Wasatch Front
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Image:Wasatch Range Salt Lake County UT United States 2006.JPG Image:Utah Municipality Population Density.png The Wasatch Front is a 120 miles (193 km) long, and an average of 5 miles (8 km) wide, continuous urban area in the state of Utah, in the United States. It encompasses three U.S. Census defined metropolitan areas and one micropolitan area. The most northern one is the Brigham City at 44,810, the second-most is the Ogden-Clearfield and has a population of 477,455. In the center sits the Salt Lake City metro area at 1,018,826. The southern end is made up of the Provo-Orem at 412,361. As of 2005, all four together have a population of 2,009,595 residents.
It derives its name from the Wasatch Range, which forms the eastern wall and prevents development from moving eastward. The cities' elevations all sit around 4,330 feet (1,320 m) and the range rises dramatically in a short distance to an elevation up to 11,752 feet (3,582 m) at Mount Timpanogos bordering Utah Valley.
Other natural features prevent the area from expanding westward. It is bounded on the west by Utah Lake in Utah County, the Oquirrh Mountains in Salt Lake County and the Great Salt Lake in northwestern Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, and southeastern Box Elder Counties, so it does not exceed more than approximately 15 miles (24 km) in width anywhere along its extent, with most areas no more than 5 miles (8 km) in width.
The Wasatch Front includes Salt Lake City, the state capital, and has over 75% of the state's population. The region has experienced considerable growth since the 1950s (increased 308% from 492,374 to 2,009,595) and much of the remaining land is rapidly being developed. Due to the narrowness of the region, transportation has been a major issue.
If the region were to be considered a single metropolitan area it would rank as the seventh most populated in the western United States, just behind Denver, Colorado and ahead of Portland, Oregon. Officially Salt Lake City ranks twelfth, followed by Ogden-Clearfield at twenty-third and Provo-Orem at twenty-eighth in the western region.
Additionally one other metropolitan area and another micropolitan area are sometimes considered part of the larger Wasatch area. These two are situated within the mountains themselves, both about 20 miles from the traditional Wasatch Front. They are the Logan, which sits adjacent to Brigham City and has a population of 109,666; and the Heber which lies just east of Provo, and has 18,139. When these two are factored in state estimates call it the "northern metropolitan region" which has a combined population of about 2,200,000 citizens.
Cities lying on the other side of the Wasatch Range are sometimes referred to as the "Wasatch Back".
External links
| Image:Flag of Utah.svg |
State of Utah | Image:UTmap.GIF |
|---|---|---|
| State Capital: | ||
| Regions: |
Cache Valley | Dixie | Great Salt Lake | Great Salt Lake Desert | Uinta Mountains | Wasatch Back | Wasatch Front | Wasatch Range | |
| Metropolitan Areas
(with constituent cities): |
Ogden-Clearfield - Bountiful | Kaysville | Layton | Roy Provo-Orem - American Fork | Lehi | Pleasant Grove | Spanish Fork | Springville Salt Lake City - Cottonwood Heights | Draper | Holladay | Midvale | Murray | Park City | Riverton | Sandy | South Jordan | Taylorsville | Tooele | West Jordan | West Valley City | |
| Micropolitan Areas: |
Brigham City | Cedar City | Heber | Price | Vernal | |
| Counties: |
Beaver | Box Elder | Cache | Carbon | Daggett | Davis | Duchesne | Emery | Garfield | Grand | Iron | Juab | Kane | Millard | Morgan | Piute | Rich | Salt Lake | San Juan | Sanpete | Sevier | Summit | Tooele | Uintah | Utah | Wasatch | Washington | Wayne | Weber | |
