Future Cities

Emerging Life Sciences Markets: Salt Lake City, UT

March 19, 2025 5 Minute Read

Aerial view of downtown Salt Lake City

Demographics

Over 1.3 million people—43% aged 18 to 44—live in the Salt Lake City metro, with a projected five-year growth rate of 3.6%. Over half of the population are millennials or Gen Zers, who will comprise most of the regional workforce for the foreseeable future.

Figure 1: Salt Lake City Population Analysis

Source: CBRE Location Intelligence, 2025.

Scientific Employment Benchmarked

More than 2.7% of the Salt Lake City metro talent pool works in occupations that could be biopharmaceutical research & development (R&D), biopharmaceutical manufacturing or medical technology roles. Salt Lake City has a strong medtech presence, ranking eighth for life sciences medtech talent and 17th for life sciences biopharma R&D out of 100 metros in CBRE’s 2024 Life Sciences Talent report. Salt Lake City makes up 1.4% of the total U.S. medtech talent pool and has the sixth-most biomedical engineers of any U.S. metro. According to a 2024 study from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, life sciences companies account for 41,455 jobs in Salt Lake County.

Figure 2: 2024 Salt Lake City Life Sciences-Related Occupations

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, CBRE Research, 2025.

Salt Lake City shows a balance of scientific employment and labor costs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As shown in Figure 3, Salt Lake City falls above the U.S. average for concentration of scientific employment and below the U.S. average for annual median salary, representing a lower-cost labor market with a strong life sciences talent pipeline.

Figure 3: Life, Physical & Social Science Occupation Summary

Note: Size of dot in chart represents total science employment per market. Showing only markets with at least 5,000 applicable jobs.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS); Showing data for SOC Code 19-0000 (Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations), 2025.

Location Incentives

Over the past five years, life sciences companies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area have secured over $12 million in economic incentives, at an average of $15,400 per new job and 10% of capital investment, as reported by FT Locations. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Perfect Day and CAO Group are just some of the companies investing in new and expansion projects in this emerging life sciences market.

According to CBRE’s Location Incentives Group, among the top incentive programs available in Salt Lake City is the Economic Development Tax Increment Finance Tax Credit (EDTIF), which aims to support Utah’s growth in targeted industries, including life sciences, healthcare, technology, financial services, aerospace and defense, and advanced manufacturing. EDTIF provides refundable, post-performance tax credits up to 30% of new state tax revenues. To qualify, business must create a minimum of 50 jobs in urban counties with wages that meet or exceed 110% of the county average wages.

Another funding tool is Utah's Technology & Life Sciences Tax Credits program, which offers tax credits to investors in qualifying life science and technology businesses. The program is administered by the Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED). Applicants must invest at least $25,000 and may not have 30% or more stake in the company. The credit can be up to 35% of the investment amount, disbursed over three years, but no credit can exceed $350,000 in any given year.

Figure 4: Salt Lake City Top Incentive Programs

Note: The extent, if any, of state and local incentive offerings depend on location and scope of the operation.
Source: CBRE Location Incentives Group, 2025.

R&D’s Role in the State Economy

R&D plays a strong role in Utah’s economy. The state ranks favorably, positioned in the top half of all states with R&D expenditures from businesses, universities, nonprofits and government composing 2.24% of state GDP in 2021, the latest year data is available. That share has been growing each year from 1.97% in 2019.

Figure 5: R&D as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product

Notes: R&D includes R&D performed by federal agencies, businesses, universities, other nonprofit organizations, federally funded research and development centers, and state agencies. U.S. total R&D reported here includes U.S. territories, as well as R&D for which the location could not be determined. The national GDP total for the United States includes Puerto Rico for all years in which data are available.
Source: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Patterns of R&D Resources (various years), data available as of April 2024; U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Gross Domestic Product data (various years), data as of April 2024; Government of Puerto Rico, Office of the Governor, Gross Domestic Product data (various years), data available as of April 2024.

Success Drivers

Education

The Salt Lake City population is highly educated, with 40% of the population aged 25 and over having a bachelor’s degree or higher, 3% higher than the U.S. total. Salt Lake City ranked 27th in the U.S. for Ph.D.s issued in the biological and biomedical sciences for the 2021-2022 school year out of over 500 metros analyzed. Salt Lake City is home to two universities offering degrees in the biological and biomedical sciences, University of Utah and Westminster University. The University of Utah awarded 578 bachelor’s, 74 master’s and 88 Ph.D. degrees in the biological and biomedical sciences in 2023. Of all Ph.D.s awarded in 2023, 47% were in R&D or related life sciences fields. Brigham Young University, located in nearby Provo, is also noted to be in the top 25 growth markets for life sciences degrees from 2017 to 2022, with 15% growth.

Figure 6: Degree Completions

Source: IPEDS, CBRE Research, 2025.
Note: Not all degrees listed are available in the MSA.
R&D Degrees: Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology; Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other; Biology, General; Biomathematics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology; Biomedical/Medical Engineering; Botany/Plant Biology; Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences; Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology; Genetics; Microbiological Sciences and Immunology; Neurobiology and Neurosciences; Pharmacology and Toxicology; Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences; Zoology/Animal Biology
Other Life Sciences-Related Degrees: Agricultural and Domestic Animal Services; Agricultural and Food Products Processing; Agricultural Business and Management; Agricultural Engineering; Agricultural Mechanization; Agricultural Production Operations; Agricultural Public Services; Agricultural/Animal/Plant/Veterinary Science and Related Fields, Other; Agriculture, General; Agriculture/Veterinary Preparatory Programs; Animal Sciences; Applied Horticulture and Horticultural Business Services; Chemical Engineering; Engineering Chemistry; Environmental/Environmental; Health Engineering; Food Science and Technology; International Agriculture; Plant Sciences; Science Technologies/Technicians, General; Science Technologies/Technicians, Other; Soil Sciences; Veterinary Administrative Services; Veterinary Biomedical and Clinical Sciences; Veterinary Medicine; Veterinary/Animal Health Technologies/Technicians

Funding

According to PitchBook, Salt Lake City-based companies and institutions secured nearly $550 million in venture capital, private equity and public investment in 2024, the best year since 2021. In 2024, Salt Lake City secured the 35th-most life sciences venture capital funding (top 30% of all metros receiving VC funding) and 28th-most National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding (top 10%) of all U.S. metros.

Figure 7: Salt Lake City CSA Funding Deal Volume

Source: PitchBook, CBRE Research 2025.

Market Snapshot

With over 1,600 life sciences companies in Utah, the domestic industry was one of the fastest growing in the nation from 2012 to 2022, with expectations of continued growth. With so much growth, filling the work force has been one of the biggest challenges, but Utah benefits from strong government support. At the end of 2023, Governor Spencer Cox proposed a $7 million investment to build the life sciences workforce. Salt Lake City is also home to Utah’s life sciences trade association, BioUtah, as well as BioUtah’s branding initiative, BioHive. This partnership comprised of over 1,100 companies across the life sciences and healthcare innovation industries promotes collaboration and showcases Utah life sciences companies across the U.S. The Salt Lake City life sciences ecosystem also benefits from the well-established nearby tech hub, Silicon Slopes. The startup and tech community, along with University of Utah in Salt Lake City and Brigham Young in Provo, helps fuel the growing life sciences and healthcare innovation ecosystem in Salt Lake City.

Figure 8: Top Life Sciences-Related Companies

Source: CBRE Research, 2024.

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