Data Visualizations

With each decennial census since 1850, the metropolitan share of the total population in Texas has increased [1]. Most recently, the leading source of urban growth has been migration from outside of Texas. Domestic migration and immigration are the two sources of this external migration. Domestic migrants originate in other U.S. states while immigrants originate in foreign countries

Today, migration is the primary source of population growth for metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in Texas. Figure 1 shows that for the state’s MSAs, net migration accounted for more than half of their 2015-2016 population growth. By comparison, migration accounted for just over 10 percent of the growth in the non-MSAs in Texas [1]. Additionally, recent migration rates in the MSAs have been relatively high, at 8.80 migrants per 1,000 residents and this compares to 0.35 migrants per 1,000 residents in the non-MSAs. Thus, as discussed in our most recent brief (Components of Population Change in Urban Texas), both natural increase and net migration favor urban over rural growth in Texas.

Texas has a long history of population growth. In the 100 years between 1910 and 2010, the state added more than 21 million people. However, the majority of this growth occurred between 1980 and 2010 – a span of thirty years. The most recent growth has been especially robust. Texas added 4.3 million people during the 2000-2010 decade, which accounted for one-fifth of the state’s total 1910-2010 population increase. If the estimated 20102016 trends continue, the 2010-2020 decade will have the largest growth yet, adding more than 4.5 million additional people. Current U.S. Census annual population estimates indicate that Texas grew more than any other U.S. state between 2015 and 2016, adding some 433,000 people.

In recent years, the majority of the state’s population growth has been from migration. Along with births and deaths, migration is a primary component of population growth. Moreover, migration is associated with innovation and, thus, can be a catalyst for social change. In the early twenty-first century, Texas has become a leading destination for both international and domestic migrants. Together, these migration flows are adding around 250,000 new residents to Texas each year. In addition to the quarter of a million new Texans, close to a million resident Texans move within the state each year.

Texas consistently has added population through migration in recent years but the same is not true for all of the state’s 254 counties. Among the counties, population change from migration has been uneven and the sources of migration have varied across the state.