TDC in the News

According to a new report released by national research firm Dodge Data & Analytics, construction in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area increased by 5 percent from November 2018 to November of this year. More than $2 billion in building starts were recorded last month, the report states.

According to recent U.S. Census Bureau data, the Dallas-Fort Worth region gained more residents in 2018 than any other metro area in the country. The two cities now serve as home to more than 7.5 million residents combined, making D-FW the fourth-largest metro area. Over the past eight years, the region has added more than 1 million people.

"If you look at Dallas-Fort Worth, its economy is continuing to expand and that is creating economic opportunities," Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said.

The region’s Venezuelan population has quadrupled in less than a decade, leaping from 4,000 in 2010 to 18,000 last year.

The increase in the number of Venezuelans reflects the diversifying Hispanic population in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Residents of Mexican origin continue to be the majority.

Dallas-Fort Worth is clearly attractive, with its sturdy economy and an abundance of jobs, but Texas state demographer Lloyd Potter also points to the role of migrant networks. Those communities grow stronger once they secure housing and stable employment, which generates resources to bring more people, he said.

“Most immigrants go to places where either they know somebody or there’s a community from their country of origin, maybe even their community of origin,” Potter said.

Lone Star State still adds more people to its population than rest of U.S.

The amount of work required to ensure everyone in Hidalgo County gets counted in the 2020 Census became clear at a Texas House Committee on Redistricting hearing last Friday.

At the hearing, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez confidently predicted that the census count would show his county at over a million people.

However, a senior demographer at the Texas Demographic Center, Dr. Lila Valencia, said her agency’s projections put Hidalgo County’s population in 2020 at only 870,000.

California is spending $187 million to try to ensure an accurate count of its population. The Texas Legislature decided not to devote any money to the job. Why?

Texas has a campaign, too — a shoestring campaign. Although the state’s 29 million residents make it second in population only to California, the Texas Legislature has declined to spend any money to see that they are counted. A volunteer corps of civic groups, philanthropies, local governments and others are trying to fill the breach.

Texas has 300,000 more job openings than people to fill the positions, meaning the state needs the 1,000 people who move here daily from other states or countries. Without them, Texas’ economic boom might fall silent, Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said in Waco on Thursday.

Potter, speaking at the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce’s “State of the State” event at the Baylor Club, said Texas is growing and becoming more ethnically diverse.

U.S. Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham is in Texas making a push to get people to apply for the thousands of open jobs for the 2020 Census.

Around half a million temporary employees are needed to conduct the upcoming census. Director Dillingham spoke with UT Chancellor James Milliken Tuesday about promoting the opportunity to college students.

Dillingham also met with Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs for a roundtable discussion with other state agencies to coordinate efforts to ensure an accurate count of all Texans. Texas State Demographer Dr. Lloyd Potter and representatives from the Texas Legislature were also part of the roundtable.

In the United States, Districts for every state Legislature and Congress are updated every ten years following the U.S. Census count which is currently underway. Texas population has been booming over the last decade and stands to gain at least three new congressional seats. But some areas of the Lone Star State are losing population.

Texas State Demographer Dr. Lloyd Potter testified before the State Senate Redistricting Select Committee on Tuesday at the State Capitol that the boom of immigration from south of the border has actually slowed down this decade.

The Census Bureau released the latest batch of data from its American Communities Survey last week. The survey offers a glimpse into economic indicators, demographic shifts and population numbers.

Median income in Austin is about $10,000 above the statewide median income at $71,543. That's roughly where it was last year, but Lila Valencia, a senior demographer for the Texas Demographic Center, says when examined across race and ethnicity, the new numbers show a disparity.

On Wednesday, dozens of government leaders, community advocates and demographers met in a first-floor room of a downtown Austin office building to strategize about what they call one of the most important undertakings of the next decade — getting an accurate count in the upcoming 2020 census.

Austin and Travis County have given considerable money this year to outreach efforts to get people to participate — a total of $600,000, which is substantially more than the $14,000 it amassed for a similar undertaking 10 years ago.

Income inequality in Texas significantly worsened last year, according to a measure of inequality compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Texas was one of just nine states in which the gap between rich and poor widened in 2018, according to the Gini index, a measure of income distribution across a population.

Analysts said part of the reason for the rise in the disparity here is due to the changing demographics of the state. Texas has in recent years attracted more people with either very high or very low earnings.

“Essentially you have an emptying out of the middle,” said Lloyd Potter, the Texas state demographer.

The San Antonio metropolitan area has the highest poverty rate in the country out of the 25 largest metro areas, according to 2018 survey estimates released Thursday from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Potter said San Antonio’s high poverty rate isn’t surprising because it has a higher percentage of Latinos than most large cities in the country.

