Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is 69 kilometers south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, with Orem, Utah to the north and Springville, Utah to the south. It had a population of 115,162 during the 2020 census.
Provo, which is the fourth-largest city in Utah is the principal city in the Provo-Orem-Lehi metropolitan area; the metropolitan area had a population of 526,810 at the 2010 census.
Provo, Utah is the second-largest metropolitan area in Utah, with Salt Lake City being the most populous.
Provo is the home to Brigham Young University (BYU), a private higher education institution operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Provo also has the Mormon Church's largest Missionary Training Center (MTC).
Provo is a focus area for technology development in Utah, with several billion-dollar startups.
The city's Peaks Ice Arena was a venue for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.
History
The Provo area was originally called Timpanogas, a Numic (Ute people) word perhaps meaning "rock river". The area was inhabited by the Timpanogos. It was the largest and most settled area in modern-day Utah. The ample food from the Provo River made the Timpanogos a peaceful people. The area also served as the traditional meeting place for the Ute and Shoshone tribes and was used as a common location for worship of their creator deity.
Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Spanish Franciscan missionary-explorer, is considered the first European explorer to have visited the area in 1776. He was guided by two Timpanogos Utes, whom he called Silvestre and Joaquín. Escalante chronicled this first European exploration across the Great Basin Desert. The Europeans did not build a permanent settlement but traded with the Timpanogos, whom they called Lagunas (lake people) or Come Pescado (fish eaters).
In 1847, the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, which was just north of Timpanogos Mountain. At first, the Natives were friendly with the Mormons. But, as relations deteriorated with the Shoshoni and Utes because of disputes over land and cattle, tensions rose. Because of the reported stolen goods of settlers by the Utes, Brigham Young gave small militia orders "to take such measures as would put a final end to their [Indian] depredations in future." This ended in what is known as the Battle Creek massacre, in modern-day Pleasant Grove, Utah.
The Mormons continued pushing into Timpanog lands. In 1849, 33 Mormon families from Salt Lake City established Fort Utah. In 1850, Brigham Young sent an army from Salt Lake to drive out the Timpanogos in what is called the Provo War. Escalating tensions with the Timpanog contributed to the Walker War. Fort Utah was renamed Provo in 1850 for Étienne Provost, an early French-Canadian trapper who arrived in the region in 1825.
In 1850, the first schoolhouse was constructed in Provo, built within Utah Fort.
As more Latter-day Saints arrived, Provo quickly grew as a city. It soon was nicknamed The Garden City with a large number of fruit orchards and gardens there.
In 1872, a railroad reached Provo. It was also this year that the Provo Woolen Mills opened. They were the first large factory in Provo and employed about 150 people, initially mainly skilled textile laborers who had emigrated from Britain.
The construction of the blast furnace plant of the Columbia Steel Company in 1923-1924 marked the arrival of heavy industry in Provo, albeit most of the pig iron was shipped to the company's steel mills in California. The plant supplied manufactured gas to the area and in 1948 Provo via a pipeline to Salt Lake City was connected to the interstate natural gas transmission system.
Geography
Provo lies on the eastern bank of Utah Lake in Utah Valley at an elevation of . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and , or 5.66%, is water.
The Wasatch Range contains many peaks within Utah County along the east side of the Wasatch Front. One of them, known as Y Mountain, towers over the city. There is a large hillside letter Y made of whitewashed concrete halfway up the steep mountain, built in the early part of the 20th century to commemorate BYU (original plans included construction use of all three letters). Wild deer (and less frequently, cougars, and moose) still roam the mountains (and occasionally the city streets). The geography allows for hiking, skiing, fishing and other outdoor activities.
Climate Provo's climate can be classified as either a hot-summer Mediterranean climate classification (Köppen: Csa) or as a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk). Overall, annual rainfall at the location of BYU is around ; however, the western part of the metropolitan area near Orem is substantially drier, receiving only around of precipitation and consequently has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk). The wettest calendar year in Provo has been 1983 with and the driest 2020 with .
