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. Salt Lake City was founded on July 24, 1847, by early pioneer settlers led by Brigham Young who were seeking to escape persecution they had experienced while living farther east. It is also the central core of the larger of only two major urban areas located within the Great Basin (the other being Reno, Nevada). 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 (190 km) segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,746,164 (as of 2021 estimates), making it the 22nd largest in the nation.
The city is the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which had a population of 1,257,936 at the 2020 census. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, it is the 117th most populous city in the United States.
It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S.