Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U.S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city is the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,153,340 . Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Combined Statistical Area. This region is a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along an approximately 120mi segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,423,912. It is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin .The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young, and other followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were seeking to escape religious persecution. They encountered an arid, inhospitable valley that they then extensively irrigated and cultivated, thereby establishing the foundation to sustain its large population of today. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the city was originally named "Great Salt Lake City"; however, the word "great" was dropped from the official name in 1868 by the 17th Utah Territorial Legislature. The city is headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .
