Salt Lake City is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah, as well as the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With an estimated population of 199,723 in 2020, the city is the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,257,936. Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City–Ogden–Provo Combined Statistical Area, a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along a 120-mile segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,606,548, making it the 22nd largest in the nation. It is also the central core of the larger of only two major urban areas located within the Great Basin.
Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by early pioneer settlers, led by Brigham Young, who were seeking to escape persecution they had experienced while living farther east. The Mormon pioneers, as they would come to be known, entered a semi-arid valley and immediately began planning and building an extensive irrigation network which could feed the population and foster future growth.