PROVO — Of the seven people living in a house they call "The Funk Factory," Matt Phelps, who sleeps in the kitchen, is the youngest at 20.
His transient lifestyle is only temporary, however.
In a few weeks, Phelps will drive his Mercedes Kompressor — which has plates that read 'PHUNKAR' — home to Southern California and leave on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Like thousands of other LDS youths, Phelps came to Provo to be around his own kind. The oldest person living in Phelps' seven-bedroom house in west Provo is 24.
"There's 50,000 Mormon kids here instead of 10 at home. It's a lot more fun here," Phelps says.
Fifty thousand is just a guess — but Phelps could be guessing low. There are an estimated 50,000 students attending Utah County's two institutions of higher education, LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University and Utah Valley State College, which hosts one of the largest LDS Institute programs in the church's education system.
And thousands of others are believed to come here to work and play with other men and women of the same religion.
So that may explain, at least in part, why Provo has the youngest residents of any large U.S. city.
The Utah County seat, which boasts amedian age of 22.9, has the lowest median age of any place in the country with a population of 100,000 or more, according to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau released Wednesday.
The report breaks down results from the 2000 Census.
It also points to Utah County as one of only four counties of 100,000 residents or more with median ages below 26.
Utah County's median age is 23.3, the lowest in the nation.
The state's median age is 27.1, also lowest nationally, compared to the national median age of 35.3.
Neil Ashdown, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Planning
and Budget, says the reason for Provo's young age is primarily the influx of college-age students.
"It's not surprising, of course," he said. "It's a college town. . . . These young college kids get married, and they have young families and kids."
Matt Jensen, a graduate student at BYU, swears he won't stay in Provo. He says he has been "stuck" for seven years in Cougarland and plans to settle down near a beach in California as soon as he finishes school.
Jensen, who will wed in one week, knows he may not get out before he adds to the Provo population. His newlywed friend, who lives across the street, is proof of that.
His friend's wife just received news she is pregnant.
"Provo is great. You've got the mountains, BYU, the Provo Angels. You can't beat it," Jensen said. "This place traps you, man."
If Jensen finds himself "trapped" in 20 years with six kids, he won't feel out of place. Large families, another contributing factor to the city's low median age, are common here.
Take, for example, George Monsivais. The Provo man has 15 children. Eleven of them are under the age of 18.
But the high percentage of young people — 22.3 percent under 18 — is only part of the reason for the low median age, Ashdown says. The city also has an unusually low percentage of people over the age of 65, with 5.7 percent of all residents over 65. Statewide, 8.5 percent of the population is over 65. The college town simply attracts younger residents.
E-mail: jhyde@desnews.com; ehayes@desnews.com