“The Latino population statewide, nationally, tends to have lower levels of educational attainment and along with that goes lower levels of income,” Potter said.

Every year, more people move to Texas from other states than leave. They come for jobs, higher education and a relatively lower cost of living, among other things. But the net population growth from those new arrivals has been shrinking, and researchers are trying to figure out why.

Lloyd Potter, the state demographer of Texas, says migration follows a predictable pattern and tapers off after several years, as people willing to move away from home move and those who remain remain.

The Texas House Redistricting Committee held its first public hearing Tuesday to gather input on how to draw the next round of political maps ahead of 2021. Tuesday's hearing in Austin is just the first of a series of public hearings that will take place across the state up until the end of 2020. These field hearings are an opportunity for the public to give lawmakers personal context and information about where their communities are located.

Lloyd Potter, the state’s demographer, said during the hearing that Texas has experienced massive growth among the Latino and Asian populations.

2020 Census projections show that Texas stands to be the big winner nationally.

Texas State Demographer Dr. Lloyd Potter testified before the State House Redistricting Committee on Tuesday that the State has grown 14 percent over the past decade putting the population just under 30 million. According to Potter this means the State should gain US Congressional seats.

"With this trend it looks like, and there are a number of people that are kind of doing the number crunching on this, but it looks like we’re set to gain three seats" said Potter. "You can see California hasn’t been growing as fast and it looks like potentially they have net-out domestic migration that they may even lose a seat."

Potter said adding the three Congressional seats aren’t the only way Texas stands to benefit from the population growth. "It’s also important in terms of the number of Electoral College votes that we get. And then it’s also important…the amount of money that Texas gets back from the Federal Government is dependent on the number of people that are living in the State."

Lloyd Potter, Texas State Demographer and a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, says an accurate 2020 Census count is important because it sets a “statistical foundation for the rest of the decade.”

“If we don’t get that right and if we do have an undercount, that’s going to have implications for the rest of the decade,” he said.

Census data is used for redistricting purposes but also drives what gets appropriated to the state for federal programs.

“If we undercount, we’re likely not to receive all of the appropriates that come back to the state from the federal government,” Potter said.

Not having a state income tax helps, a trait shared by Florida and Texas, making them the number one and number two destinations for people moving from one state to another, respectively.

But what continues to make Texas the number two choice for domestic migration is the economy. We know where they’re come from because we see their license plates on the roads. “We have California, we have a lot of people from Illinois, a lot of people from New York, from Pennsylvania,” says Lila Valencia, senior demographer at the Texas Demographic Center in Austin, ticking off the states effortlessly.

Hoping to avoid an undercount of thousands of Hispanic and black Texans, Dallas, Harris and Hidalgo counties believe getting children engaged can bring families to participate in the 2020 census.

State demographer Lloyd Potter pointed to a host of factors: low homeownership can make tracking down correct addresses challenging. In Dallas, where more than half of the city's black population lives in areas considered hard to count, those difficulties are compounded by the large overlap between impoverished and black residents, Potter said.

Currently, the demographic profile of Victoria is slightly older and whiter than the rest of the state, said Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter. Whereas the rest of the state grew by about 14% between 2010 and 2018, Victoria only grew by about 6% during this period, according to census estimates.

Lloyd Potter, Texas demographer, said the census is so important the founding fathers put it in the Constitution in 1790, requiring that the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct a survey every 10 years.

The census determines the number of House representatives for each state and how much federal money is distributed to each state.

Hispanic, black and Asian residents continue to be major drivers of Dallas-Fort Worth’s population boom, the latest U.S. Census data shows.

While Asian residents contributed 20.7% of the overall growth during that same time period, the Asian population has had the fastest growth in the state, according to State Demographer Lloyd Potter.

“Even though the numbers and the percentage of the population is small, that's a pretty dramatic increase over a fairly short period of time,” Potter said. “The Asian population isn't growing more numerically, but in terms of its rate of growth, it's growing faster.”

The United States Census Bureau estimates there will be more Hispanic people living in Texas than non-Hispanic White people in the next three years, if birth and immigration rates continue.

In the newest update from the Census — tracking people from July 2017 to July 2018 — the Hispanic population grew nearly nine times faster than the White population of the state.

Tarrant County's growth is mostly due to an increase in minority populations, especially in the Hispanic community, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. Tarrant County's Hispanic, black, and Aisan populations have seen intense growth over the last eight years, while its white population has seen a growth rate of less than 2%.

