Provo isn't known for slums or long lines at soup kitchens. It prides itself on being a clean, industrious city and home of the nation's largest church-run university.
But thanks to a high student population and large families, more than one in four of its residents is officially living in poverty, according to the federal government. Its poverty rate is even twice as high as other large cities in Utah.City officials blame it on a high population of married students.
"The student population is 10 percent to 15 percent of our population, and it skews our income averages," said Gary Golightly, director of economic development for Provo. "The average age in Provo is 24 or 25, and that tends to hurt that figure. When you stack up the real average wage earner, we're not so bad."
And because of the propensity for large families in Provo, the city tends to rank poorly in per-capita income studies, Golightly said.
But Provo's high poverty rate does offer a little bit of good news for the city. It is used to help determine the city's priority for federal grants for such things as housing and business development.
For example, its mix into federal funding formulas recently helped NuSkin, a fast-growing Provo-based cosmetics company, obtain a $1.3 million Action Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help construct a 10-story building.
"In a way it is nice to have that categorization because it allows us to tap into federal funds," Golightly said. "We don't have slums; we do have some blight. That doesn't mean we don't have challenges. We do. We're concentrating on higher income jobs."
In 1980, the average monthly income in Provo for full- and parttime workers, excluding agricultural workers and the self-employed, was $992; in 1988, the average monthly income was $1,320.
Provo's poverty rating is expected to improve as new census data is collected in 1990, due in large measure to significant economic development in the city since 1980. During the last quarter, wages in Provo increased 5.5 percent, the highest increase in a six-state region, Golightly said.
Brent Harker, a Brigham Young University spokesman, said 26 percent of the university's students are married - 7,177 students - and they are indeed poverty stricken. That figure has held steady ever since the last census nine years ago.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 27.6 percent of Provo's residents - 18,688 people - live in poverty. Also, 15.1 percent of its families - 2,085 - are in poverty.
In comparison, the poverty rates for individuals in some of the other large cities in Utah are: Salt Lake City, 14.2 percent; Ogden, 13.1 percent; Orem, 11.5 percent; and Logan, another college town, 18.1 percent.
Those numbers are from the 1980 census and are the most recent poverty information available on a city-by-city basis.
The Census Bureau determined the poverty rate for the 1980 Census according to family size and income.
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Income
Poverty is determined based on yearly income and family size.
Family size Income
1 $3,683
2 4,702
3 5,763
4 7,386
5 8,736
6 9,849