have grown together into a continuous developed basin, and that basin is the county's main market. Hurricane and La Verkin run as their own smaller market to the east, closer to the Zion traffic but a real drive from St. George's jobs. The canyon towns beyond La Verkin, Springdale and Rockville above all, sit in a different economy that runs on the park rather than the city, and the high towns to the north stay quiet in a way the basin towns do not.
Every city guide in the county
Each of the seventeen has a full guide on this site: what the town is like, what it costs, its current listings, its price pages, and its communities.
| School district | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. George | ~108,700 | $589,990 | ~0.37% effective | ~2,860 ft | Washington County School District |
| Washington | ~37,100 | $589,025 | ~0.37% effective | ~2,800 ft | Washington County School District |
| Hurricane | ~25,700 | $580,500 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,250 ft | Washington County School District |
| Ivins | ~11,500 | $721,500 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,156 ft | Washington County School District |
| Santa Clara | ~8,720 | $656,995 | ~0.37% effective | ~2,738 ft | Washington County School District |
| La Verkin | ~4,520 | ~$393,300 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,200 ft | Washington County School District |
| Toquerville | ~2,000 | ~$563,200 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,400 ft | Washington County School District |
| Enterprise | ~2,440 | ~$378,300 | ~0.37% effective | ~5,400 ft | Washington County School District |
| Springdale | ~602 | ~$867,300 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,900 ft | Washington County School District |
| Leeds | ~857 | ~$480,600 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,500 ft | Washington County School District (no school in town) |
| Apple Valley | ~951 | ~$457,800 | ~0.37% effective | ~4,770 ft | Washington County School District (schools in Hurricane) |
| Dammeron Valley | ~871 | ~$821,100 | ~0.37% effective | ~4,600 ft | Washington County School District (no school in the valley) |
| Veyo | ~586 | ~0.37% effective | ~4,485 ft | Washington County School District (no school in town) | |
| Virgin | ~714 | ~$585,900 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,500 ft | Washington County School District (no school in town) |
| New Harmony | ~250 | ~$579,900 | ~0.37% effective | ~5,300 ft | Washington County School District |
| Pine Valley | ~249 | ~$600,000 | ~0.37% effective | ~6,535 ft | Washington County School District (no school in town) |
| Rockville | ~225 | ~$490,000 | ~0.37% effective | ~3,750 ft | Washington County School District (no school in town) |
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
Washington County was created by Utah's territorial legislature on March 3, 1852, and named for George Washington. In 1861, several hundred families were called south on what they named the Cotton Mission, sent to the warm Virgin River valley to grow cotton and other crops the northern settlements could not. St. George was settled that same year and became the home of the county offices, the center of the area still called Utah's Dixie, while Santa Clara, Washington, Toquerville, and Rockville filled in around it through the 1850s and 1860s. Zion Canyon became a national monument in 1909 and a national park in 1919, and its visitors now support much of the local economy. Interstate 15 and mild winters have since made this one of Utah's fastest growing regions, which is why new rooftops keep climbing the benches above the old Dixie towns.
How the county grows now
- The hub. St. George keeps taking the largest share of the growth, filling its buildable benches while older blocks redevelop around the core.
- The second ring. Washington City, Santa Clara, Ivins, and Hurricane each grow on their own now, with new neighborhoods and their own new-construction pages on this site.
- The number. A straight line through the 2020 count and the 2025 estimate puts the county near 220,347 in 2026, a pace that keeps the pressure on the basin's buildable ground.
- The constraint. The county is 75% federal, so the growth stacks into the same low basins instead of fanning out across open country.
New homes, where they still exist
What a budget buys
What a budget buys in the basin and up the canyons
Home values
The county-wide median sits at ~$510,700, and like most county medians it hides the spread that matters. The basin towns, St. George and the ring of Washington City, Santa Clara, and Ivins that have grown around it, carry the weight of the market and the widest range of prices, from older core homes to new neighborhoods on the benches. Up the canyons and on the higher ground the market thins out and the price picture tilts: the towns closest to Snow Canyon and Zion tend toward higher values and larger lots, while Hurricane, La Verkin, and the smaller towns to the east and north hold the county's more approachable ground.
The price pages show the spread town by town, and they read differently from the county median. St. George under $500K captures the hub's mid market, Washington City under $550K and Hurricane under $450K show what the second ring lists, and Ivins under $700K and Springdale over $1.25M mark the up-canyon ground. Every town guide carries its own set of these pages, so the search starts with the town that fits the budget rather than the other way around.
