A “Blue Zone” is an area where people are known for living to extreme ages such as Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; and the entire country of Costa Rica. There is a whole cottage industry of associated books about what those places are doing right lifestyle-wise, generally revolving around good diets and family/community involvement.
Utahns tend to live a long time, too, even though Utah is not typically listed on Blue Zone lists. A child born in Utah has an expected lifespan of 78.6 years, which is the ninth highest in the nation, in between Vermont and Connecticut.
Utah is a varied, diverse place, too, of course, with both highly impoverished communities as well as highly affluent Salt Lake suburbs. This means that a baby born in some areas can expect a much longer life than a baby born in others. These stark differences are reflected in the Census Bureau’s U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project, which calculated the life expectancy of Americans at the census tract level using 2010-2015 data.
Analysis of Census Bureau’s U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP), which calculated the life expectancy of Americans at the census tract level using 2010-2015 data.
Based on this data, the specific area of Utah with the highest life expectancy is rural Duchesne County (Census tract 9406, to be precise), with a life expectancy of 90.4 years, which is higher than any country in the world. That’s also 54th out of the 67,199 census tracts in the U.S. with life expectancy estimates.
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That doesn’t mean Duchesne as a whole is higher than every other county, since there are areas of Duchesne that have noticeably lower life expectancy — as well as some suburb areas that are higher too. (A county-level analysis would reach different conclusions, with this one more focused on specific census tracts.)
That being said, there are some patterns evident. When data is cut up this small there is enough statistical fuzziness that Duchesne is in a statistical tie with a number of other long-living areas in Utah — with other “Blue Zones” in the state including rural areas of Garfield and Wayne counties in southern Utah (life expectancy at birth: 89.6 and 89.3 years, respectively). Two North Salt Lake City neighborhoods also stand out, including the area by Emigration Canyon (88.9 years) and the area just north of Ensign Peak (86.9 years).
And what about areas of Utah where people live relatively short (and presumably harder) lives? The lowest life expectancy in Utah is the inner city area by Pioneer Park. Although only a few geographic miles from the “Blue Zone” of North Salt Lake, the life expectancy there is approximately 24 years less, at 66.1 years. Other shorter life expectancy areas include downtown Ogden, with life expectancies in the area between 68.9 and 70.8, and the eastern part of downtown Price, with a life expectancy of 71.3.
Income matters, of course — with North Salt Lake being relatively wealthy. Race seems to matter too, with racial minorities tending to live shorter lives.
On any characteristic where Utah sticks out, of course, people are quick to connect it to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sometimes this is warranted; sometimes it is not. To really parse out a religious effect by county would require more intensive analyses controlling for race and income, which this particular dataset makes difficult.
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But there are at least two older studies that have examined Latter-day Saint life expectancy in depth. Using data from 1980 to 2004, two non-Latter-day Saint researchers at UCLA found that “active” California Latter-day Saints had “total death rates that are among the lowest ever reported for a cohort followed 25 years.”
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also had “among the longest life expectancies yet reported in a well-defined U.S. cohort.”
Another study published by a BYU professor using 1994-1998 data compared Utah members with other groups in terms of adjusted life expectancy estimates — finding that although differential tobacco use explains some of the higher life expectancy in Latter-day Saints, it only accounts for about 1.5 years of the 7.3 year difference for males and 1.2 years of the 5.8 year difference for females.
Other factors that appear to be involved include better physical health, better social support and healthier lifestyle behaviors, the study noted, with religious activity also potentially having an “independent protective effect against mortality.”
While these are older studies, the lifestyles, dietary factors and dynamics they have identified as contributing to longer Latter-day Saint lives have not changed. Famously, Loma Linda in California is a “Blue Zone” because of the clean-eating, religiously involved and active Seventh-day Adventist community there, and it is likely that the Latter-day Saint influence similarly has at least something to do with Utahn’s longer life span.
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That being said, as shown by downtown Price and other areas where lives are shorter, having Latter-day Saints in your neighborhood doesn’t automatically raise the life span overall. Most of us can clearly do better.
While most Latter-day Saints seem to be good about the prohibitions in the Word of Wisdom — a revelation in one of our books of scripture — there is likely room for improvement among most people in focusing on the positive, good elements of the same standard. For example, Utahns may take a page from Adventist pagebook and eat more fruits and vegetables — and maybe less hamburgers.
While people quibble about this or that dietary principle, the literature on the health benefits of eating eating your fruits and vegetables (or “every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof” as Doctrine & Covenants Section 89 puts it) are non-controversial and indisputable. As soon-to-be-centenarian President Russell M. Nelson has shown us with his own example, we may then receive even more the Doctrine & Covenants Section 89 promises, “the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them.”
Utah has all the potential for a bona fide Blue Zone: healthy food, families, outdoor activities, strong communities, and the sense of purpose provided by religion — if Utahns are willing to take advantage of them.
