Weber County ( ) is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the U.S. state of

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 262,223, making it Utah's fourth-most populous county. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

and largest city is Ogden, the home of

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy and earned its current name in 1991. As of fall 2023, the student population reached 30,536 students, cons ...

. The county was named after a fur trapper John Weber. Weber County is part of the Ogden- Clearfield, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

- Provo- Ogden, UT Combined Statistical Area.

History

The Weber Valley was visited by many trappers seeking beavers and muskrats along its streams. One of the first on record reached the area in 1824, traveling from Fort Bridger. He reported that the Bear River flowed into a salt bay. Peter Skene Ogden passed through in 1826, representing the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

. He traded in this area for several years, near present-day North Ogden. John C. Frémont explored the Weber Valley in 1843 and made maps of the area. The Fremont reports encouraged readers to seek their fortunes in the western frontier. Miles Goodyear was a fur trapper who constructed a way station on the

Weber River The Weber River ( ) (Shoshone: Ho-o-pah) is a long river of northern Utah, United States. It begins in the northwest of the Uinta Mountains and empties into the Great Salt Lake. The Weber River was named for American fur trapper John Henr ...

in 1845. In 1847 he sold it to incoming

Mormon pioneers The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter-day Saints, who Human migration, migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the ...

. James Brown purchased and changed the site's name to Brownsville (later changed to Ogden). After the Mormon pioneers began filling out into the future state of Utah, the fledgling government (as of 1849 known as

State of Deseret The State of Deseret (modern pronunciation , contemporaneously , as recorded in the Deseret alphabet spelling 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻) was a proposed U.S. state, state of the United States promoted by leaders of the Church of Jesus Chri ...

) began a system of government. On January 31, 1850, the legislature provided for the creation of six counties to generally cover the area, named in this order: * Weber (with Ogden as county seat) * Great Salt Lake * Utah * San Pete * Tuilla * Little Salt Lake The county boundaries were better defined by the 1852 Utah Territory legislature. The borders were adjusted by subsequent acts in 1855, 1856, and 1862. The creation of

Nevada Territory The Territory of Nevada (N.T.) was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Nevada. Prior to the creation of the Neva ...

in 1862 also administratively reduced the county's territory significantly since its 1852 description had it running to the Sierra Nevada mountains in central California. A final adjustment in 1880 concerning the various lands in the Great Salt Lake area brought the county's borders to their present configuration. As of the 1852 description, the original Weber County stretched from California in the west, to the Oregon boundary on the north, to a point in the middle Davis County in the south. As Nevada and the State of Utah evolved, Weber County was trimmed so that it now occupies a stretch of the

Wasatch Front The Wasatch Front is a major metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Utah. It consists of a chain of contiguous cities and towns stretched along the Wasatch Range from Santaquin in the south to Pleasant View in the n ...

, part of the eastern shores of Great Salt Lake, and much of the rugged Wasatch Mountains.

Geography

The county extends from high in the

Wasatch Range The Wasatch Range ( ) or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Gr ...

in the east into a portion of the Great Salt Lake to the west, where the county's elongated point exists. The Weber and Ogden rivers and their

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

run through its valleys.''Weber County UT'' Google Maps (accessed 31 March 2019)
/ref> The Weber County Surveyor's office divides the county into two regions, the "Lower Valley" and the "Upper Valley", divided by the ridge of the Wasatch front range south through the county. Lower Valley, adjacent to the Lake, is the county's more populous part. The Upper Valley consists mostly of the Ogden Valley, the watershed of the Ogden River. The county's highest elevation is Willard Peak in the Wasatch Mountains, at ASL. The county has an area of , of which is land and (13%) is water. It is the second-smallest county in Utah by land area and third-smallest by total area.

Major highways

Many roads in Weber County are named in a numerical grid system with an street name difference of 800 corresponding to one mile in a similar vein to Salt Lake County. In April 1947, North Ogden was the first municipality in Weber County to adopt the grid system, resulting in the north/south demarcator (1st Street) being placed in the northern half of the county. The east/west demarcator was selected as Wall Avenue which runs parallel to downtown Ogden. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Adjacent counties

* Box Elder County - northwest * Cache County - north * Rich County - northeast * Morgan County - southeast * Davis County - south * Tooele County - southwest

Protected areas

* Cache National Forest (part) * Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area * Weber Memorial Park * Willard Bay Upland Game Management Area (part)

Lakes

* Beus Pond (aka Beus Reservoir) * Bluebell Spring * Box Spring * Bybee Pond (aka Lybee Reservoir) * Causey Reservoir * Choke Spring * Cold Springs * Cutler Spring * Deseret Spring (aka Desert Spring) * Front Hollow Spring * Glassman Pond * Great Salt Lake (part) * Green Pond * Huntsville Reservoir * Lime Kiln Spring * Limestone Spring * Little Monte Springs * Lower Dry Bread Pond * Meadow Creek Pond * Monastery Spring * Norma Springs * Pineview Reservoir * The Horseshoe Bend * Twenty-First Street Pond * Utaba Reservoir