The house that makes sense here is built for the heat. Single-story plans and townhomes cover much of the newer ground, and covered patios and pools show up on listings here far more than on the Wasatch Front, so the single-story and townhomes pages are worth reading before you compare square footage with what you know from colder markets. Much of the county's stock is young, which is its own trade-off: newer mechanicals and finishes, but less of the deep shade and mature trees that an older town can offer. 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 Washington County runs ~0.37% effective on a primary home, because Utah taxes a primary residence on 55 percent of its market value, and most of the county's cities land within a few tenths of the seat's rate. Newer areas that carry their own special-service districts can sit a little higher. The exact figure for an address depends on the city, the district, 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 St. George, the county's combined state and local rate, and it shifts by a few tenths from one town to the next depending on the local options each city has chosen. It is a modest part of the monthly cost story. The bigger numbers are the house itself and the summer cooling bill in this climate, and both vary more by neighborhood than by town, which is why each city guide pairs its place with its own price and tax pages.
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
A county on one interstate, with everything else a short drive away
Interstates and transit
I-15 is the county's spine, and nearly everything else hangs off it. The freeway runs from the Virgin River gorge at the Arizona line in the south, past St. George and Washington City, and climbs north toward Cedar City and the rest of the state; most of the county's towns sit on it or a short drive from an exit. The important two-lane road heads east from the freeway at Hurricane, follows the Virgin River past La Verkin, and climbs the canyon to the Zion entrance at Springdale. Another road runs northwest through Santa Clara and Ivins to Snow Canyon and the higher towns beyond. Off those two forks the county turns quiet, open desert and mountain.
Transit is thin, and nobody should move here expecting to park the car. SunTran runs city buses through St. George and the towns immediately around it, and there is no rail and no county-wide transit, so the car is the way people get around. That is a smaller burden than it sounds, because the whole developed basin is compact, the canyon towns are self-contained, and most commutes are short. The real variable is the visitor traffic, especially in the spring and fall when the park crowds spill through Hurricane and onto the canyon road.
The airport and the drive
The local field, St. George Regional Airport, has scheduled commercial service to a handful of western cities, and it is genuinely convenient when the schedule lines up. SkyWest, one of the largest regional airlines in the country, keeps its headquarters in St. George, which is one reason the local field holds a daily schedule at all. When the list of flights does not fit the trip, the two big-airport choices are long drives: Las Vegas is about two hours down I-15, and Salt Lake City is ~4.5 hr from St. George. That is the honest trade for living at the warm end of the state. Most people here treat the Las Vegas run as the practical way in and plan around it, because a wider flight list makes the drive worth it.
Drive times, off-peak
- St. George to Hurricane
- About 25 minutes on I-15.
- St. George to Springdale and Zion
- About 50 minutes up the canyon road through Hurricane and La Verkin.
- St. George to Snow Canyon State Park
- About 15 minutes north through Santa Clara and Ivins.
- St. George to Las Vegas
- About 2 hours down I-15.
- St. George to Salt Lake City
- About four and a half hours up I-15.
Things to do
The warm corner's weekend, ranked one town at a time
Every town in Washington County has its own ranked things-to-do list on The Local, written for that town rather than copied from its neighbor, and all seventeen are gathered on this page. St. George's runs twelve deep, and the rest are the honest length of what each place actually holds, which is the part I like best: a town like Springdale earns a real list because it sits at the gate of Zion, and a town like Dammeron Valley gets a short, true one.
Region reads
The county-wide pages that no single town owns.
Everything in Southern Utah on The LocalThe honest read
The Saturday here is an outdoors Saturday, and its depth surprises people who only know the town grid: Snow Canyon for a morning hike, Sand Hollow for a boat, Quail Creek for a swim, and Zion for the full day trip, all within an hour of the same kitchen table. the county is 75% federal, which is why the red rock between the towns stays open instead of filling with houses. The downside is the season: by July the afternoons run ~102 °F, so the smart weekend moves early and gets to water or shade by midday. The winter, when the rest of Utah is shoveling, is when this corner is at its best.
The county's year
The events that anchor the calendar here, month by month.
June through October
Tuacahn amphitheatre season in IvinsBroadway-style musicals under the red cliffs of Padre Canyon.
September
Lions Dixie Roundup Rodeo in St. GeorgeA long-running PRCA rodeo.
October
St. George MarathonA downhill road race run on the first Saturday in October.
October
Huntsman World Senior Games in St. GeorgeA multi-sport event for athletes 50 and over.
Schools and services
One school district, two campuses, and a regional hospital
School districts
Washington County School District serves the entire county, one district for all seventeen towns: every town on this page feeds the same one, from St. George and Washington City out to Springdale and the mountain towns. The district runs the schools, and I do not rate them, here or anywhere on this site. I name the district, point you to its own published data, and leave the judgment to you; each city guide links to the schools that town feeds.
| District | Where it runs | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|
| Washington County School District | The whole county | ~36,000 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
Utah Tech University, Dixie Technical College. Utah Tech University anchors the north end of St. George with a full four-year campus and the county's largest student population, and Dixie Technical College trains trades beside it. Medical care runs through the county as well: St. George Regional Hospital (Intermountain) is the referral center for the towns around it, which is one of the quiet reasons the county holds its value as it grows.
