Utah

Where are Utah’s ‘blue zones’ — places people are living the longest?

Published

1 year ago

August 6, 2024

Where are Utah’s ‘blue zones’ — places people are living the longest?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Utah

Where did the Red Wings go wrong in loss to Utah? 5 thoughts

Published

4 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Where did the Red Wings go wrong in loss to Utah? 5 thoughts

DETROIT — Just as the Detroit Red Wings looked like they were getting into a groove, they hit a stumbling block Wednesday in a 4-1 loss to the Utah Mammoth.

It’s only one game for a team that still sits atop the Atlantic Division, and none of the Red Wings players or coaches were going to panic in the aftermath. But a night after head coach Todd McLellan cautioned, “You can’t give it back,” after a strong run of recent play, a three-goal loss on home ice wasn’t the follow-up anyone was looking for.

Here’s what went wrong and some other thoughts from Wednesday night.

1. There was no doubt what McLellan thought the biggest issue was against the Mammoth.

“For me, the difference was obvious,” he said. “It was play around our net.”

And that was a theme on all four goals Detroit allowed. On the first, Simon Edvinsson drifted just off of Clayton Keller in the slot, giving him enough room to put home a big rebound off Cam Talbot. On the second, Ben Chiarot didn’t tie up Jack McBain on the back post. The third was a bit different, as no one really lost their man, but when Moritz Seider went to clear a trickling puck headed for a goal line, he ended up bouncing it off Talbot’s pad and right to Dylan Guenther for an easy goal. And on the fourth, Nate Danielson was a step or two off his check in the slot for a one-timer.

“It’s like sitting at your desk at school,” McLellan said. “You’re sitting there, but big deal. Are you doing any work? We’re in position. Do the work. Do the job. Get it done.”

McLellan also noted that Edvinsson and Danielson threw their heads back after the first and fourth goals, indicating they knew immediately what had gone wrong.

2. Though those goals against were ultimately the difference in the final score, Detroit also created far too little danger of its own against the Mammoth, especially at five-on-five.

Detroit’s top players, in particular, had uncharacteristic nights, with their first line (Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Emmitt Finnie) and the top defense pair (Seider and Edvinsson) all ending the night at minus-2, and with five-on-five expected goals shares below 25 percent, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Finnie got the Red Wings’ lone goal on a third-period power-play blast that briefly gave Detroit life, but there just weren’t enough serious chances in the second or third periods to really threaten Utah.

Although Detroit’s power play eventually scored in the third, a pair of second-period opportunities on the man advantage went by uneventfully when the score was still 1-0. The Red Wings didn’t record a shot on goal in the first of those two chances, and the top unit managed just one shot on goal in the second as well.

“We had looks, we had zone time, we just didn’t get it done,” Larkin said. “Didn’t get pucks through. Credit to them, they had a tight diamond, and I’m sure Todd will tell you both on their penalty kill and five-on-five, they probably won the net play tonight, and that was probably the story of the game.”

Certainly, the lack of any five-on-five offense is a more damning proposition than a 1-for-4 night on the power play. But situationally, in a one-goal game, those were big missed chances to swing momentum. Utah scored just 22 seconds after killing off the second penalty to make it 2-0, and that ultimately proved to be the game-winning goal.

Still, with just one even-strength goal in the last two games, the Red Wings are going to need more there, and that includes their top players, who have really carried them offensively to this point.

3. Wednesday’s loss dropped the Red Wings to 1-5 in the second half of back-to-backs this season.

It’s a small sample, but that stands out, even with the inherent challenge of playing on consecutive nights. It didn’t seem to slow Utah too much Wednesday, for example.

Larkin acknowledged the Red Wings will have to be better in those situations, particularly with more on the horizon. Detroit will play three more sets of back-to-backs in the next two weeks, with a home-and-home against the Washington Capitals this weekend, tilts against the Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs the following weekend, and then the Winnipeg Jets and Pittsburgh Penguins at New Year’s.

I asked McLellan if there was anything he could put his finger on with the back-to-backs, and he pointed out that Detroit hadn’t scored first in any of those losses. That is true, and it’s probably a symptom and a cause.

Not scoring early has been a theme all season, though. Detroit has just 19 first-period goals in 35 games, which ranks 30th in the league, while giving up 28. The goals against number isn’t so bad — it’s still roughly league average — but it still translates to coming out of the first in a hole too often.

