Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 32,265 residents, this town was settled in 1980.
Health is its strong suit: CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 93% of the country. With an A− overall, Cottonwood Heights is better than just over four fifths of U.S. towns. The ranking puts it 48th of 118 in Utah. It is strong on incomes as well: the median household earns $119K. What holds it back is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $776K, 7.9 years of the Salt Lake City metro’s $98K median household income. This Utah town has 4 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Granite Paper Mill and Granite Hydroelectric Power Plant Historic District. On walkability, just 12 of Utah’s 173 towns do better. Among 109 Utah towns, just 7 have a higher typical home value than Cottonwood Heights.
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · home values, Zillow · National Register of Historic Places · Zillow, September 2026.
Where Cottonwood Heights beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Utah), ordered by how far Cottonwood Heights is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 22,665 in 1980, 33,617 in 2020. The archive holds 17 old photos and papers going back to 1883 and 4 maps from 1952 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Cottonwood Heights. Close and well known come first.
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaDelta Center
10 mi Stadium & arenaRice–Eccles Stadium
5 mi Stadium & arenaAmerica First Field
24 mi LakeLake Bonneville18 mi Theme parkEvermore Park
15 mi Ski areaPark City Mountain Resort393 runs · 3,100 ft verticalDelta Center: Lomrjyo, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rice–Eccles Stadium: Brenton Walker, CC BY 2.0 · America First Field: Scott Catron, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Lake Bonneville: Wilson44691, Public domain · Park City Mountain Resort: Rudi Riet from Washington, DC, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Cottonwood Heights, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Mar 13, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Cottonwood Heights.
Cottonwood Heights gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns and trades workers with Salt Lake City and other neighbors, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of Utah.
In Cottonwood Heights, nearly one in ten adults worry about having enough food. The share of adults in Cottonwood Heights who smoke cigarettes is 6.8%, against 8% in Utah’s towns and 14% across U.S. towns. Among adults in the town, 28% have obesity and 15% binge drink. This Utah town beats the Utah average on 14 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 5.
| Cottonwood Heights | Utah towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 6.8% | 8% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 31% | 35% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 11% | 16% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 17% | 25% |
| What stands out | Cottonwood Heights | UT |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7.4% | 10.5% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.2% | 12.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.4% | 7.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The public schools here belong to the Canyons District. Three of its 8 schools are shown below, with the reason for each. 5 public schools serve Cottonwood Heights, with 2,121 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butler MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 913 | A |
| Brighton HighLargest public high schoolGrades 8–12 | Grades 8–12 | 2,435 | A− |
| Butler SchoolTop results in townGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 600 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within UT on state tests and graduation
At 7.9 years of the Salt Lake City metro’s $98K median household income, the typical home (about $776K) costs more against local pay than in 91% of Utah towns; that ratio is one input to that grade.
Home values are up 3.4% over the year to September 2026. For Cottonwood Heights, the midpoint rent is $1,730 a month. Bidding over the asking price: 26% of homes sold in the town.
| Cottonwood Heights | Utah towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,730 a month | $1,538 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 72% | 79% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Across 14 parks and preserves: 8.3 miles of trail. The biggest place to walk is Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, 182 acres with 1 miles of trail. The trail network density for Cottonwood Heights comes to 0.9 miles per square mile.
| Cottonwood Heights | Utah towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 7.3% | 3.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.9 miles per square mile | 1.1 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Crestwood Park | 2.6 mi | 55 |
| 2. Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest | 1 mi | 182 |
| 3. Twin Peaks Wilderness | 0.9 mi | 99 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The Cottonwood Weir weather station records that 82 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 95% of U.S. towns.
Cottonwood Heights’ typical July afternoon high is 91°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Cottonwood Heights has about as many jobs (19,571) as working residents, but only 1,306 people both live and work here.
The top destinations are Salt Lake City (29%), Sandy (7%) and Murray (6%). Only 8% of working residents stay in Cottonwood Heights for work; the rest commute out. Also worth knowing: jobs in Cottonwood Heights grew by 4,101 from 2013 to 2023, reaching 19,571. The share of workers in Cottonwood Heights who do their job from home is 25%, above both the Utah town median (16%) and the median of U.S. towns (11%).
| Cottonwood Heights | Utah towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 25% | 16% | 11% |
| Median household income | $119,000 | $101,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 7.6% | 6.2% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The rate of thefts and burglaries in Cottonwood Heights is 15.6 per 1,000 residents. The violent crime rate in the town is 0.7 per 1,000 residents.
| Cottonwood Heights | Utah towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 15.6 per 1,000 residents | 8.6 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 1.4 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
The national flood insurance program has paid 2 claims in Cottonwood Heights since 2011. Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in half of U.S. communities. Of the losses FEMA expects in the town, 46% come from avalanches and 38% from earthquakes.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
9 within 15 miles of the center of Cottonwood Heights
About 6 of every 100 Cottonwood Heights residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across Utah.
4 places in Cottonwood Heights on the National Register of Historic Places.
City in the United States
Cottonwood Heights is a city located in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, along the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley. It lies south of the cities of Holladay and Murray, east of Midvale, and north of Sandy within the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. Originally a census-designated place (CDP), following a successful referendum in May 2004, the city was incorporated on January 14, 2005. The population, as of the 2020 census, was 33,617. The corporate offices of Instructure, Dyno Nobel, the defunct Fusion-io, Extra Space Storage, Breeze Airways, and JetBlue are located in the city.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Cottonwood Heights.
It grades higher overall than all 4 graded towns on its borders; Midvale (A−) comes closest.
| Town | UT rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cottonwood Heights | #48 | A− | C | B− | A− | A |
| Sandy | #68 | B+ | C | C | A− | A |
| Granite | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Holladay | #89 | B | C | — | C− | A+ |
| Midvale | #61 | A− | C | — | A− | A− |
| Murray | #103 | C+ | C+ | D | C | A |
Holladay and Midvale report no FBI crime data of their own. Granite isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Cottonwood Heights with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Cottonwood Heights grades A− overall, better than 82% of U.S. towns and #48 of 118 in Utah. It grades A for health, B− for safety and A− for schools.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
