Daggett County, UT
Property Data

America's Emptiest County Has a Secret Worth Knowing

Daggett County is one of the most sparsely populated counties in the contiguous United States — 747 people spread across roughly 700 square miles of canyon country in the northeastern corner of Utah, bordering Wyoming and Colorado. That works out to exactly one person per square mile. For context, the average American county has a population density closer to 100. Even by rural Utah standards, Daggett is an outlier, a place where the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Green River cut through red rock wilderness that draws far more visitors than permanent residents.

That tourism economy explains a lot about what the data shows — and what it obscures.

The Vacancy Rate That Isn't What It Seems

The county's 77.3% housing vacancy rate is one of the most striking numbers in any county-level dataset in the American West. Nearly eight out of ten housing units sit "vacant" at any given census count. But this isn't blight — it's cabins. Daggett County is a recreation economy with a thin year-round population and an enormous stock of seasonal and vacation properties clustered around Flaming Gorge. Most of those "vacant" units are weekend retreats owned by residents of Salt Lake City, the Wasatch Front, and Wyoming. The 1,155 total housing units serving only 262 permanent households tells that story precisely.

Key Statistics

A Retirement and Recreation Economy

At a median age of 45 and with 18.1% of residents over 65, Daggett skews older than both Utah (which has one of the nation's youngest age profiles) and the nation. Labor force participation at 56.9% reflects a population that includes retirees, seasonal workers, and people who moved here specifically to step back from traditional employment. The 8.6% unemployment rate sounds alarming in isolation, but in a county this small, a handful of people between seasonal gigs can move that needle significantly.

The education profile — only 8.1% holding bachelor's degrees against a national rate near 35% — is consistent with a frontier recreational community, not a college town or tech corridor. Yet computer access at 95.4% is surprisingly high, and broadband penetration at 88.5% reflects real infrastructure investment, likely tied to remote work demand from the cabin-owning class.

The income figures deserve a caveat: the mean household income of $20.27 million is almost certainly a data artifact caused by one or two extremely high-income filers in a county of 262 households — a reminder of how small-sample statistics can distort. The $58,750 median tells a more grounded story.

FAQs

What makes Daggett County, Utah unique? It's one of the least populated counties in the lower 48, defined almost entirely by the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Its housing market is shaped not by typical residential demand but by vacation cabin ownership — which explains the paradox of high homeownership, low home prices, and a 77% vacancy rate coexisting in the same zip codes.

Is it affordable to live in Daggett County year-round? Remarkably so, if you already own. The median home value of $242,100 sits well below the national median, rents average just $775 a month, and rent burden is nearly non-existent at 8.9%. The harder question is finding steady work — the local economy runs on recreation and tourism, which is seasonal by nature.

Why is the vacancy rate so high in Daggett County? The county contains far more cabins and seasonal properties than year-round residents. Most of the housing stock serves weekend and summer visitors to Flaming Gorge Reservoir, not permanent households. This is a feature of the recreation economy, not a sign of economic distress.