[citation needed] Logan's growth reflects settlement and postwar booms along with other changes incidental to conditions in the West.

[5] The city lies near the eastern edge of Cache Valley on the western slopes of the Bear River Mountains.

The eastern portions of the city are atop shelf-like "benches", late Pleistocene sedimentary deposits created by the glacially fed Logan River feeding into the northern stretches of Lake Bonneville, building a "Gilbert-type" river delta over several thousand years.

The Logan River later cut down through these sedimentary deposits after the draining of Lake Bonneville about 14,500 years ago.

This created a low-lying area with very steep slopes that reach into the rest of town and to the Logan River bottomlands.

Logan has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dsa) with very warm and usually dry summers and cold winters with moderate snowfall.

Like other areas in northern Utah, during mid-winter, high-pressure systems often form over Cache Valley, leading to strong temperature inversions that trap cold air and pollutants and allow thick smog to accumulate in the valley about three percent of the time.

Logan has a wide range of economic sectors, with a focus on education, manufacturing and processing, medical services, agriculture, and retail businesses.

The city's largest employers are Utah State University and Space Dynamics Laboratory.

Other major employers include ICON Health & Fitness (IFIT), Campbell Scientific, Cache Valley Bank, Conservice, Cache County School District, Cytiva, Entegris, Gossner Foods, Intermountain Health, JBS USA, Lee’s Marketplace, Logan Regional Hospital, Logan City School District, Pepperidge Farm, RR Donnelley, Thermo Fisher Scientific, TTM Technologies, S&S – Sansei Technologies, and Schreiber Foods.

Zootah at Willow Park is a small zoo in Logan's Willow Park, with a small collection of wild animals including monkeys, coyotes, bobcats, bald eagles, and land birds and ducks.

There are numerous events at the Logan/Cache County Fairgrounds including fairs, rodeos, and demolition derbies.

Nearby, the city of Logan runs an aquatic center and a skate park.

In 2009, the Logan metropolitan statistical area (MSA) ranked eighth-highest in the U.S. for commuters who biked to work (3.3%).