It would be a mistake to boil down these differences exclusively to income or race. And these differences are not simply a matter of lifestyle either — with lower-income people living much shorter lives on average. While people who live in longer-lifespan areas might pat themselves on the back for all the exercise and home-cooked, vegetable-based meals they have the time for, they should be aware that, sometimes a few miles away, there are people who are not so fortunate.
Randall will be among several key visitors in attendance for a meeting on March 6
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah President Taylor Randall speaks on campus during an event on Feb. 7.
University of Utah President Taylor Randall is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump this week.
Randall is expected to be among several attendees at a White House roundtable meeting on Friday to discuss solutions for the rapidly evolving landscape of college athletics with the president, a U. spokesperson said.
The meeting could be postponed, however, due to the war in Iran. As of Monday, “the odds of it happening this week are 50-50 at best,” according to Yahoo Sports.
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If the roundtable happens as scheduled, the guest list includes several current and former notable figures in sports, including NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, golf legend Tiger Woods and former Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed in a social media post on X that he would be in attendance as well.
“Thank you [President Donald Trump] for inviting me to participate, and for your commitment to addressing challenges in college sports,” Cox said on X. “[Taylor Randall] is a great university leader who will work with us on solutions for this critical issue.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah President Taylor Randall speaks on campus on Feb. 7.
Earlier this year, Randall was called on by the federal House Committee on Education and Workforce to schedule a briefing to discuss the school’s planned private-equity partnership with Otro Capital, according to a report from Sportico.
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The Utes announced their proposal in December of last year, which is a first-of-its-kind agreement between a university’s athletic department and a private equity company.
Utah’s deal with Otro has yet to be finalized. In a Feb. 10 interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Randall said the university is “still just working through all of the issues systematically.”
“We want to do this in the right way to set both of us up for future success,” he added.
The move is expected to infuse hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.’s athletic department to help sustain the financial future of the program with rising deficits across the industry.
“I don’t think any of us would prefer to be in this situation right now,” Randall said in a faculty senate meeting in January. “But it just is what we’re facing.”
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SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — The 2025-2026 winter season isn’t quite over, but it’s no secret that it’s been a rough one when it comes to snow. Right now, statewide snowpack numbers are hovering around 60% of the median.
But you don’t have to know those numbers to understand what a strange winter it’s been.
“It’s kind of good,” said Carrie Stewart, who lives in Salt Lake City. “I mean, I like it because I like a milder climate. But I realize this summer is going to be hard.”
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“I’m not sad I’m not shoveling,” said Sally Humphreys of Salt Lake City. “But it’s definitely worrying.”
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State water officials are also worried. The clock is ticking to bulk up those snowpack numbers.
“We’re running out of time to get the snowpack that we need,” said Jordan Clayton, supervisor of the Utah Snow Survey. “We have about 40 or so days until our typical snowpack peak.”
There is still some time to make up lost ground, but the odds aren’t great. Clayton estimates a 10% chance of reaching normal by the end of the season.
“Those are terrible odds,” he said.
In fact, the odds of having a record low snowpack are greater, sitting at 20%. It’s a grim reality that has officials looking toward the summer anxiously.
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“I would expect to see watering restrictions outdoors for a lot of places,” said Laura Haskell, Utah’s drought coordinator.
It’s unknown what the next few weeks will bring, but if Haskell had to guess, she doesn’t see state reservoirs filling up much from where they are now.
“In the spring when that runoff hits, we do get a noticeable peak in our reservoir storage,” Haskell said. “The water just starts coming in. But this year, we don’t anticipate getting that.”
Haskell says we have enough reservoir storage to likely make it through the summer, but there are other implications to worry about.
Our autumn season was pretty wet. That led to decent soil moisture levels, which can then lead to higher vegetation growth.
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“If we then have a snowpack that melts out really early, we’ll have a longer than normal summer, if you will, with forage growth that might dry out, and so that’s kind of a bad recipe for promoting fire hazard,” Clayton said.
Utahns have dealt with low snowpack levels in the past. Many Utahns are familiar with their lawn turning brown because of water restrictions.
“We’ll probably just let it go that nice, sandy, golden color that it gets in the summer in a dry climate,” said Dea Ann Kate, who lives in Cottonwood Heights.
As we wait to see what the next few weeks bring, people like Carrie Stewart are just reflecting on an unusual winter.
“It is worrying,” she said. “We need snow. We’ve only shoveled once this season, and that’s very unusual.”
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Water officials are now hoping for something else unusual: climbing out of the snowpack hole that’s been created.
“But there are no times going back where the snowpack totals for the state were close to where they are right now, and we ended up actually at a normal peak,” Clayton said. “So while it’s possible, it’s very unlikely.”
