The 10 Best College Towns In Utah For 2024

Believe it or not, America has the best colleges in the world. It's been proven by data (and surveys) that the U.S. educational system is of the highest quality

It's actually not even close and Utah is home to a handful of them.

While we could debate which colleges within Utah are the 'best,' that's not the goal of this post.

Instead, ride along with us as we determine which college towns in Utah are the best.

You know, the type of places where there's energy and stimulation, but the type of place you can walk around at night. The happiest, chillest, most downright fun places where you can send your kids off to college where you won't break the bank, or worry about their well being.

The 10 Best College Towns In Utah For 2024

1. Ogden, UT
2. Logan, UT
3. Ephraim, UT
4. Provo, UT
5. Salt Lake City, UT
6. Orem, UT
7. Draper, UT
8. West Jordan, UT
9. Murray, UT
10. West Haven, UT

While some of these may not seem like a 'real' college town per se, when you look at the numbers, it's hard to argue against.

And for those who live in Ogden, Logan and Ephraim - we tip our hats to you and we'll schedule a tour for next week. You can see where Ogden ranks in terms of the best college town in America.

Read on to find out more or for more on Utah check out:

• Best Places To Live In Utah
• Best Counties To Live In Utah
• Cheapest Places To Live In Utah

The 10 Best College Towns In Utah For 2024

Colleges: Weber State University, Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College, Nightingale College

Colleges: Utah State University, Bridgerland Applied Technology College, Stevens-Henager College

Colleges: Snow College

Colleges: Brigham Young University-Provo, Provo College, AmeriTech College-Provo

Colleges: Salt Lake Community College, University of Utah, Westminster College

Colleges: Utah Valley University, Utah College of Massage Therapy-Utah Valley, Stevens-Henager College

Colleges: AmeriTech College-Draper, The Art Institute of Salt Lake City, Argosy University-Salt Lake City

Colleges: Broadview University-West Jordan, Taylor Andrews Academy of Hair Design-West Jordan

Colleges: ITT Technical Institute-Murray, Eagle Gate College-Murray, Cameo College of Essential Beauty

Colleges: Stevens-Henager College

How'd we figure out the best college towns in Utah?

To crunch our data on Utah's best college towns, we used Saturday Night Science to decide which qualities (or rankings) make sense to use in the data, and then crunch the numbers for our rankings.

First off, we firmly decided that only cities with a 4 year college should make the cut -- so there has to be at least one college granting bachelors degrees in town.

You might be surprised to hear that there are only 10 places in Utah with an institution of higher learning with that criteria.

Source of data include OpenStreetMaps, the College Scorecard, the U.S. Census, and FBI reporting data to include the following factors:

• Students Make Up Large % of the Population
• College-specific Factors
• Graduation rate
• Tuition Cost
• Student Body Diversity
• Town Characteristics
• Safety
• Affordability
• Income and Employment Opportunities
• Things to Do
• Bars
• Museums & Libraries
• Population Density

We ranked each city across each of the criteria, with one being the best.

We rolled up the individual scores into the category and ranked them again based on the category.

Finally, we took the average rank across each category, with the city posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title "Best College Town In Utah For 2024." We updated this article for 2024. This is our six time ranking the best college towns in Utah.

And it looks like Ogden placed Summa Cum Laude.

There You Have It -- The Best College Towns In The Utah

If you're looking for the best college towns in Utah, you came to the right place.

The best college towns in Utah are Ogden, Logan, Ephraim, Provo, Salt Lake City, Orem, Draper, West Jordan, Murray, and West Haven.

These places all have great college sports programs, tons of stuff to do, and are great places to raise a family.

For more reading, check out:

• Utah Cities With The Largest Hispanic Population
• Gayest Cities In Utah
• Worst Places To Live In Utah

10 Best College Towns In Utah

Rank	City	Population
1	Ogden, UT	86754
2	Logan, UT	53246
3	Ephraim, UT	5739
4	Provo, UT	114400
5	Salt Lake City, UT	201269
6	Orem, UT	97100
7	Draper, UT	50635
8	West Jordan, UT	116383
9	Murray, UT	50041
10	West Haven, UT	18334