A Surprising Reason for Utah's Robust Economy

Elliot Eisenberg, a national economist featured at Bank of Utah's annual economic outlook symposium last month had something interesting to say about the Beehive State. Comparing data among states across the country, Utah has one of the best economies - and that's no surprise. What IS surprising, however, is the reason for that: Utah's large families. Eisenberg called them Utah's "ace in the hole."

He was quoted by the Deseret News as saying, "Your ace in the hole is that you have large families. This is important. You recover faster, your gross domestic product goes up faster, home construction activity is better in large part because of this huge demographic edge that you have over other states."

According to US census information, Utah households are younger, larger, and better educated when compared to populations across the country. Combined, those factors make for a workforce in Utah that is young, diverse and growing by thousands every year.

During the recession, February 2009 saw the lowest number of housing permits, at 319. In February of this year, that number was 1,413. Eisenberg pointed out that Utah has recovered from the recession much faster than everyone else.

That's not to say a large population doesn't come without its problems; however, from this viewpoint, large families are certainly helping to keep the economy robust.