Houston, Texas

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The 2000 Census showed that Houston had a population of 1,953,631 people^<1>. This represents 9.33% of the total population of Texas, making it the state's most populous community.

The following table shows the recent changes in population. For the years after 2000, the population counts are estimated.

Below is a list of similarily sized communities (while rank is based on the 2000 Census, the population shown is estimated for 2008):

Rank in 2000	Community	Direction	Distance<2>	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
-1-	Houston			2,242,193	14.77% increase
2	Dallas	N	223 mi [358.9 km]	1,279,910	7.68% increase
3	San Antonio	W	189 mi [304.2 km]	1,351,305	18.05% increase
4	Austin	W	146 mi [235 km]	757,688	15.4% increase
5	El Paso	W	670 mi [1,078 km]	613,190	8.79% increase
6	Fort Worth	NW	237 mi [381.4 km]	703,073	31.49% increase
7	Arlington	NW	226 mi [363.7 km]	374,417	12.45% increase

Houston had 782,009 Housing Units^<3> at the time of the 2000 Census.

The 2000 Census shows that Houston has a total area of 601 square miles [1,558 km²]^<4>. Of this total, 579 square miles [1,500 km²]22.28 square miles [57.7 km²]).

Using the above population and land area values, Houston had a 2000 population density of 3,371 people per square mile [1,301 people/km²], making it the state's 33rd most densely populated area.

Fort Bend County

The city of Houston is primarily located in Fort Bend County and is the county seat. A portion of Houston extends into Harris County and Montgomery County.

The county had a population of 358,758 people at the 2000 Census. With it's population of 1,953,631 people, Houston contained 544% of the Fort Bend County total.

In addition, where the community of Houston has a population density of 3,371 people per square mile [1,301 people/km²], Fort Bend County averages 410.2 people per square mile [158.4 people/km²].

For more information, please visit our Census Page for Fort Bend County.

Population Rings

To help identify the number of people who live in Houston and the surrounding area, we have drawn concentric rings centered on Houston. We counted the number of communities within each ring and summed their populations.^<5>

US Census QuickFacts

The Census Bureau has created documents containing demographic information called QuickFacts. Although they don't create QuickFacts for all communities, they do have one for Houston. Not only does the QuickFact have details about Houston, it also contains a comparison between Houston and the state of Texas.

Click here for the Houston QuickFact (QF-4835000).

The following communities are nearby Houston and also have Census QuickFacts:

	Community	Census QuickFact	Direction	Distance	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
	Pearland	QF-4856348	S	15 mi [24.14 km]	82,903	120.25% increase
	Pasadena	QF-4856000	SE	16 mi [25.75 km]	146,439	3.36% increase
	Deer Park	QF-4819624	E	17 mi [27.36 km]	30,890	8.31% increase
	Missouri City	QF-4848804	SW	17 mi [27.36 km]	74,723	41.22% increase
	Sugar Land	QF-4870808	SW	18 mi [28.97 km]	80,704	27.44% increase
	Friendswood	QF-4827648	SE	21 mi [33.8 km]	33,979	17.02% increase
	La Porte	QF-4841440	E	21 mi [33.8 km]	34,274	7.51% increase
	Baytown	QF-4806128	E	25 mi [40.23 km]	70,330	5.87% increase

For more about neighboring communities, please visit our Neighborhood Page for Houston.

A Census Quickfact is available for Fort Bend County (QF-48157).

Below are QuickFacts for the counties that border Fort Bend County.

	County	Census QuickFact	Direction	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
	Austin	QF-48015	NW	26,851	13.09% increase
	Brazoria	QF-48039	SE	301,044	23.82% increase
	Harris	QF-48201	NE	3,984,349	16.71% increase
	Waller	QF-48473	NW	35,995	9.61% increase
	Wharton	QF-48481	SW	40,791	1.03% decrease

Miscellaneous Information

The Federal government has assigned identifying codes to each community, county and state. The following FIPS codes apply to Houston:

Houston is located in Census Region #3 (the South Region) and in Division #7 (the West South-Central Division).

For more information about various Federal Codes, please visit our Misc. Page for Houston.

The Commemorative Quarter for Texas<6>

Search for Local Businesses

People are finding Google's 'Search-by-Location' to be a useful tool when planning visits to this area. We have prepared the following searches to help you find businesses, travel and vacation activities that are in (or close to) Houston. It's likely that the search results won't include all of the businesses that are in this area, but the results should give you a good foundation for further searches.

For what it's worth: In addition to helping you submit your own search, clicking 'Other...' will frequently (but not always) show you some popular searches for this area.

If you find an error or your business wasn't included in the results, please contact Google to help them resolve the issue (we simply link to 'Search-by-Location' and have no control over their results).

Other Roadside Stops

Off-the-Road Links

Footnotes