Demographics

Houston’s 15-year growth in three charts

Houston’s standing as the country’s fourth-largest city has been a constant for more than four decades.

From immigration to inequality to infrastructure: 5 ways Houstonians clearly agree

The 2025 Kinder Houston Area Survey, the largest edition in its history, revisits neighboring Fort Bend and Montgomery counties for the first time since 2018. And despite the survey’s expanded reach and the divisiveness of the current political landscape, researchers found several areas with profound agreement among residents.

Kinder Houston Area Survey: 2025 Results

This year’s Kinder Houston Area Survey reflects on the region’s continued growth, highlighting residents’ perspectives on what makes the area attractive as well as the challenges that stand to undermine its prosperity.

Houston region projected to attract millions more residents by 2050. Will it maintain its appeal?

Last year, Harris County experienced the largest raw population increase in the nation, contributing more than half of the metro area’s nearly 200,000 new residents. Projections released in February indicate the region will gain millions more people over the next 25 years.

Religious identities shift in Houston and the U.S. with rise of the ‘nones’

In the last 15 years, more Houstonians have become religiously unaffiliated, according to the Kinder Houston Area Survey. In the 2009 survey, 54% of respondents identified as Protestant and 31% as Catholic. In 2024, Protestants decreased to 38% and Catholics to 26%.

Houston has an independent political streak, but it mirrors the nation on several key issues

Houston has had a lengthy run of residents affiliating as politically independent, according to 40-plus years of Kinder Houston Area Surveys.

A Houston initiative helped 2,000 people of color become homeowners — but there’s more work to do

After renting for the majority of her adult life, Tonia Macklin recently became a homeowner for the first time. The native of southeast Houston achieved this goal with the assistance of the Harris County Homeownership Collaborative’s Own the HOU initiative, a multiorganization effort that seeks to bridge the homeownership gap for people of color.

After getting the lights back on, what’s Houston’s biggest problem going forward?

Over the course of about four weeks early in 2024, residents across Harris County were asked their opinions on a variety of topics as part of the Kinder Houston Area Survey. That includes a question that has been asked every year since the survey’s founding in 1982: “What would you say is the biggest problem facing people in the Houston area today?”

While Harris County grows a little, its suburbs see big change

Harris County is continuing to grow, but not at the rate of neighboring counties, a trend established more than a decade ago that has more recently emerged among other big counties statewide.

Houston needs improving. Are Houstonians really willing to pay for it?

From parks to police to garbage pickup, our surveys have tapped into a surprising level of support for raising revenues to help the city of Houston improve services and raise the quality of life across the city. What should we make of that? Are Houstonians really willing to pay more for better local government?

10 in 2023: Top stories from the Urban Edge

Housing costs, the economy, increasing demands on income and concerns about the environment weighed on the minds of Urban Edge readers in 2023.

Migrants from other states more likely to call Texas their new home

In 2022, millions of Americans were on the move from one state to another. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas was the top destination in the country.

Census director Santos emphasizes community engagement as key to an inclusive count

Seeking unique perspectives and insights can equip the U.S. Census Bureau to reach historically undercounted populations, Director Robert L. Santos said at the Kinder Institute Forum on Wednesday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Kinder Institute Forum: Robert L. Santos

Robert L. Santos, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, will discuss leveraging data to advance equity and diversity, lessons learned from the 2020 census, and plans to reach historically undercounted communities in 2030. 

United Way data shows where Houstonians are struggling to make ends meet

According to the United Way of Greater Houston, more than 1 million households in the Greater Houston area are considered asset-limited, income-constrained and employed (ALICE) or are below the federal poverty level. These households — as many as 8 in 10 in some neighborhoods — are unable to afford basic necessities.