The second largest city, and what the address actually asks.

Yes, behind the capital and ahead of third place. The 2020 census recorded 140,230 residents, the most recent Census Bureau estimate is about 138,437, and the city's own about page states more than 145,000. It has held second place for years and the gap to third is comfortable. What is genuinely unusual is the combination: the second most populous city in the state has only existed as a single municipality since 1 July 1980.

Roughly 35.88 square miles at about 4,304 feet, on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley with the Jordan River along its eastern edge. That is a large footprint for a valley city and it is the reason crossing from one side of the boundary to the other is a ten to fifteen minute drive rather than a trivial one. The practical effect is that the eastern and western halves of the same city name behave like two different addresses.

Because it never had one to inherit. Unlike the pioneer towns around it, this was four separate unincorporated farming communities until they voted to merge on 1 July 1980, and none of the four had a single shared centre. The city has been assembling a civic core on purpose ever since, around the rail terminus and the municipal campus, and that project is covered properly on the city guide rather than here.

On the valley wide coordinate grid, whose origin sits in the middle of Salt Lake City rather than anywhere inside this boundary. So 5600 West means fifty six blocks west of that baseline, roughly seven miles from Main Street, and 3500 South means thirty five blocks south of it. Directions here are given as a pair of numbers rather than a street and a turning, and a house number tells you nothing about distance from anything local.

The four unincorporated farming communities that voted to merge into one city on 1 July 1980. Granger traces to Welsh settlers around 1849 and Hunter to about 1876, so the farms long predate the city that now carries their names. They are still used to describe housing eras and street patterns, and they are not official districts and never were, so none of them is a boundary you can look up on a map.

Four, all on the Green Line and all in the eastern half of the boundary: West Valley Central, Decker Lake, Redwood Junction and River Trail. The line opened on 7 August 2011 and runs from Salt Lake City International Airport through downtown to its southern terminus here. Everything west of roughly Bangerter Highway is a driving address, which is the single most useful thing to know before drawing up a shortlist of streets.

That is a comparison rather than a description, and this site has a page built for it. The side by side detail sits at the West Jordan against West Valley City compare page, which sets out the numbers properly, and there is a Taylorsville against West Valley City page for the city immediately south east. West Valley City is named in twenty two compare pages in total, so whichever neighbour you are weighing, the argument is probably already published.

Two things, and both mean standing on the street. First, which half of the city the address is in, because rail access and park access run in opposite directions across this boundary. Second, the evenings. There are roughly forty summer nights when 25,000 people leave an outdoor venue on the south west side, plus arena nights on the eastern side and four days of festival in June, so drive the specific street on a show night before you decide.

More than most suburbs do. The city owns the 10,100 seat arena on Decker Lake Drive and contracts its day to day operation, it runs the Utah Cultural Celebration Center directly, it owns and operates both golf courses through its Parks and Recreation department, and it puts on the four day festival in June. What it does not run is the amphitheatre on the south west side, which is owned by one promoter and operated by another, so its rules answer to nobody local.