This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Tired of the Salt Lake metro area and want to move? Seeking a job or new life elsewhere?

New U.S. Census Bureau estimates show that most Salt Lake County residents who move travel only a short distance — staying within the metro area or to nearby Provo or Ogden. But for those who do leave the state, the most popular destinations are: Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver and Seattle.

Of course, many people elsewhere think that the Salt Lake area is a great destination to start a new life.

Most people moving to Salt Lake also come from nearby areas in the state. But regions outside Utah that produce the most immigrants here are, in order: Asia, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, New York City, Central America and South America.

Immigrants from Asia, Central America and South America are mostly returning LDS missionaries and perhaps some university students, said Pam Perlich, director of demographic research at The Policy Institute at the University of Utah.

She says the way census questions are worded — asking people in America where they lived last year — tends to identify LDS missionaries returning from abroad, but does not capture them when they leave (because the census doesn't survey in those foreign areas).

The Census Bureau this week released for the first time ever estimates of how many people move each year between metro areas in America, although the agency has for years released information on how many people move from county to county.

The statistics come from five years of data collected by the American Community Survey between 2009-2013, and estimate how many people typically moved each year in that period and where they went.

Some of the key migration findings for the Salt Lake metro area include:

• About 16.9 percent of Salt Lake County residents move each year, an estimated 183,779 people.

• Most of those, 68.7 percent — 126,264 people — move just within the Salt Lake metro area itself.

• The top destination metro area for Salt Lake-area residents who move elsewhere is Provo-Orem, about 9,196 people each year. Ogden-Clearfield is No. 2 with 7,837. Logan is No. 4 with 1,681. At No. 8 is St. George with 964.

Such short moves are typical, Perlich said, "because people move to go to school, people move to go to work, and people move to go to the Missionary Training Center," and most such opportunities are found nearby.

She adds a lot of fluid movement happens where metro boundaries start to blur because of growth, such as "in southern Salt Lake County and northern Utah County."

• Salt Lake metro residents are estimated to move to a total of 199 different metro areas across America every year. Meanwhile, people move here from 211 metro areas. Of course, people also migrate to and from places that are not in metro areas, or are outside the country.

"We tend to export a lot of young educated folks to the larger metro areas all over the country," Perlich said. "Those long-distance moves generally are for employment. So as you would imagine, people are not moving long distances for lower-wage jobs but for professional jobs."

• Top metro area destinations outside of Utah for Salt Lakers who move include: Phoenix, 2,126 people; Las Vegas, 1,493; Los Angeles, 1,226; Denver, 988; Seattle, 768; Portland, 660; Boise, 602; San Francisco, 479; and Washington, D.C., 467.

"Denver is sort of a new one. We are usually oriented in moving to the west," Perlich said.

The data demonstrate a "gravity model" for mobility, she said. "The bigger areas tend to attract more and send more," as do areas that are close.

While the Salt Lake area has some "ties to those gigantic metro areas, the biggest volume of moves really is within the Intermountain region."

• An estimated 57,515 people move to the Salt Lake metro area from elsewhere every year.

Perlich said "state-to-state moves are pretty much a wash," with roughly as many people leaving Utah as arrive every year.

• Most immigrants to Salt Lake come from nearby areas. That includes Ogden-Clearfield, 6,968 people; Provo-Orem, 6,951; St. George, 1,321; and Logan, 1,070.

• Top places outside of Utah from where people immigrated to Utah are: Asia, 3,141 people a year; Los Angeles, 2,029; Phoenix, 2,013; Las Vegas, 1,030; New York City, 989; Central America, 989; South America, 971; and Europe, 971.

Again, most of the arrivals from abroad are returning LDS missionaries.

The new data show that 21.7 percent of residents in the Provo-Orem area move each year — one of every five in the area that is home to BYU and Utah Valley University — and 60 percent of the movers stay within that metro area.

In Ogden-Clearfield, 14.3 percent of residents move each year and 67.6 percent of them remain in the metro area.

In Logan, 18.4 percent of people move annually with 62.9 percent staying in the area.

And in St. George, 18.7 percent of residents move within a year, with 61.1 percent of them remaining in the area.

ldavidson@sltrib.com Twitter: @LeeHDavidson