Like all states, Utah has certain places that are going on hard times. These Utah places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.
Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Utah.
To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 90 cities in Utah with more than 5,000 people.
$60,687 median income · 22.3% poverty · #2 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Cache County, Utah
Logan, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Utah thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.
The city of 54,907 people averages the 2nd lowest median household income in Utah and the 2nd highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$64,171 median income · 23.0% poverty · #5 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Utah County, Utah
The second poorest city in Utah is Provo.
The city ranks as having the highest incidence of poverty and 5th lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the 8th highest in the Beehive State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$53,203 median income · 17.7% poverty · #1 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Carbon County, Utah
Placing as the third poorest city, Price’s median income ranks as the lowest.
And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 17.7% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.
But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the Beehive State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$63,589 median income · 18.9% poverty · #4 lowest income in Utah
Cedar City ranks as the fourth poorest place in Utah.
The town ranks as having the 4th lowest median household income and the 3rd highest incidence of poverty in the state.
That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$64,457 median income · 17.9% poverty · #6 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Uintah County, Utah
The fifth poorest city in Utah is Vernal.
The city ranks as having the 6th lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 4th highest in Utah.
Still not the best news for Vernal.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$61,667 median income · 15.9% poverty · #3 lowest income in Utah
Moab ranks as the sixth poorest place in the Beehive State.
It ranks as having the 8th highest incidence of poverty and the 45th highest unemployment rate.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$66,541 median income · 17.3% poverty · #7 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Sanpete County, Utah
Ephraim places as the seventh poorest city in Utah.
The city of over 5,949 ranks as having the 6th highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$72,152 median income · 15.8% poverty · #10 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Salt Lake County, Utah
South Salt Lake ranks as the eighth poorest city in Utah.
The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as one of the highest in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$72,575 median income · 13.7% poverty · #11 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Weber County, Utah
Ogden couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Utah; it ranks number 9.
While the median income is the 11th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, Ogden ranks as having the 11th most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Utah.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$76,456 median income · 15.9% poverty · #19 lowest income in Utah
