St. George, Utah

St. George is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah on the Utah-Arizona border, and is the county seat of Washington County, Utah. It is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies in the northeastern-most part of the Mojave Desert adjacent to Pine Valley Mountains; it's also at the convergence of three distinct geological areas: the Mojave Desert, Colorado Plateau, and Great Basin. It is 118 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada and 300 miles south-southwest of Salt Lake City along Interstate 15. The city is named after George A. Smith, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Apostle.

As of 2015, St. George had a population of 80,202, and the metropolitan area, defined as Washington County, had an estimated population of 155,600. St. George is the seventh-largest city in Utah and the most populous city in the state outside of the Wasatch Front. In 2005, St. George was the second fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States, only after Greeley, Colorado, a trend that continued through 2010, when growth slowed substantially due to the economic recession. Today, however, growth trends have rebounded at a steady, but more manageable pace, ranking St. George as the fifth fastest-growing metro area in the country in 2015.