Demographics « CAN Community Dashboard

Demographics

Source: Table B01003, American Community Survey, 1-Year Estimates

FAST GROWING POPULATION

The five-county Austin MSA exceeded 2,350,000 in total population in 2021, having grown by over 350,000 since 2015. Today, Travis County makes up more than half of that total with a resident population of over 1.3 million people.

Hays and Williamson Counties continue to grow at the fastest rates. Williamson County gained the most population, adding almost 41,000 new residents (an increase of 19%) over the past 5 years. Hays County continued to show strong growth with a five-year rate of 18%, and reached a total population of over 250,000. Bastrop County had the highest growth rate, having increased its population by 20% over the past 5 years to 102,058.

Source: Table B01001, American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates

DIVERSITY

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 49% of Travis County residents are White, 34% are Hispanic, 8% are Black and 7% are Asian. Forty-five percent of the child population are Hispanic, while 66% of the population age 65 or older is White.

Source: Tables C15002 (education) & B19113 (income), American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates

EDUCATION AND INCOME

There are stark differences in educational attainment levels and median household income by race and ethnicity. The first graph depicts median household income. The second graph depicts the percent of people in Travis County, over the age of 25, who have a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Approximately 40% of Black adults over the age of 25, and 32% of Hispanic adults over the age of 25, have a Bachelor’s degree. This contributes to lower household incomes for these groups. Increasing educational opportunity and educational success for people of all races and ethnicities is one way we can bridge the economic divide and increase access to opportunity.

Source: Table C17002 , 2016-2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

CONCENTRATIONS OF LOW-INCOME PEOPLE

This map shows the percentage of the population within each census tract who are low-income, or earn less than two-times the federal poverty threshold. The Center for Public Policy Priorities estimates that it takes at least two times the federal poverty level for families to meet their basic needs.

About 25% of all people living in the five-county Austin Metropolitan Statistical Area are low-income . “Low-income” is defined as people who live in a household with total earnings of less than 200% of the federal poverty threshold. In 2020, these were $52,492 for a family of four (consisting of 2 adults/2 children) and $52,676 for a family of three (consisting of 1 adult/2 children).

From 2011 to 2021, the Austin Metropolitan Statistical Area grew by almost 570,000 people, surpassing 2 million people in 2015. This represents a 10-year growth of 32%. The number of low-income residents declined by almost than 35,000, a reduction of approximately 6% over the same time period.

CHANGE IN LOW- INCOME

This map depicts the change in the number of low-income people reported for each census tract from 2010 to 2016.

Census tracts that are blue saw a decline in the number of people who are low-income and areas that are green saw an increase of up to 500 people who are low-income over this six year period.

Census tracts that are gold saw between 500 and 1500 additional low-income people, and census tracts that are red saw increases between 1,500 to more than 3,000 additional low-income people.

Census tracts with small low-income populations may be unreliable.

Source: Table B16001, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

LANGUAGE ACCESS

The number of Travis County residents, aged five and older, who speak a language other than English grew by 69% from 2000 to 2018, and the number of residents who speak English less than “very well” has grown by 41%. In 2018, 31% of Travis County residents age five or older spoke a language other than English, and 11% spoke English less than “very well”.

Spanish was the most commonly-spoken non-English language in Travis County and the five-county Austin according to 2021 American Community Survey estimates. About 40% of the Spanish speakers in the Austin MSA speak English “less than very well,” which indicates a need for English language and adult literacy classes as well as translation and interpretation services. Vietnamese and Chinese are the second and third most commonly spoken languages in Travis County and in the five-county Austin MSA. Almost half (49%) of Vietnamese speakers surveyed were found to speak English “less than very well”, while 32% of Chinese speakers surveyed were found to speak English “less than very well”.

Source: Table S1810, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

HEARING IMPAIRMENT

There are over 27,000 people in Travis County who have a hearing impairment. This equals two-percent of the total population.

This data is based on a five-year American Community Survey of the civilian, non-institutionalized population.