The five-county Austin MSA exceeded 2,400,000 in total population in 2022, having grown by over 300,000 since 2018. Today, Travis County makes up more than half of that total with a resident population of over 1.3 million people.
Hays and Bastrop Counties have grown at the fastest rates. Williamson County gained the most population, adding over 100,000 new residents (an increase of 18%) since 2018. Hays County continued to show strong growth with a rate of 21% since 2018, and reached a total population of over 250,000 in 2021. Bastrop County had the highest growth rate, having increased its population by 22% since 2018 to 106,188.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 47% of Travis County residents are White, 33% are Hispanic, 8% are Black and 8% are Asian. Forty-four percent of the child population are Hispanic, while 65% of the population age 65 or older is White.
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 43% of Black adults over the age of 25, and 36% 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.
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 or less. 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.
An estimated 21% 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 or less. In 2022, these were $59,356 for a family of four (consisting of 2 adults/2 children) and $47,156 for a family of three (consisting of 1 adult/2 children).
From 2012 to 2022, the Austin Metropolitan Statistical Area grew by more than 580,000 people, surpassing 2 million people in 2015. This represents a 10-year growth of 32%. The number of low-income residents declined by more than 85,000, a reduction of approximately 15%, 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.
The number of Travis County residents, aged five and older, who speak a language other than English grew by 69% from 2000 to 2022, and the number of residents who speak English less than “very well” has grown by 34%. In 2022, 29% of Travis County residents age five or older spoke a language other than English, and 10% spoke English less than “very well”.
Spanish was the most commonly-spoken non-English language in Travis County and the five-county Austin MSA according to 2022 American Community Survey estimates. An estimated 39% of the Spanish speakers in Travis County 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 next most commonly spoken languages in Travis County and in the five-county Austin MSA. Almost half (49%) of Vietnamese speakers surveyed in Travis County were found to speak English “less than very well”, while 26% of Chinese speakers surveyed were found to speak English “less than very well”.
