But elsewhere, particularly along the western edge of the Wasatch Front and in the state's southwest corner, population is booming.

While Paradise - whose 669 residents live just nine miles south of Logan in northern Utah's Cache County - lost 88 residents, or 11.6 percent between 2000 and 2006, some cities are showing triple-digit percentage jumps, according to U.S. Census estimates released today.

Like Saratoga Springs.

That western Utah County community's population grew from 984 to 7,283, a whopping 640 percent over the same six-year period. That makes it Utah's fastest-growing city, edging out Salt Lake County's Herriman, which grew by 529 percent.

Saratoga Springs' numbers don't surprise city officials.

"It could even be greater," remarked Saratoga Springs' assistant city manager, Spencer Kyle, who owes his job - created just a year ago - to the 10-year-old city's need to deal with its burgeoning growth.

He's not the only one added to the payroll. Four years ago, the city employed fewer than 20 people. Now it has close to 55 full-time employees and 60 to 100 part-timers.

While the leap in growth is the state's highest, it mirrors what is happening elsewhere in suburban areas clustered around Utah's largest communities.

"Obviously we have people moving to Utah from other places, fueled by our continued low unemployment rates and a vibrant economy," said Juliette Tennert, state demographer with the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. The Census report pegged the overall growth in the Beehive State at 13.7 percent, or 2,550,063 in 2006 over 2,243,490 in 2000.

Not all that growth is centered along the Wasatch Front.

Washington County shows similar numbers. Since 2000, St. George rose from the state's 10th largest city to eighth, with 34.8 percent growth over six years - a credible gauge of prosperity.

But look at the Census figures for the communities surrounding that southwest Utah retirement center: Washington City, a suburb to the east, grew a whopping 83 percent, expanding from 8,316 in 2000 to 15,217 in 2006. Hurricane and Ivins also bloomed, expanding 45 percent and 53 percent respectively.

"Utah is becoming more attractive to out-of-staters. That's definitely the case in the St. George area, said Nate Pierce, Weber County's operations director, who hastened to add: "Now they're moving up north as well."

He said his county, located north of Salt Lake City with Ogden at its center, is deluged daily with new development requests, particularly in Ogden's upper valley - a scenic landscape graced by Pineview Reservoir and three ski areas.

But while the suburbs are booming, major centers like Ogden, Salt Lake City and even Taylorsville - three of the state's top 10 largest - saw stagnant growth since 2000.

"That data is not surprising," Tennert said, referring to the well-known "donut effect" where people migrate from heavily populated metropolitan areas to encircling suburbs.

"Communities like Ogden are built out" - with no spare land for new construction, Pierce said. "They have to build up rather than out."

Northwestern Davis County, positioned between Salt Lake and Weber counties, has seen an influx of residents, due to available and reasonably priced land. Syracuse ranked as the state's fifth fastest-growing city, almost doubling in size with 97 percent growth.

That figure came as no surprise to Barry Burton, Davis County's assistant director of community and economic development.

"We did projections 15 years ago and forecast that Syracuse would become the third most populous city in Davis County," Burton said. "They'll eventually pass Bountiful, which has little room to grow."

Davis's growth is driven less by in-migration than by the county's large families who tend to stay close to home.

"We have a lot of kids, and they definitely need houses," Burton said.

In Utah County, Eagle Mountain - neighbor to Saratoga Springs - also saw soaring population growth, ranking third in the state with a 333 percent increase. Officials there expect it to last.

"I feel like it is going to grow, " Mayor Don Richardson said. "We may slow down, but we will continue to be a fast-growing city."

Officials already have approved a new power line into the city's center that could double Eagle Mountain's downtown population.

But the upgrades are everywhere, Richardson said.

The mayor reported road widenings, a new sewer system and commercial-tax incentives - all to supply the surging suburb where building permits hit 1,000 last year.

cmckitrick@sltrib.com

jstettler@sltrib.com