Between 2017 and 2018, Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said, a little more than half of the population change in Tarrant County was due to more births occurring than deaths. And a little more than 30% of that change was due to international migration, Potter said.

“That also is likely to result in diversification of the population because most of the migrants coming into Texas and certainly into the urban cores, are going to be from Mexico, Central or South America, or an Asian country,” Potter said.

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows for every one white resident added to the Lone Star, Texas gains nearly nine Hispanic residents.

As the nation’s population ages, more and more seniors are staying in the workforce—and at highly concentrated rates in North Texas cities.

Statewide one the biggest factors contributing to the concentration of senior workers is the aging of Baby Boomers, said Lloyd Potter, State Demographer with the Texas Demographic Center. The second contributing factor is that the aging population is healthier, Potter said.

At the Texas Demographic Conference, which was held at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday, demographers got some insight into how Texas' population is changing and how those changes may play out in the 2020 Census.

Between July 2017 and July 2018, more people relocated to counties in the West and South of the United States than moved out, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Texas is particularly popular. Four counties in the Lone Star State are in the top 10 spots. They include Harris, just outside of Houston; Collin, about 64 kilometers from Dallas; Tarrant, outside of Forth Worth; and Bexar, near San Antonio

Overall, suburbs in the South and West welcomed more people than counties in the Midwest and Northeast.

Texas state demographer Lloyd Potter says there's a reason newcomers are heading to areas outside the state's core urban counties. "Many jobs are being created in these counties, but there is also affordable and newer housing, and the quality of schools is generally pretty good relative to urban core counties," he told VOA via email. When it comes to domestic migration, most of the Americans moving to Texas are coming from nearby.

Bastrop County was the state’s 18th fastest growing county in 2018, among counties with a population of 50,000 or more.

There’s a great explanation for why San Antonio drivers have been sitting in more traffic lately. New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show San Antonio and New Braunfels ranked among the country’s fastest-growing cities from 2017 to 2018.

Based on the largest number of new residents from July 2017 to July 2018, San Antonio was the second fastest-growing U.S. city with at least 50,000 residents. It added 20,824 people and ended up with a population of 1,532,233, according to a May 23rd report from the Census Bureau.

Fort Worth is now the 13th-largest city in the United States, behind Jacksonville, Florida, and ahead of Columbus, Ohio, as well as San Francisco, according to the latest Census Bureau population estimates released Thursday. “It’s just kind of cities along the I-35 corridor that keep popping up on the fastest-growing cities list,” said state demographer Lloyd Potter.

The cities of New Braunfels and San Antonio again recorded some of the strongest population growth in the nation in a single year, according to new estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. San Antonio’s continued high ranking among U.S. cities showing the largest numbers of new residents indicates sustained growth, said State Demographer Lloyd Potter.

Texas leads the nation for fastest-growing cities, with half of the top 10 in the Lone Star State, according to new population estimates for cities and towns released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday.

In the latest episode of our podcast about the 86th Legislature, Evan Smith talks to state demographer Lloyd Potter about coming changes to our population that will have profound public policy implications: explosive growth, rapid urbanization and demographic inevitability.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest population estimates confirmed what many Texans already knew: People are still flocking to the Lone Star State.

Texas is growing at a rate of 1,000 people per day and roughly half of these new Texans are migrants, according to State Demographer Lloyd Potter. The other half are newborns, Potter added.

Immigrants are contributing billions of dollars a year to the San Antonio economy, pouring hundreds of millions into Social Security and Medicare, and are disproportionately filling science, technology and engineering jobs, according to a new study.

About 30 percent of San Antonio’s business owners are immigrants, even though they make up only 13.5 percent of the city’s population. About a fourth of the foreign-born population works in construction.

To the outsider, analyzing domestic migration into Texas might seem like a droll intellectual pursuit. But the numbers reveal a new way of looking at our state, a new way to understand how high-tech jobs, a lower cost of living and a higher quality of life has made Texas an attractive option for some of the best and brightest minds in America, luring them away from crowded, expensive coastal cities like San Francisco and New York.

My roles as the Texas State Demographer and as director of the Texas Demographic Center at the University of Texas in San Antonio give me incredible insight into how populations move in and out of the state. One trend that has remained unchanged for nearly a decade: Texas has led all states in net domestic migration, resulting in an estimated 1,019,434 new residents to our state between 2010 and 2017, or 385 per day, and the influx does not appear to be subsiding.

Between 2010 and 2014, the Austin metro area gained nearly 20,000 domestic migrants, San Antonio's numbers jumped nearly 9,000, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington saw an increase of more than 23,000 and the Houston metro area more than 30,000.

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas area gained more new residents in 2018 than any other metro area in the nation, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data.