SALT LAKE CITY — The presence of federal immigration agents tracking immigrants has increased in Salt Lake County-area courtrooms since mid-February as have complaints about how they’re carrying out their duties.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may have carried out operations at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, according to Lacey Singleton, a public defender who’s regularly at the facility.
“Now it is like they are there all the time … They just basically hang out, and they’re either sitting in the courtroom, or they’re lurking in the hallways,” she said. They wear normal street garb, she said, but for regulars in the courtroom, “they stand out.”
Immigration enforcement action at courthouses around the country has become “a cornerstone” in the efforts of the administration of President Donald Trump to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, according to the American Immigration Council, an immigrant advocacy group. Since an arrest of one of Lacey’s clients around Feb. 12 or 13, she and others say, the practice has become more and more common in Utah.
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ICE didn’t respond to a KSL query seeking comment, but the practice aligns with the Trump administration’s push to crack down on illegal immigration. Agency guidance notes that the people ICE seeks may appear in courthouses to address unrelated criminal and civil matters, and that such facilities are typically secure.
“Accordingly, when ICE engages in civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses, it can reduce safety risks to the public, targeted alien(s) and ICE officers and agents,” reads a May 27 memo on the matter.
Critics, though, say immigration agents’ efforts can be disruptive and could spur immigrants, otherwise trying to resolve their legal issues, to steer clear of court, jeopardizing their cases. As word spreads of the activity, it could also spur fearful immigrant witnesses and crime victims to steer clear of the legal system, Lacey worries.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera brought the issue up at a Salt Lake County Council meeting on Tuesday, saying her office has received “multiple complaints” about ICE agents’ activity in Salt Lake County courthouses, where sheriff’s officials, serving as court bailiffs, provide security.
U.S. agents have ratcheted up immigration enforcement action at Utah courthouses, prompting criticism from some. The photo shows attorney Lacey Singleton, center, questioning a suspected agent recently at Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City. (Photo: Salt Lake City Bail Fund)
Part of the problem, she said, is that the agents typically wear plain clothes and don’t identify themselves, not even to bailiffs. Another issue relates to the actual process of taking an immigrant into custody, which Rivera says should occur outside of public view with the suspects’ lawyers present.
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In one instance, she said, a bailiff heard a scuffle and thought someone was getting assaulted, only to find out it was ICE agents detaining somebody.
A bailiff and an ICE agent subsequently “got into a verbal altercation,” Rivera said. “We are addressing that issue, but I want you to understand, these deputies are put in a really tough situation, and in this situation, I understand how he could get to that point where he had no idea who they were, and he was trying to make sure that somebody wasn’t being assaulted at the time.”
Video from last week, posted to social media by the Salt Lake City Bail Fund, shows Lacey walking past a suspected immigration agent at the Matheson Courthouse, asking for identification but getting no reply. The Salt Lake City Bail Fund, critical of ICE activity, sends observers to the Matheson Courthouse to monitor the agency’s activity.
“That’s a problem because it’s like, who are you?” Lacey said. “For all I know, you’re some random dude who is just, like, off the street and participating in kidnapping people.”
Video supplied to KSL shows an incident outside Riverton Justice Court on Wednesday — four apparent immigration agents in plain clothes wrestling on the ground with an apparent suspect they were trying to take into custody.
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“Don’t resist,” someone off-camera says in Spanish while filming the incident. “Son, don’t resist. Calm down. They’re going to hurt you more.”
The woman asks for his name and contact info after the agents cuff him and take him to a nearby car, while another man on the scene shouts at the officials and berates them. “You guys are disgusting,” the man says.
Anna Reganis, a public defender with the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, like Lacey, said immigration agents detained a man at Salt Lake City Justice Court on Wednesday. She didn’t witness the actual detention, but heard the aftermath.
“All of a sudden, in my courtroom, we could hear from the lobby blood-curdling screams,” Reganis said. She went to the main lobby, finding a woman holding her infant baby “just inconsolably screaming and crying.” Turns out the woman had gone to the courthouse with her husband, and he had just been detained by immigration agents.
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Lacey maintains that the people the ICE agents seem to be pursuing aren’t the most hardened of criminals, which the Trump administration said would be the focus when the crackdown started. Reganis echoed that, noting that those with business in the Salt Lake City Justice Court face relatively minor offenses.
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“Myself and my co-workers all had a bit of a wake-up call because we kept telling ourselves that this wasn’t going to happen at the justice court because all of our cases are class B and C misdemeanors and infractions,” she said.
The Salt Lake City Bail Fund launched training sessions late last year for volunteers to serve as courthouse observers, particularly at the Matheson Courthouse. Liz Maryon, who helps oversee the effort, foresees another round of training to get more help. “We’re currently working on expanding our capacity so that we can be there every day,” she said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
