As a Utah transplant myself, I wondered why so many Californians are moving to Utah. As my partner and I graduated college, we wondered where we would end up. He happened to get a steady job in Utah, so I searched for jobs in Utah as well and got one. We both moved into the Beehive state without the knowledge that if you are from California and move to Utah, local Utahns most likely won’t be your biggest fans. 

Who is moving to Utah and why?

Californians aren’t the only people moving to Utah, which gained an average of 121,000 new residents every year between 2015 and 2019, most of whom came from US states other than California such as Arizona, Nevada, and Washington, according to the county-level analysis report. Moreover, in-state migrants are just as prevalent as out-of-state migrants.

In February of 2023, Governor Cox urged Californians to please stop moving to Utah. “This last census confirmed that Utah was the fastest-growing state over the past 10 years,” Cox said. “Our biggest problems are more growth-related. We would love for people to stay in California instead of coming as refugees to Utah.”

It seems that the reason why Californians are moving to Utah is much different than my reasoning. High-powered, influential people like Elon Musk and Ryan Kavanaugh are moving out of California due mostly to issues such as high crime, homelessness, and rising taxes. 

Is Utah a perfect state for Californians?

But some Californians don’t want to live in Utah. Some people just don’t enjoy having four seasons, and the traffic can be just as bad as in areas like Los Angeles or San Diego. Home affordability and cost of living are increasing in Utah, and religion and politics can be drastically different, sometimes causing profound cultural dismay in some transplanted Californians. We talked to University of Utah student Caroline Krum, who is from California’s Central Valley. She described moving to Utah as a definite culture shock. 

“My small town was pretty conservative, but outside of that small town, California is very diverse and accepting. I came to Utah and it’s not like that at all. It’s super religious here. A lot of people have compared Utah to basically being a theocracy, especially compared to California. So that was one thing. I came here and it’s like all of the same type of person. Everyone’s the same, so it was a big, big change,” Krum said. 

Do native Utahns hate Californians?

The university student also described incidents where she was confronted by Utah residents about being from California. 

“I got so scared because I was at a gas station when I was driving home to California. But it was in Utah, barely out of Salt Lake, and I was gassing up. Some big, burly biker guy comes up to me in my car and asks me to get out of the car and talk. And he’s like, ‘You’re from Commie (Communist) land? What are you doing from Commie land in Utah?’ I was so scared. He got into this whole argument with me about how people from California are the worst; the reason that every other state can’t afford living,” Krum said. 

She also said that while riding in an Uber she was politely asked where she was from. After saying she was from California, she was told, “You know people hate you here.” She reflected that in California if someone told her they were from Ohio, she wouldn’t think twice about it.