State Demographer Message - Feb, 18th 2011

There are over 25 million reasons, among quite a few others, to be proud of Texas. Our people are our greatest asset. As the Texas state demographer, I am thankful to have the opportunity to support state and local policy makers in their efforts to improve the lives of our people by providing them with objective information about the composition, characteristics and distribution of the people of our state.

TEXAS is

• big.  The population of Texas is the second largest in the United States, with 25,145,561 people.¹

• young.  Approximately 27% of Texas’ population is under 18¹ and only 10% of the population is older than 65 years.²  Webb County in Texas, has the youngest population in the U.S. with children younger than 5 comprising 12.8% of the population.⁸

• embracing of culture and diversity.  9.5 million or 38% of Texans are of Hispanic descent,  2.9 million or 12% are African Americans, and 1.4 million or 6% are other (non-Anglo mainly of Asian descent).¹  In about a decade, it is expected that Texas’ population will have more persons of Hispanic descent than any other racial or ethnic group.⁵

• a desired place to live and work.  Net in-migration to Texas accounts for almost half of the population growth in recent years.² More than 171,900 college graduates moved into Texas each year between 2006 and 2008, placing Texas as 2nd in the Nation by this measure.

• urban. Texas has three of the top 10 largest cities in the Nation.⁴ Several of the metropolitan areas in Texas are among the most rapidly growing in the Nation.⁶

• rural. Texas is the second largest state in the Nation in terms of square miles (268,601) and approximately 17% of the population lives in rural areas.² 

• a working state. Texas has a civilian labor force of more than twelve million workers and an unemployment rate lower than in most States.⁷

• family oriented.  Texas ranks 3^rd among states for the percent of households which are married-couple families with children (24.4%).³

• multigenerational.  Texas ranks 3^rd among states for percent of households which are multigenerational (4.5%).³

• growing – fast.   Texas gained more population than any other state in the last Census year (between April 1, 2000 and April 1, 2010), adding 4,293,741 people.¹   Among cities over 100,000 population in the U.S., 4 of the 10 fastest growing areas are in Texas (2007-2008 change).⁸