The city's population, now more than 7.5 million, grew by nearly 132,000 people from 2017 to 2018, marking a 1.8 % increase. Over the past eight years, Dallas-Fort Worth, the fourth-largest metro area in the country, has added more than 1 million people.

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READ: Urban Institute President on How Rapid Growth Poses Risks for Cities ]

"If you look at Dallas-Fort Worth, its economy is continuing to expand and that is creating economic opportunities," Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments Tuesday morning over the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census that could have significant political and financial ramifications for Texas.

Three federal judges have already ruled against the question’s inclusion, deeming it unnecessary and questioning the way in which Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has attempted to add the question onto the census form.

“The decision to include the citizenship question was arbitrary and capricious, represented an abuse of discretion, and was otherwise not in accordance with law,” said U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of California in his ruling.

Dallas-Fort Worth has gained more new residents than any metropolitan area in the country, adding more than 1 million people in an eight-year period.

The region's population now tops 7.5 million, solidifying North Texas' ranking as the nation's fourth-largest metro area. It trails only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, all of which are losing residents.

Immigration is a major factor driving population growth across America. Areas like Harris County, Texas, and King County, Washington, have experienced some of the largest increases in international migrants, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

"With less population growth from what's called 'natural increase' — births minus deaths — a larger share of U.S. population growth is coming from international migration," said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed.com.

Kolko said that nationally, population growth is slowing because birth rates are down and death rates are rising. And slow population growth can be compounded by low rates of migration (domestic or international) — you'll see that in parts of the country like Wyoming County, West Virginia.

“So, it's still right at about 100,” said City Demographer Ryan Robinson.

On average, that's about how many people continue to move to the five-county Austin metropolitan area every day. On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released new population estimates. Austin is once again the fastest growing major metropolitan area in the country. The Austin metro area includes Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties.

“To be 8 years the fastest growing big metropolitan area, that does surprise me a little bit,” said Robinson.

The share of U.S. population growth that’s driven by immigration has steadily risen over the past 10 years, partly because the birth rate is falling and the population is aging. One of the places you can see these demographic trends playing out is Texas, which has four of the country’s 10 fastest-growing counties, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

If you need more evidence that Texas is growing at a breakneck pace consider this — Dallas-Fort Worth and greater Houston have gained more than 1 million people since 2010.

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area added 131,767 residents from 2017-2018, more than any other metropolitan area in the country, pushing its population to 7,539,711, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The population of the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland area reached 6,997,384.

DFW and Houston are the fourth and fifth largest metro areas in the nation.

Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article229413594.html#storylink=cpy

A continued influx of Latinos and millennials from around Texas and the nation is driving San Antonio’s population boom, according to various population figures. City Council members want a way to use that data to help the City prepare long-range plans for housing and transportation needs.

Sociologist and demographer Rogelio Sáenz, a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, briefed the Council’s Comprehensive Plan Committee on Wednesday about recent population trends in the city.

According to the Texas Demographic Center, Bexar County’s total population is projected to hit 2.09 million in 2020, and 3.34 million in 2050. The county’s Latino population is projected to rise to hit about 1 million in 2020, and nearly 2 million in 2050.

Despite their growing population in Texas, Latino voters have consistently been an elusive demographic for political parties.

Each election cycle brings renewed speculation about the political fortunes that could be afforded by Latino voting, and with the next presidential election ostensibly already underway, 2020 will be no different.

In Texas, Latinos make up about 39 percent of the total population — 36 percent of the adult population — and are projected to outnumber non-Hispanic whites just in time for the 2020 election, becoming the largest ethnic group in the state by 2042, according to the Texas Office of the State Demographer.

State Demographer Lloyd Potter told KXAN Texas is one of the fastest growing states.

He estimates our statewide population to be at about 29 million, and in 2016 and 2017, he said, "We added about 1,000 new Texans every day."

To the outsider, analyzing domestic migration into Texas might seem like a droll intellectual pursuit. But poring over the numbers reveals a new way of looking at our state, a new way to understand how high-tech jobs, a lower cost of living and a higher quality of life has made Texas an attractive option for some of the best and brightest minds in America, luring them away from crowded, expensive coastal cities like San Francisco and New York City.

My roles as the Texas State Demographer and as director of the Texas Demographic Center at the University of Texas in San Antonio, give me incredible insight into how populations move in and out of the state. As the Population Association of America’s Annual Meeting takes place in Austin this week, there’s no better time give some context to the numbers.

One trend that has remained unchanged for nearly a decade: Texas has led all states in net domestic migration, resulting in an estimated 1,019,434 new residents to our state between 2010 and 2017, or 385 per day, and the influx does not look to be subsiding.