Demographics

2020 census

According to the 2020 United States census and 2020 American Community Survey, there were 262,223 people in Weber County with a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 429.1 people per square mile (165.7/km²). Among non- Hispanic or Latino people, the racial makeup was 193,889 (73.9%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 3,209 (1.2%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1,394 (0.5%) Native American, 3,603 (1.4%) Asian, 948 (0.4%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1,014 (0.4%) from other races, and 9,424 (3.6%) from two or more races. 48,742 (18.6%) people were Hispanic or Latino. There were 131,864 (50.29%) males and 130,359 (49.71%) females, and the population distribution by age was 72,631 (27.7%) under the age of 18, 157,239 (60.0%) from 18 to 64, and 32,353 (12.3%) who were at least 65 years old. The median age was 32.9 years. There were 89,595 households in Weber County with an average size of 2.93 of which 64,544 (72.0%) were families and 25,051 (28.0%) were non-families. Among all families, 48,636 (54.3%) were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

, 5,660 (6.3%) were male householders with no spouse, and 10,248 (11.4%) were female householders with no spouse. Among all non-families, 19,876 (22.2%) were a single person living alone and 5,175 (5.8%) were two or more people living together. 33,909 (37.8%) of all households had children under the age of 18. 64,756 (72.3%) of households were owner-occupied while 24,839 (27.7%) were renter-occupied. The median income for a Weber County household was $71,275 and the median family income was $80,961, with a per-capita income of $29,186. The median income for males that were full-time employees was $53,678 and for females $38,512. 8.6% of the population and 5.7% of families were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. In terms of education attainment, out of the 158,841 people in Weber County 25 years or older, 13,423 (8.5%) had not completed high school, 46,466 (29.3%) had a high school diploma or equivalency, 59,079 (37.2%) had some college or

associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

, 27,871 (17.5%) had a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

, and 12,002 (7.6%) had a graduate or professional degree.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 231,236 people in the county, organized into 78,784 households and 57,867 families. The

was . There were 86,187 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 85.2%

, 1.4%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

, 1.3% Asian, 0.8% Native American, 0.3%

, 6.59% from other races, and 3.0% from two or more races. 16.7% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. The median income for a household in the county was $62,036, and the median income for a family was $71,359. Males had a median income of $49,081 versus $34,954 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $25,275. 12.1% of the population and 8.7% of families were below the

. Out of the total population, 15.4% of those under 18 and 8.5% of those 65 and older lived below the poverty line. In the 2010 census, 67.0% of people over 16 were in labor, and 33.0% were not in labor. The unemployment rate was 3.2%.

Age distribution

The median age was 30.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.7 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 99.0 males.

Ancestry

As of 2017, the largest self-identified ancestry groups in Weber County, Utah were: * English (21.6%) * German (10.5%) * "American" (7.5%) * Irish (6.1%) * Scottish (4.1%) * Danish (3.9%) * Italian (3.6%) * Dutch (3.1%) * Swedish (3.0%) * Welsh (1.9%) * Norwegian (1.9%)

Politics and government

Like most of Utah, Weber County voters usually vote Republican. In no national election since 1964 has the county selected the Democratic Party candidate.

Education

Tertiary institutions and organizations of education in Weber County: *

* Ogden–Weber Technical College The two K-12 school districts in the county are Ogden City School District and Weber School District.
Text list
/ref> There is also a state-operated school, Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

Communities

Cities

* Farr West * Harrisville * Hooper * Marriott-Slaterville * North Ogden * Ogden (county seat) * Plain City * Pleasant View * Riverdale * Roy * South Ogden * Uintah * Washington Terrace * West Haven

Towns

* Huntsville

Townships

* Reese * Warren * Weber * West Weber

Census-designated places

* Eden *

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

* Wolf Creek

Census county division

* Ogden Valley

Unincorporated communities

* Nordic Valley * Taylor

Notable residents

Hal Ashby William Hal Ashby (September 2, 1929 – December 27, 1988) was an Cinema of the United States, American film Film director, director and Film editing, editor. His work exemplified the countercultural attitude of the era. He directed wide-rangi ...

- film director * Rodney Bagley - developed catalytic converter * Gilbert Belnap - pioneer, sheriff of Weber County 1862-1870 * Solon Borglum - sculptor * Fawn M. Brodie - historian * John Browning - firearms manufacturer * Bernard DeVoto - historian * David Eccles - businessman * Lester Herrick - pioneer, sheriff of Weber County in 1860 * Jefferson Hunt - founded Huntsville * J. Willard Marriott - businessman * Herbert B. Maw - Utah governor * David O. McKay - ninth president of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

* Olene S. Walker - Utah governor