Winters are cold with substantial snowfall averaging and a record monthly total of in January 1918, during which the record snow cover of was recorded on the 17th. Seasonal snowfall has ranged from in 1983–84 to in 2014–15. Very cold weather may occur when cold air from over the Continental Divide invades the region: although only four mornings fall to or below during an average winter and this temperature was not reached at all between 1999 and 2006, during the very cold January 1917 (average temperature ), seventeen mornings fell this cold. By contrast, in several recent winters like 1994–95, 1995–96, 1999–2000, 2004–05, and 2005–06, averages have been above freezing every month.
Temperatures warm rapidly during the spring, with the first afternoon over on March 21, the last freeze expected on April 29, and the first temperature equal to or hotter than on May 30. Rainfall is not infrequent during the spring: over was recorded in the Mays of 1995 and 2011, and a total of fell during the four-month span of March to June 2005 – in contrast as little as fell in the same months of 2012.
Being too far north to gain any influence from the monsoon except in rare cases like the of rainfall of August 1983, Provo's summers are hot and dry, though relatively short – no maxima above have been recorded outside the range of June 7 to August 27. Monthly maxima average over in July and August, and precipitation averages under one inch per month with a two-month total in 2016 as low as . The hottest month on record is July 2003 with a mean of , and a mean maximum of . The hottest temperature on record is on July 13, 2002.
The fall season sees steady cooling and a transition to winter weather, with rare influences of rain systems from further south, as in the record wet month of September 1982, which saw of total precipitation, including over the last six days from a storm moving in from Arizona. The last maximum of can be expected around September 10, and the first morning below freezing on October 14.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Provo, Utah – racial and ethnic compositionRace / ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010Pop 2020% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)88,31187,18681,65583.97%77.51%70.90%Black or African American alone (NH)4326729710.41%0.60%0.84%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)7037195900.67%0.64%0.51%Asian alone (NH)1,9032,7432,7721.81%2.44%2.41%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)8731,2291,6550.83%1.09%1.44%Other race alone (NH)1411944060.13%0.17%0.35%Mixed race or multiracial (NH)1,7902,6545,7181.70%2.36%4.97%Hispanic or Latino (any race)11,01317,09121,39510.47%15.19%18.58%Total105,166112,488115,162100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Provo had a population of 115,162. The median age was 23.8 years. 21.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 7.1% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 95.6 males.
99.4% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.6% lived in rural areas.
There were 34,067 households in Provo, of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 54.1% were married-couple households, 18.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 24.7% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 16.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 36,106 housing units, of which 5.6% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 4.3%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 85,955 74.6% Black or African American 1,072 0.9% American Indian and Alaska Native 1,168 1.0% Asian 2,844 2.5% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 1,695 1.5% Some other race 9,433 8.2% Two or more races 12,995 11.3%
2010 census At the 2010 census, 112,488 people, 31,524 households and 21,166 families resided in the city. The population density was . The racial makeup of the city was 84.8% White, 0.7% Black or African American, 0.8% American Indian, 2.5% Asian, 1.1% Pacific Islander, 6.6% from other races, and 3.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 15.2% of the population.
There were 31,524 households, of which 34.8% had children under 18 living with them, 55.4% were married couples living together, 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.9% were non-families. 12.8% of all households were made up of a single individual, and 4.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.24, and the average family size was 3.41.
In the city, 22.3% of residents were under 18, 36.4% were from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 10.5% from 45 to 64, and 5.8% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 96.4 males.
2000 census At the 2000 census, 105,166 people, 29,192 households and 19,938 families resided in the city. The population density was . There were 30,374 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.52% White, 0.46% Black or African American, 0.80% American Indian, 1.83% Asian, 0.84% Pacific Islander, 5.10% from other races, and 2.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 10.47% of the population.
There were 29,192 households, of which 33.8% had children under 18 living with them, 57.0% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.7% were non-families. 11.8% of all households were made up of a single individual, and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34, and the average family size was 3.40.
In the city, 22.3% of residents were under 18, 40.2% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 8.6% from 45 to 64, and 5.7% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.6 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 89.3 males.
The median household income was $34,313, and the median family income was $36,393. Males had a median income of $32,010 and females $20,928. The per capita income was $13,207. About 12.5% of families and 26.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.4% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those aged 65 or over.