The employment base follows the same pattern as the housing market, anchored in St. George and spreading outward. The largest employers, by the state's list, are Intermountain Health, Washington County School District, SkyWest Airlines, Utah Tech University, Walmart. Healthcare, the school district, the university, the airline that keeps its headquarters in St. George, and retail carry the county, with construction and the trades riding the building cycle underneath. The jobs are more diversified than they were twenty years ago, which is part of why the growth has been able to keep going.
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 guide to this part of the state specifically, warm winters and all.
- Moving up to your next homeOften the move from the older core out to a newer bench neighborhood.
- Downsizing in UtahOften a move toward a smaller yard and easier maintenance, which this county builds a lot of.
Moving here: the county offices
The offices and providers a new Washington County homeowner actually contacts, each linked at its official site.
- County government
- Washington CountyDepartments and county services.
- Assessor
- Washington County AssessorValues, the primary residence exemption, and parcel lookup.
- Recorder
- Washington County RecorderDeeds and ownership records.
- Treasurer
- Washington County TreasurerProperty tax billing and payment.
- Driver license and DMV
- Utah DMV office locationsNew residents register vehicles here; the county office is in Hurricane.
- Voter registration
- Washington County ClerkElections and voter registration.
- Power
- St. George Energy Services and other providersElectric provider depends on the city: St. George runs its own municipal power; Dixie Power, a cooperative, serves Santa Clara, Ivins, and outlying towns; Rocky Mountain Power serves other areas.
- Natural gas
- Enbridge Gas UtahThe former Dominion Energy Utah.
- Water
- City systems and the county water districtMost cities run their own culinary water; the Washington County Water Conservancy District manages regional supply.
Compare it
Washington 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 Washington County and any of the other 19, and the same thirty rows line up side by side.
Build a matchupCity vs city
Compare the county's cities
St. George vs Hurricane, Cedar City vs St. George, and the other built pairings that put this county's towns head to head.
Compare citiesAlready own here?
What a Washington County home is worth
A value built by hand from real sales in this county, not an algorithm, and a path to get featured where the county's buyers are already looking.
Start the valuationCommon questions
Washington County, answered
What cities are in Washington County?
Seventeen have full guides on this site, starting with St. George: Washington City, Hurricane, Ivins, Santa Clara, La Verkin, Toquerville, Enterprise, Springdale, Leeds, Apple Valley, Dammeron Valley, Veyo, Virgin, New Harmony, Pine Valley, and Rockville. St. George is the seat and the largest by a wide margin, and the rest spread around it in the developed basin, along the Virgin River toward Zion, and on the higher ground to the north.
Where are the least expensive homes in Washington County?
The low end of the market clusters east of St. George and on the smaller towns: Hurricane, La Verkin, and Washington City carry the county's most approachable new listings, and the high towns like Enterprise and New Harmony sit below the county median too. St. George spans the whole range, while the towns closest to Snow Canyon and Zion, Ivins, Santa Clara, Springdale, and Rockville, skew toward the upper end. The price pages on each town's guide show what is actually listed today.
Is Washington County still growing?
Yes, and faster than almost anywhere else in Utah. The Census Bureau puts the county at 213,670 in July 2025, up +18.5% from the 2020 count, an addition of 33,386 people in five years. A straight line through those two points puts the county near 220,347 in 2026. The growth shows up as new neighborhoods on the benches around St. George and in the second ring of towns along the interstate.
How hot does it get in the summer?
July afternoons average around ~102 °F, which is the honest headline of this county's climate. The winter is the payoff: January lows run ~30 °F, and the days warm well above freezing, which is why the county reads as Utah's warm corner. The elevation at the seat is ~2,860 ft, low desert, so summer nights cool off more than the desert reputation suggests, and the higher towns to the north run noticeably cooler all year.
What is there to do on a weekend in Washington County?
Almost all of it is outdoors. Snow Canyon State Park is a fifteen-minute drive from St. George for hiking and red-rock scenery, Sand Hollow and Quail Creek add water and boating, and Zion National Park is about 50 minutes up the canyon from St. George. Golf courses, the local trails, and the St. George winter events fill the rest. Every one of the county's seventeen towns has its own ranked things-to-do list on The Local, from St. George's twelve down to the honest handful in the smallest.
Next step
Looking at Washington County? Let's find your town
Tell me which part of the county has your attention, the basin or the canyons, what the budget looks like, and whether the heat bothers you or the winter sold you. I live in Southern Utah and work these towns, and I will give you the honest read on where you fit and take you around to see it.