Maybe Utah's Dixie needs a new motto: The south shall fall again.

After spending a couple of years as the nation's fastest-growing metro area, St. George has seen its lofty status slip to second place and, now, all the way to 10th.

Even Provo-Orem (sixth) and the Logan area (ninth) are outpacing their Washington County counterpart.

Of course, all three Utah regions still rank among the nation's booming-est metro areas, according to new census data, for their population spurts from July 2007 to July 2008.

"Utah was the fastest-growing state" during that time frame, said state demographer Juliette Tennert. "A big portion [of the growth in Utah cities] is strong natural increase. Utah has the highest fertility rate in the nation."

Plus, more people continue to move to Utah in search of jobs than move out, she said. The trend has slowed with the drooping economy, she noted, but Utah's business climate still fares better than most.

That has nudged Utah cities' robust growth rates.

"Whoa ... I didn't know we were moving at that speed," Logan Mayor Randy Watts said Wednesday.

Logan and surrounding Cache County and Franklin County, Idaho, gained 3,917 residents, a growth rate of 3.2 percent, for a total population of 125,070.

In St. George, Assistant City Manager Marc Mortensen had the opposite reaction to news that his city's annual growth rate had dipped to 3.1 percent and now ranks 10th in the nation.

"Things have slowed," he said. "It is nice to have a breather."

St. George and surrounding Washington County (population 137,589) hit an 8 percent growth rate for the year that ended July 1, 2005, making it the nation's fastest-growing metro area that year. But the building boom in Utah's Dixie has tapered off dramatically since then.

Last year, St. George issued building permits for 289 housing units -- 15 percent of the 1,897 permits issued in 2005, according to Community Development Director Bob Nicholson.

Still, a number of public-works projects, in response to the population boom, are keeping many contractors employed, Mortensen said. St. George is building a new $168 million airport, and the state has launched work on a belt route around Interstate 15.

The Provo-Orem area, which includes all of Utah and Juab counties, logged a 3.4 percent leap from July 2007 to July 2008 -- the fastest pace of any metro area in Utah. Much of the growth -- an additional 17,989 people to a total of 540,820 -- occurred in bedroom communities such as Lehi, American Fork, Spanish Fork and Santaquin.

Santaquin, certainly, is grappling with "growing pains," said City Planner Dennis Marker. The southern Utah County city is working to improve its sewer and water systems and has its sights set on scoring its first grocery store.

The farm town has jumped from 4,800 people in the 2000 census to about 8,000 today -- a 67 percent burst.

"Most of it is the affordability of land, still, down here," Marker said. "Most of northern Utah County is getting built out and congested."

Residents, he noted, have only a 15- to 20-minute commute to jobs in Provo and can buy a bigger home for less cash.

rwinters@sltrib.com