Recently, a City Lab article named Salt Lake City the third fastest growing population of the creative class. From 2005 to 2019, Salt Lake City has seen a 43.6% growth, just trailing behind San Jose and San Francisco (47.2% and 45.2%, respectively). 

Richard Florida, the author, discusses the concept of “the rise of the rest.” The concept is described as, “a result of both increasingly unaffordable housing in established hubs and the improvement of the economies in less-established hubs.” 

The dominate hubs, like San Francisco, are notorious for the presence of fast-growing tech companies and extremely unaffordable housing units. Less-established hubs, like Salt Lake City, offer more affordable housing units, cheaper labor, and the ability to attract college graduates. 

So – Florida wanted to visually analyze this ever-evolving growth onto maps. 

With the help of Todd Gabe, an economist at the University of Maine, they collected data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS).

“I decided to take a closer look at what is actually happening to the geography of talent. I zeroed on changes in the location of the creative class for a period immediately before, during, and post-recession. While most studies equate talent with the share of adults who hold college degrees, my creative class metric is based on occupation. About nine in 10 Americans with a college degree are members of the creative class, which is made up of up of knowledge workers in education, healthcare, law, arts, tech, science, and business. But, only six in 10 members of the creative class hold a college degree.”

Florida and Gabe compared the concentrations of creative class growth and shares at 2005 and 2017. 

In 2005, Salt Lake City had one of the smallest shares of the creative class (at 31.6%), compared to the largest share, Washington D.C. at 47.8%.

Although from 2005 to 2017, Salt Lake City is at the top of the list for the fastest growth in creative class shares, at 24.1%. 

Salt Lake City shows no signs of slowing down. If your business is looking for a new place to grow, come join an inspiring community of the creative class at Work Hive located in the heart of Salt Lake City!.