Demographics

A road trip to find the next big Texan metropolis

Texas’ “Big 4” metro areas—Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio—have all exploded with growth. Will a fifth emerge?

Black neighborhoods have led the Houston area’s surge in start-ups during the pandemic

Economists studying the dramatic growth of new business activity found that the proportion of Black residents in a ZIP code had the greatest impact on the rate of increase and that business formation coincided with the stimulus payments.

Where are we going? Remote workers, RVs and the new calculus of where we live and why

After COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home mandates, anywhere with fast broadband became a viable place to call home. But for Houston natives Alex Jimenez and Hayley McSwain, the choice was to move—and keep moving.

Surveying Houston’s progressive shift through 40 years of data

Houston, a quintessentially free-enterprise, anti-government city, is increasingly recognizing the critical role of government in strengthening the safety net, expanding opportunity and building resiliency, according to the Kinder Houston Area Surveys.

Triumph of the Triangle: How Texas can hold onto its urban economic powerhouse

In 1966, a lawyer named Herb Kelleher met one of his clients, a pilot and investment banker named Rollin King, for a drink in a San Antonio hotel bar. Both were entrepreneurs looking for new opportunities, and they discussed starting an airline to serve an in-state. The legend is that King drew a triangle on a cocktail napkin, showing how the new airline would connect the major markets in Texas.