When it comes to international migration, St. George isn’t like other Utah cities.
Nearly all of Utah’s net migration between 2023 and 2024 came from people who moved in from outside the country. From Salt Lake City to Logan to Heber City, international immigration was the only reason some communities grew at all.
Not in St. George. International movers made up just 10% of its total net migration, according to U.S. Census data released in March.
“For St. George and Washington County, their migration profile is very different than other parts of the state,” said an unsurprised Emily Harris, a senior demographic analyst at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. “Their population is also very different in terms of demographics and age, in particular.”
The data confirms a long-standing trend for her, one where snowbirds and Californians flock to the warmer corner of the Beehive State rather than international newcomers.
It’s possible that President Donald Trump’s recent actions on immigration and the economy could cause both domestic and international migration to slow down in the coming years. Still, the trend points to potential trouble for southern Utah in the future if it wants to have enough residents to fill its open jobs.
Some of the factors behind the disparity between St. George and the rest of Utah come back to the reasons why anyone moves anywhere. Many communities on the Wasatch Front have large, established enclaves of immigrants, Harris said, which makes them more appealing to newcomers and leads to even more growth in those communities.
“People are migrating to places where they already know people, have family members or there's already an existing community there,” she said. “So, it's like a chicken and an egg thing.”
St. George is also more geographically isolated from the bulk of Utah’s resources that serve immigrant populations, from refugee resettlement agencies and consulates to ethnic grocery stores. The Utah Department of Workforce Services and Utah Refugee Services Office published a manual for newcomers that lists hundreds of agencies and organizations in the state that can help them as they get acclimated. It features more than 150 entries from Salt Lake County and just one from Washington County.
Because immigrant resources are largely concentrated on the Wasatch Front, it makes it a challenge for newcomers to live in other parts of Utah, said Ze Min Xiao, president and CEO of The Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging. Her organization, based in Salt Lake City, works with Utah leaders and businesses statewide to better understand the needs of new Americans.
“In rural areas, it's hard,” she said. “We have individuals who are working in southern Utah just trying to access any legal services — they have to either drive up to Salt Lake or they drive down to Las Vegas.”
Still, that doesn’t mean immigrants are not moving to southern Utah.
The Census data likely does not reflect those who arrived in northern Utah when they first came to the U.S. but then decided to relocate to St. George. Many immigrants are leaving Salt Lake City for other communities to find work and more affordable housing, Xiao said.
There hasn’t been much detailed data on this type of movement, though. That’s why Xiao’s group partnered with the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity on a 2024 report that found 6,100 people who were born outside the U.S. to non-citizen parents moved into southern Utah between 2000-2019. That’s still a relatively small share of the region’s total population — 4.7% versus 8.4% statewide — but it represents a doubling of the local immigrant population.
As more newcomers settle in southern Utah, Xiao said, communities will need to ramp up services that can help them and their families stay for the long term, such as increased public and private investment for English language classes and local access to immigration legal services.
“We just don't have the infrastructure there. And it takes time to build up the infrastructure to be able to support the very unique demographics of these individuals,” she said.
It will also take time to build up the region’s supply of affordable housing. The median price for a home in Washington County was $659,000 as of March 2025. That doesn’t just impact immigrants, but everyone in southern Utah, said Washington County Executive Director of Economic Development Darren Prince.
The county’s growth has brought plenty of opportunities for people to move in and work, he said. Businesses are adding jobs in finance, health care and aerospace in addition to the construction field and technical trades, such as electrical and plumbing work.
“They're having a hard time filling their spots, because there's not a workforce that can afford housing and stay here,” Prince said. “That's a great concern to me.”
Future job growth may not matter much if people can’t afford to live nearby. So, to connect the dots, Prince said cities will have to adjust their ideas about what neighborhoods look like.
“It's hard to see thinking about things like higher density of housing, going vertical with housing,” he said. “But if we're not willing to do that, then we can't expect housing for our kids and our grandkids.”
Especially with such low unemployment numbers, Xiao said southern Utah needs to welcome new Americans to keep its economy going.
Her organization’s 2024 study found recent immigrants were vital to two of southern Utah’s biggest industries: development and tourism. New Americans made up 12% of the region’s construction workforce and 10% of its hospitality employees.
Xiao also sees a big opportunity for immigrants to fill jobs in health care and assisted living facilities. With the population of St. George skewing older than cities in northern Utah, the need is likely to keep growing.
“It's hard to fill the demand for those positions in an urban area, but I think it becomes even harder in places like southern Utah,” Xiao said. “So, we have to think outside the box.”
A survey her organization conducted in collaboration with the state suggested that most immigrants come to Utah with at least a bachelor’s degree from their home country and many have years of professional experience in health sciences. So, she is planning a pilot project that helps new Americans with technical expertise get credentialed to continue their field of work in the U.S. The group also plans to connect local leaders with people from other parts of the U.S. that have faced similar situations to see what the region can learn from those experiences.
Ultimately, it’s up to each community what they want their growth to look like, Xiao said. But making it easier for newcomers to stay long-term can go a long way for building social cohesion.
“People tend to stay if given the opportunity to,” she said. “And so we need to think about: What is the infrastructure we need to put in place so that we can support them to be successful?”
