I know I'm a straight, Caucasian, LDS guy whose biggest fashion decision in life is whether to wear jeans or sweats each day but imo the 40 mile stretch between Salt Lake City and Orem/Provo/Salem is an extremely beautiful and fun place to live no matter who you are. Here is some data that may surprise you:
U.S. News & World Report, February 22, 1993, observed, "Utah is emerging as one of the nation's premier high-tech meccas, with more software enterprises than California's Silicon Valley and one of the nation's largest concentrations of biotech companies."
The April 23, 1994 issue of The Economist described the 40-mile strip between Salt Lake City and Provo as "the world's second-biggest swathe of software and computer-engineering firms after California's Silicon Valley."
"If you imagine Provo and Orem as quaint, rural hamlets, consider this: the area is home to more than 80 software companies. This may be the best educated county in all the nation as well." Money, September 1991,p.139
"Unlike Silicon Valley, where rivals engage in cutthroat competition, Utah's software companies help one another." Business Week, "Hot Spots," October 19, 1992, p. 84.
Salt Lake City recently nudged out San Francisco as the city with the highest per capita personal computer penetration, according to Scarborough Research (
dossier), a market research firm.
BYU ranks among the top 10 universities whose grads later earn doctorates, 2,116 between 1995 and 2004
Farmers Insurance recently named Provo the number one most secure metropolitan area in America. Based on crime statistics, risk factors of natural disasters and job loss numbers, Provo was ranked the most secure place to live of metropolitan areas with 200,000 residents or more.
Sparsely populated, landlocked and laced with the deserts, mountains and rugged wilderness regions typical of the American West, Utah is an unlikely place to find people who collectively speak 90% of the world's written languages. Time, "Language The State of Many Tongues"
"It is a unique combination: a linguistically and culturally conscious society that is also computer literate," says ALPNET president Thomas Seal. Time, "Language The State of Many Tongues"