Cam Talbot hasn’t quite hit the same highs as earlier this season in recent games. (Rick Osentoski / Imagn Images)

4. Just as John Gibson seems to have found a bit of a rhythm for the Red Wings, Cam Talbot — who was Detroit’s rock in net early this season — has slipped into a bit of a funk. Not many of Wednesday’s goals were on him, but the rebound he gave up on the first goal (stemming from a low-percentage shot from along the boards) and then the trickling puck that led the third are atypical of where he was to start the season.

McLellan said he thinks the Red Wings have played better in front of Gibson of late, a reversal from early in the season, but that he’d “have a conversation (with Talbot) real quick, just let him know that we believe in him, because we do.”

5. After Tuesday night’s game, I noted Detroit had a tougher portion of the schedule coming up, with the back-to-back games against Washington and hosting a good Dallas Stars team to lead into Christmas.

Co-worker Dom Luszczyszyn pointed out to me that it’s actually more dramatic in the big picture. His model projects the Red Wings with the league’s toughest remaining schedule coming into Wednesday, and Detroit’s remaining opponents also have the second-highest collective win percentage.

That’s just one more reason that banking every point possible matters right now, especially from Eastern Conference foes they’ll be competing with for a playoff spot.

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Utah

Utah organization urges harm reduction after executive order on fentanyl

Published

16 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Utah organization urges harm reduction after executive order on fentanyl

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Utah

NBA Insider Links Three Trade Fits for Jazz F Lauri Markkanen

Published

1 day ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

NBA Insider Links Three Trade Fits for Jazz F Lauri Markkanen

The Utah Jazz, to this point, haven’t shown any willingness to trade away Lauri Markkanen.

Any lingering trade rumor around the league encircling Markkanen’s name has been met with the harsh reality that the Jazz hold their star forward in high regard, requiring a truly premier package to come their way in any event that they were to deal him away, an ask which has yet to be met by any team interested.

However, while the Markkanen trade buzz has come to a bit of a stall, HoopsHype insider Michael Scotto recently pointed out that three potential teams have been linked to his services in the past if the Jazz were to truly try and shop their one-time All-Star in the near future: the San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies, and Detroit Pistons.

“Alot of teams have been linked to [Lauri Markkanen] in the past whether it’s the San Antonio Spurs, to get a four next to Victor Wembanyama, the Memphis Grizzlies after they made the blockbuster Desmond Bane trade because they have a lot of draft picks,” Scotto said. “And the Detroit Pistons because JB Bickerstaff was his former coach with Cleveland Cavaliers remains very high on him.”

Reporting on Utah Jazz star Lauri Markkanen, including which teams NBA executives have linked the most with past trade interest, why Utah wants to build with him, and what’s next this summer for their cap space and the future of Walker Kessler with @ChrisShearnYES on @YESNetwork. pic.twitter.com/BXhSImXF2z
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) December 16, 2025

Spurs, Pistons, Grizzlies Linked as Possible Lauri Markkanen Suitors

All three teams mentioned not only have some intriguing fits with Markkanen joining their rosters, but they also have the potential assets on board in order to pique the interest of the Jazz front office.

The Spurs have a load of future picks and a bundle of budding young players to offer up. The Pistons have a lot of young talent on their roster, are skyrocketing up the Eastern Conference, and have a connection to Markkanen’s former coach. The Grizzlies present what might be the most unique situation as a trade fit but certainly have some enticing draft capital at their disposal.

Nov 5, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren (0) is fouled by Utah Jazz center Jusuf Nurkic (30) and forward Lauri Markkanen (23) while driving to the basket in the first quarter at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

As Scotto goes on to emphasize, though, is that the Jazz are committed to keeping their partnership with Markkanen ongoing, and rather than sending him off for a package of future assets, they are a player they want to build with long-term.

“To my understanding, Utah wants to build around Lauri Markkanen,” Scotto said. “And what they want to do ideally is have a ton of cap space this summer, use it to make their roster better, if they are going to be in the lottery this year, they hope that is the last time for the foreseeable future.”

“Lauri draws a ton of interest around the league, but right now Utah wants to hold on to him and really try to make a run for the future to improve this team and start to win.”

At the end of the day, the interest on Markkanen won’t be going anywhere across the league, especially as he continues to put together a career-best year this season of averaging nearly 30 points a night as the Jazz’s number-one scorer.

Right now, making a move to ship him out of Salt Lake City is not on the front office’s radar at the moment, but the second Utah ever considers pulling that trigger, several teams would be lining up at the door for a chance to grab him.

Be sure to bookmark Utah Jazz On SI and follow @JazzOnSI on X to stay up-to-date on daily Utah Jazz news, interviews, breakdowns and more!

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