PlainSpending

Salt Lake County

$9.4B in FY2025 - a heavy absolute book at $7,965 per capita.

Utah · FIPS 49035

In FY2025, Salt Lake County in Utah posted a dense absolute book of $9.4B ($7,965 per capita across 1,185,238 residents). That is 49.1% below the national average and 10.5% below the Utah average. Social Security Administration leads tracked agency share. Statewide per-capita rank: #12 of 29.

Total spending
$9.4B
Per capita
$7,965
vs. national avg
-49.1%
Fiscal year
FY2025

Heavy absolute federal book

Salt Lake County sits #70 of 3,224 counties by total obligations ($9.4B).

Heavy absolute federal book

Salt Lake County posts below-median federal per-capita spending nationally, with spending dominated by Social Security Administration.

National per-capita rank
Top 54%
of 3,232 US counties
Per-capita spending
$7,965
Leading agency
Social Security Administration
61.6% of tracked spending
Utah rank
#12 of 29

How Salt Lake County Compares

Per-capita federal spending: Salt Lake County vs. Utah and the nation

Salt Lake County$7,965Utah avg$8,897National avg$15,647
Source: USASpending.gov FY2025 + U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.

Population: 1,185,238 (U.S. Census Bureau estimate) - the denominator behind the per-capita figures above.

Leading Federal Agencies in Salt Lake County

Top awarding agencies in Salt Lake County, FY2025

Social Security Administrati…$4.0BDepartment of Health and Hum…$1.6BDepartment of Education$942.5M
Source: USASpending.gov FY2025, aggregated by awarding agency.

Among the 3,224 US counties with agency-level spending data, Social Security Administration is the most common leading agency nationally, topping 89.7% of agency-tracked counties.

These 3 agencies together account for $6.5B (69.2%) of Salt Lake County's $9.4B in total tracked federal spending -- the remainder is spread across smaller awarding agencies not individually broken out in this dataset.

All 3 individually-tracked agencies are shown above - Salt Lake County has no smaller residual awarding agencies broken out beyond this set, a compact agency footprint rather than a long tail of minor awardees.

Read the agency breakdown as a table
Agency Spending Share
Social Security Administration $4.0B 61.6%
Department of Health and Human Services $1.6B 23.9%
Department of Education $942.5M 14.4%

How Salt Lake County Ranks Nationally

Per-capita federal spending vs. all US counties

All 3,232 US counties, FY2025

$7,965 Around the middle higher than 46% of 3,224 US counties

all US counties, per-capita spending, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $1K-wide band; taller bars hold more US counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USASpending.gov FY2025 + U.S. Census Bureau population estimates

Salt Lake County Among Utah's Largest Counties

Population vs. per-capita spending: Utah's biggest counties

The 15 largest-population counties in Utah by FY2025 federal spending, plotted by population against spending per resident. Bubble size tracks total spending; Salt Lake County is highlighted. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 15 entities by Population (X) and Spending per capita ($) (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. Large and spending-intensiveSmall population, outsized spendingLarge population, modest per-residentSmaller footprint both ways 0500,0001,000,0001,500,000 $2,000$4,000$6,000$8,000$10,000$12,000 Population Spending per capita ($)
The 15 largest-population counties in Utah by FY2025 federal spending, plotted by population against spending per resident. Bubble size tracks total spending; Salt Lake County is highlighted.
Read the chart as a table
County Population Per capita Total spending
Salt Lake County (this county) 1,185,238 $7,965 $9.4B
Utah County 659,399 $3,532 $2.3B
Davis County 362,679 $8,306 $3.0B
Weber County 262,223 $10,399 $2.7B
Washington County 180,279 $7,679 $1.4B
Cache County 133,154 $7,056 $939.6M
Tooele County 72,698 $5,550 $403.5M
Box Elder County 57,666 $6,246 $360.2M
Iron County 57,289 $7,408 $424.4M
Summit County 42,357 $7,024 $297.5M
Uintah County 35,620 $5,442 $193.8M
Wasatch County 34,788 $5,199 $180.8M
Sanpete County 28,437 $6,185 $175.9M
Sevier County 21,522 $8,733 $188.0M
Carbon County 20,412 $7,595 $155.0M

Nearby Counties With Similar Federal Spending

Counties with per-capita federal spending closest to Salt Lake County's $7,965 - prioritizing Utah peers first.

Emery County

Utah

$7,726 per capita

$75.9M total

Washington County

Utah

$7,679 per capita

$1.4B total

Rich County

Utah

$7,627 per capita

$19.1M total

Davis County

Utah

$8,306 per capita

$3.0B total

Carbon County

Utah

$7,595 per capita

$155.0M total

Compare states side-by-side in the compare tool →

Nationwide counties with similar per-capita or total federal spending

Two peer sets outside Utah - per-resident intensity and total obligation volume, distinct from the same-state neighbors above.

Similar per-capita spending

Nearest out-of-state counties by federal spending per resident ($7,965 here).

Similar total federal spending

Nearest out-of-state counties by total obligations ($9.4B here).

Counties with fewer than 10,000 residents are excluded from the nationwide comparison corpus.

Data Source: USASpending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Fiscal Year 2025. Population denominators are U.S. Census Bureau vintage estimates. County-level spending includes all federal awards with place of performance in this county; OMB budget categorizations are reflected at the agency level.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and presented.

Verify with USASpending.gov → Verify population with U.S. Census Bureau →