Demographics of Texas
[3] Since the beginning of the 21st century, the state of Texas has experienced strong population growth.
Much of the population is concentrated in the major cities of Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Mcallen, Brownsville, El Paso, and their corresponding metropolitan areas.
[9] Increasing by 470,708 people since July 2021, Texas was the largest-gaining state in the nation, reaching a total population of 30,029,572.
[10] By crossing the 30-million-population threshold, Texas joins California as the only states with a resident population above 30 million as of 2023.
[13] The undocumented population of Texas decreased to an estimated 1,597,000 at the 2016 American Community Survey.
[14] The center of population of Texas is located at 30°54′19″N 97°21′56″W / 30.905244°N 97.365594°W / 30.905244; -97.365594 in Bell County, in the town of Holland.
[29] In 2011, 69.8% of the population of Texas younger than age 1 were minorities (meaning they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white).
[30] As of 1980 German, Irish, and English Americans have made the three largest European ancestry groups in Texas.
[31] Their ancestry primarily goes back to the original thirteen colonies (the census of 1790 gives 48% of the population of English ancestry, together with 12% Scots and Scots-Irish, 4.5% other Irish, and 3% Welsh, for a total of 67.5% British and Irish; 13% were German, Swiss, Dutch, and French Huguenots; 19% were African American),[32] thus many of them today identify as "American" in ancestry, though they are of predominantly British stock.
The vast majority of the Hispanic/Latino population in the state is of Mexican descent, the next two largest groups are Salvadorans and Puerto Ricans.
Other groups with large numbers in Texas include Hondurans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and Cubans, among others.
Their proportion of the population has declined since the early 20th century after many left the state in the Great Migration.
African Americans of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic origin numbered at roughly 2.7 million individuals, increasing in 2018 to 3,908,287.
[38] The majority of the Black and African American population of Texas lives in the Greater Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio metropolitan areas.
[40] Native Americans of non-Hispanic origin made up 0.3 percent of the population and number over 75,000 individuals.
Other communities with a significantly growing Asian American population is in Austin, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, and the Sharyland area next McAllen, Texas.
[51] Based on U.S. Census Bureau data released in February 2011, for the first time in recent history, Texas's non-Hispanic white population is below 50% (45%) and Hispanics grew to 38%.
[52] Texas has the fifth highest rate of teenage births in the nation and a plurality of these are to Hispanics or Latinos.
[55] Note: Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.
In 2010, 65.80% (14,740,304) of Texas residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 29.21% (6,543,702) spoke Spanish, 0.75% (168,886) Vietnamese, and Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Mandarin) was spoken as a main language by 0.56% (122,921) of the population over the age of five.
[66] In total, 34.20% (7,660,406) of Texas's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.
[70][71] Texas's large Christian population is also influenced due to its location within the Bible Belt.
[72] The following largest groups were the irreligious (20%), Judaism (1%), Islam (1%), Buddhism (1%) and Hinduism, and other religions at less than 1 percent each.
In contrast, Evangelical Protestants altogether were 31% of the population at the Pew Research Center's 2014 study, and Baptists were the largest Evangelical tradition (14%);[74] per the 2014 study, they made up the second largest Mainline Protestant group behind Methodists (4%).
According to the Pew Research Center in 2014, the largest historically African American Christian denominations were the National Baptist Convention (USA) and the Church of God in Christ.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the largest nontrinitarian Christian group in Texas alongside the Jehovah's Witnesses.
As of 2010, the state has three cities with populations exceeding one million: Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.
Texas has four metropolitan areas with populations greater than a million: Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, San Antonio–New Braunfels, and Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos.
The region of 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) contains most of the state's largest cities and metropolitan areas as well as 17 million people, nearly 75 percent of Texas's total population.
[90] In contrast to the cities, unincorporated rural settlements known as colonias often lack basic infrastructure and are marked by poverty.