Happy Friday, Curious Texans! We have a special spring break edition of our newsletter this week. We've published more than 50 Curious Texas stories since January. Here are the 10 you read the most:

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

For college basketball fans, March is about, well, March Madness. And of course that also means many of them are creating a bracket for the NCAA tournament. Now, the Texas General Land Office is trying to wrangle some of that excitement with its 4th Annual Top Texan Tournament.

James Harkins is director of public services for the land office’s Archives and Records Program.

The Texas Demographic Center released January 2018 population estimates this month show single- digit gains for Henderson County and the city of Athens since the beginning of the decade.

Athens' population increased by 6.2 percent during the period from the last U.S. Census in 2010 to the most recent projections. Henderson County grew by 5.8 percent.

According to the center, their estimates differ from those from other sources, such as those periodically produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, and were made using techniques that are different than those of the Census Bureau and they also use newer data.

Happy Friday, Curious Texans! We answered three of your questions this week. Here's what we found:

1. Just how big is Collin County's boom? Collin County is set to have over 2.4 million residents by 2050, according to the Texas Demographic Center. That's more than three times its population in 2010.

It seems that every time you blink, a new development is popping up in Collin County.

The cities north of Dallas are booming, with companies and new residents moving in droves to Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen and elsewhere.

Two readers have asked Curious Texas — an ongoing project of The Dallas Morning News in which you submit questions and our journalists track down answers — just how fast Collin County is growing.

West Texas Food Bank officials foresee a strong growth of need in the community as more households with senior citizens continue to struggle with food security.

“The numbers that we’re seeing serving our elderly in the last six months have just skyrocketed and so we’re really lucky that we were able to get the Senior Box program started Oct. 1,” WTFB Executive Director Libby Campbell said.

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), also known as the Senior Box program, provides critical support for low-income seniors, age 60 and older, that are consuming fewer calories and lower quantities of key nutrients. The program provides monthly assistance by giving out boxes packed with U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities and shelf-stable items to supplement seniors’ diets

Nora Soto has a big family. She’s one of 36 cousins, most of them born in the U.S.

Most are in their 20s or 30s, work in all types of industries and have kids of their own.

Experts say Texas’ population wouldn’t be at the levels it needs to be to meet the state workforce needs without Hispanic families like Soto’s contributing to the state’s population growth.

I was born in Alligator, Mississippi, but as the saying goes, “I got to Texas as fast as I could.” No matter where you are or where you’re from, when you say Dallas-Fort Worth, you’re saying a lot more than you may think.

After years of domination by the tech-driven Silicon Valley, Dallas-Plano-Irving has secured the No. 1 spot for the last two years in Forbes “Best Cities for Job Growth.” This placement is even more secure because of the diverse sources of job growth in this region. Dallas has logged double-digit percentage job growth since 2012 in most economic sectors. U.S. News & World Report ranked DFW the No. 9 Best Place to Retire and No. 18 of Best Place to Live. Key to all this success is the affordability of single-family housing, skilled talent, lower taxes, a favorable regulatory environment, and abundant cultural and educational opportunities.

Texas continues adding more residents than any other state. It's a population growth trend that demographers say has been consistent since 2006. While the state population is still growing, it is growing at a slower rate than before and fewer people are specifically moving to Austin.

If you live in Austin you may have heard the statistic that about 120 people move to the city every day. According to state demographers, now about 35 people becoming new Austin residents every day. That 120 number may no longer be accurate in Austin but it is accurate for other areas nearby.

At Texas Pie Company in Kyle, business is booming. They sold out of Friday lunch specials before 1 p.m. It's a small sign reflecting the huge growth the owners, Spencer Thomas and Julie Albertson have seen since moving there 19 years ago.

The exodus from two of the nation’s biggest Blue States continues, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. Many Red States, meanwhile, continue to gain population, the figures show.

The biggest population losers between July 2017 and July 2018 were the high-tax, Democrat-controlled states of New York and Illinois.

In that one-year span, New York lost more than 48,000 residents, while Illinois’ population declined by more than 45,000, the figures show.

As San Antonio continues its unprecedented growth trajectory, city officials and developers have thrown around a staggering projection — that Bexar County stands to gain 1.1 million new residents by 2040.

It’s an impressive figure; one derived from U.S. Census data. And it’s intended, no doubt, to jar residents from complacency as Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s appointed committees work up potential solutions for housing, traffic, jobs and other expansion-related issues.

After all, what could be more disruptive than 1.1 million newly arrived millennials, looking for tech jobs, demanding downtown housing and further jamming up our morning commutes?