In Utah County, Utah, entrepreneurship is deeply ingrained in the culture. “We are an entrepreneurial mecca,” said Corbin Church, founder of a Utah County startup incubator called iHUB. “There are over 200 businesses working on this floor.”

As part of our ongoing series “The Age of Work” about how demographic shifts — specifically the aging U.S. labor force — are shaking up the global economy, “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal and ADP chief economist Nela Richardson visited Utah County, which is one of the youngest in America. 

“This is an economy that has found its entrepreneurial backbone,” said Richardson. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, new business applications in Utah per capita are among the highest in the nation. In Utah County, there were about 26.7 applications for new businesses per 1,000 people in 2023, the most recent data available. 

At iHUB, Richardson and Ryssdal spoke with Church about how Utah’s demographics — the relative youth of the population and culture of the LDS church — contribute to that culture. Then, in the same building, they visited a makers market where many home-based businesses sell jewelry and other wares.

Use the audio player above to hear their conversation.