Located in
Duchesne County, Utah
And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Utah is Roosevelt.
The city of 7,078 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the Beehive State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Utah’s statewide median.
Utah statewide median: $95,166
Utah statewide median: 8.5%
Utah statewide median: 3.6%
On the map
Where poverty hits hardest in Utah
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the poorest places in Utah for 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.
However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
After we collected the data for all 90 places with more than 5,000 people in Utah, we ranked each place from 1 to 90 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Logan, crowned the “Poorest Place In Utah For 2026”. The median Utah home is 32 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Detailed list of the poorest places to live in Utah
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Poor Score | Population | Median income | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Logan | 2.00 | 54,907 | $60,687 | 22.3% | 2.6% |
| 2 | Provo | 3.00 | 114,766 | $64,171 | 23.0% | 5.1% |
| 3 | Price | 3.00 | 8,248 | $53,203 | 17.7% | 7.4% |
| 4 | Cedar City | 3.50 | 38,524 | $63,589 | 18.9% | 4.0% |
| 5 | Vernal | 5.00 | 10,392 | $64,457 | 17.9% | 8.7% |
| 6 | Moab | 5.50 | 5,312 | $61,667 | 15.9% | 2.9% |
| 7 | Ephraim | 6.50 | 5,949 | $66,541 | 17.3% | 10.5% |
| 8 | South Salt Lake | 9.50 | 26,352 | $72,152 | 15.8% | 4.3% |
| 9 | Ogden | 11.00 | 87,413 | $72,575 | 13.7% | 4.1% |
| 10 | Roosevelt | 13.00 | 7,078 | $76,456 | 15.9% | 6.1% |
| 11 | Brigham City | 13.00 | 19,992 | $71,308 | 11.2% | 2.9% |
| 12 | Richfield | 13.50 | 8,224 | $74,756 | 12.5% | 3.7% |
| 13 | Riverdale | 13.50 | 9,279 | $67,323 | 11.1% | 2.6% |
| 14 | Salt Lake City | 14.00 | 208,007 | $75,090 | 13.6% | 4.2% |
| 15 | Clearfield | 15.00 | 33,523 | $75,495 | 12.7% | 2.8% |
| 16 | Tremonton | 16.50 | 11,477 | $74,741 | 10.2% | 5.6% |
| 17 | Midvale | 16.50 | 35,989 | $75,084 | 11.2% | 3.3% |
| 18 | St. George | 18.00 | 101,995 | $76,508 | 11.4% | 3.6% |
| 19 | Ivins | 18.00 | 9,998 | $78,089 | 11.8% | 6.7% |
| 20 | Sunset | 19.00 | 5,587 | $76,364 | 10.5% | 2.9% |
| 21 | Hurricane | 20.00 | 22,771 | $75,016 | 9.0% | 3.9% |
| 22 | North Logan | 20.50 | 11,460 | $89,891 | 14.4% | 1.4% |
| 23 | Orem | 23.50 | 97,182 | $83,342 | 10.2% | 3.9% |
| 24 | South Ogden | 25.50 | 17,650 | $80,130 | 8.6% | 2.6% |
| 25 | Taylorsville | 27.00 | 58,678 | $86,413 | 8.9% | 4.3% |
| 26 | Hyrum | 28.50 | 10,401 | $88,725 | 8.6% | 3.3% |
| 27 | West Valley City | 30.00 | 138,437 | $92,209 | 9.9% | 4.3% |
| 28 | Washington Terrace | 30.50 | 9,182 | $80,119 | 6.5% | 2.5% |
| 29 | Springville | 31.50 | 35,849 | $89,816 | 7.3% | 3.2% |
| 30 | Payson | 33.50 | 23,039 | $89,905 | 7.3% | 5.8% |
| 31 | Vineyard | 35.00 | 14,446 | $103,380 | 10.1% | 2.5% |
| 32 | American Fork | 37.00 | 37,109 | $98,878 | 7.3% | 3.2% |
| 33 | Kanab | 37.50 | 5,081 | $85,486 | 5.6% | 4.7% |
| 34 | Layton | 38.00 | 83,286 | $102,480 | 8.1% | 2.8% |
| 35 | Murray | 39.00 | 50,188 | $90,746 | 6.0% | 3.8% |
| 36 | Harrisville | 39.50 | 6,935 | $88,750 | 5.5% | 1.9% |
| 37 | West Haven | 42.00 | 21,563 | $101,012 | 6.2% | 1.4% |
| 38 | Tooele | 42.50 | 38,405 | $96,221 | 5.9% | 3.8% |
| 39 | Bountiful | 42.50 | 45,023 | $104,785 | 6.9% | 3.1% |
| 40 | Washington | 43.00 | 32,348 | $91,853 | 5.5% | 2.2% |
| 41 | Spanish Fork | 43.50 | 44,946 | $104,844 | 6.6% | 2.3% |
| 42 | Providence | 44.00 | 8,947 | $118,072 | 9.4% | 1.1% |
| 43 | Grantsville | 45.50 | 14,341 | $101,349 | 5.9% | 2.9% |
| 44 | North Salt Lake | 45.50 | 23,474 | $101,447 | 5.9% | 3.9% |
| 45 | Roy | 45.50 | 38,993 | $91,282 | 5.0% | 2.8% |
| 46 | Cottonwood Heights | 47.50 | 32,828 | $119,422 | 7.6% | 3.4% |
| 47 | West Jordan | 48.00 | 116,692 | $108,153 | 6.1% | 3.8% |
| 48 | Clinton | 48.50 | 23,612 | $116,194 | 7.0% | 4.9% |
| 49 | Pleasant Grove | 53.00 | 37,852 | $101,073 | 4.6% | 2.6% |
| 50 | Sandy | 53.50 | 94,291 | $112,176 | 5.5% | 2.6% |
| 51 | Santa Clara | 53.50 | 8,152 | $96,475 | 3.9% | 2.9% |
| 52 | Heber | 54.00 | 18,015 | $110,339 | 5.3% | 2.3% |
| 53 | Lindon | 54.00 | 11,765 | $120,956 | 6.5% | 4.2% |
| 54 | Nephi | 54.50 | 6,885 | $106,108 | 4.9% | 1.6% |
| 55 | Santaquin | 56.00 | 16,436 | $99,837 | 3.9% | 2.1% |
| 56 | Enoch | 56.50 | 8,144 | $80,750 | 1.5% | 3.8% |
| 57 | Smithfield | 57.00 | 14,408 | $97,537 | 3.6% | 2.8% |
| 58 | North Ogden | 57.00 | 21,947 | $113,722 | 5.3% | 2.5% |
| 59 | Draper | 58.50 | 50,278 | $128,910 | 6.1% | 2.4% |
| 60 | Alpine | 60.50 | 10,392 | $168,929 | 7.4% | 2.0% |
| 61 | Salem | 60.50 | 10,324 | $111,117 | 4.2% | 4.7% |
| 62 | Hooper | 61.00 | 9,338 | $113,333 | 4.4% | 2.0% |
| 63 | Park City | 61.00 | 8,362 | $133,558 | 6.5% | 0.8% |
| 64 | Farmington | 62.00 | 25,389 | $127,338 | 5.4% | 3.2% |
| 65 | Woods Cross | 63.50 | 11,531 | $120,543 | 4.8% | 2.4% |
| 66 | Herriman | 64.00 | 59,346 | $122,650 | 4.9% | 4.0% |
| 67 | Saratoga Springs | 64.50 | 48,425 | $128,802 | 5.0% | 2.7% |
| 68 | Holladay | 65.00 | 31,099 | $117,043 | 4.1% | 2.7% |
| 69 | Eagle Mountain | 67.50 | 53,290 | $113,648 | 3.6% | 3.8% |
| 70 | Lehi | 67.50 | 85,173 | $131,299 | 5.0% | 4.0% |
| 71 | Farr West | 69.00 | 7,952 | $127,574 | 4.2% | 1.7% |
| 72 | Perry | 69.50 | 5,843 | $112,639 | 2.3% | 1.6% |
| 73 | Nibley | 70.50 | 7,952 | $108,072 | 1.0% | 3.4% |
| 74 | Syracuse | 71.00 | 35,488 | $133,443 | 4.8% | 1.2% |
| 75 | Hyde Park | 71.00 | 5,540 | $113,102 | 1.9% | 5.0% |
| 76 | Riverton | 72.00 | 45,457 | $126,910 | 3.6% | 3.4% |
| 77 | Centerville | 74.00 | 16,679 | $123,130 | 3.1% | 2.3% |
| 78 | Cedar Hills | 75.50 | 9,950 | $139,008 | 4.2% | 3.5% |
| 79 | Bluffdale | 77.00 | 18,797 | $129,531 | 3.1% | 2.6% |
| 80 | West Point | 77.00 | 11,929 | $120,687 | 1.6% | 1.2% |
| 81 | South Jordan | 77.50 | 82,686 | $134,047 | 3.7% | 2.4% |
| 82 | Kaysville | 78.00 | 33,053 | $133,026 | 3.4% | 2.8% |
| 83 | Pleasant View | 78.50 | 11,217 | $129,462 | 2.4% | 4.0% |
| 84 | Fruit Heights | 78.50 | 6,023 | $140,679 | 3.9% | 0.2% |
| 85 | West Bountiful | 78.50 | 5,915 | $135,179 | 3.7% | 1.9% |
| 86 | Plain City | 79.50 | 8,396 | $132,766 | 2.6% | 1.1% |
| 87 | Mapleton | 80.00 | 13,114 | $133,142 | 2.7% | 2.3% |
| 88 | South Weber | 84.50 | 8,115 | $138,600 | 2.2% | 1.3% |
| 89 | Midway | 87.50 | 6,171 | $157,065 | 1.7% | 2.6% |
| 90 | Highland | 88.00 | 20,119 | $186,075 | 1.9% | 3.9% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 90 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
The poorest cities in Utah for 2026
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Utah, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Utah.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there. Not sold on Utah? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
