Census data provides insights into Texas' recent population boom

By Lydia Schendel and Julia Ermlich

We’ve all heard about Austin’s recent population boom and the growing influx of residents from out of state. But in reality, people are moving in droves to all six of Texas’ largest cities.

According to the 2012 American Community Survey, more than 507,000 people moved to Texas from out of state in 2012. More of these migrants came from California than from any other state, comprising 12 percent of the total migration to Texas.

Raymond Perez, a radio-television-film senior at the University of Texas at Austin, moved to Texas from Los Angeles with his family when he was 5 years old. His family saw great promise in Texas’ education system, low cost of living and family-friendly cities.

“My parents wanted to escape the drama of Los Angeles and decided to move to New Braunfels through a job offer my father received,” Perez said. “Texas provided a stable environment where they could raise me with a solid foundation of education. My parents were able to afford to live in a much better neighborhood at a much lower cost. Some of my uncles and aunts even followed us to Texas. They sold their homes in California and purchased larger houses in safer neighborhoods, as many other California natives have done.”

Perez’ experience exemplifies a few of the primary reasons why people are moving to Texas from out of state. California’s public school system is notoriously underfunded and overpopulated, whereas Texas’ relatively high property tax rates provide schools with larger budgets and newer, larger facilities. In addition, Texas’ overall cost of living is much lower than in California, in part due to Texas’ lack of a state income tax and cheaper housing.

It’s clear why many people see Texas as an appealing alternative to their current state. But once they decide on the Lone Star State as their new home, which cities are they zeroing in on?

In 2012, more than 38,000 people moved to Houston from out of state. Houston was the top choice for new Texans, attracting 7.5 percent of the total migration to the state. However, Austin has the greatest concentration of out-of-state migrants, at 3.2 percent of the city’s total population.

So why are people choosing Austin and Houston over Texas’ other large cities? In both cases, economic prosperity is a primary factor.

The Houston metro area added over 105,000 jobs in 2012. As the fourth-largest city in the United States, Houston is home to 24 Fortune 500 companies' headquarters, making it an attractive option for job-seekers. Houston also has the third lowest overall cost of living among the nation’s 20 most populous metropolitan areas, according to the C2ER Cost of Living Index 2013 Annual Average.

Benito Juarez, senior manager of the Office of International Communities in Houston, said that along with the low cost of living, Houston’s thriving economy is likely the biggest motivating factor for out-of-state migrants.

“The economy here is a lot better than many other cities,” Juarez said. “That’s one reason why people are moving here. Houston didn’t suffer that much when the economic recession hit a few years ago, so helps in motivating people to come and stay here.”

Juarez explained that a rapid influx of new residents can certainly cause stresses on the resources and infrastructure of a city, even one as large as Houston. However, Juarez believes the the benefits of a constant flow of newcomers outweigh the negatives.

“Overall, the impact of people moving to Houston from many different places is positive, in all different areas - the economy, jobs, the culture - everything is positive,” Juarez said.

Houston’s reputation as a culturally-rich and economically-booming city draws people in from all corners of the country and the world. Juarez said that migration from out of state and abroad is increasing the diversity of the city.

“Houston is becoming more of an international city and people are realizing that. Just recently, Houston surpassed New York as one of the most diverse cities in the nation, so I think that’s something important to highlight,” Juarez said.

Ryan Robinson, City of Austin Demographer, said that what makes Austin so appealing to out-of-state migrants is a higher quality of life and a healthier economy than can be found in most other Texas cities and U.S. states. In 2010, Kiplinger's ranked Austin as the number one city for business growth in the next decade. Austin is well-known as a hotbed for high-tech and entrepreneurship. State government and the University of Texas also make Austin a promising destination for those seeking employment.

“I know this can be viewed as subjectively defined, but in very real terms, the quality of life differential between Austin and every other Texas city is pretty darn large.  Austin is a very open city, and so is Houston, but they are so different in size. But more simply, out-of-staters are moving to Texas, and to Austin in particular, because of the persistent economic differential within the country. Texas and Austin are still so much healthier economically than almost every other part of the country.”

Robinson said that while migration is a huge economic engine for Austin, it comes with unavoidable challenges wrought by pressure on infrastructure. But these challenges, he said, are pleasant problems to have.

“Cities in many parts of the country are dying on the vine because they are not attracting migrants, and yet it seems to be an all-on or all-off sort of situation,” Robinson said. “Managing growth is an almost impossible task for most rapid growth jurisdictions, but those same cities would never trade their position for one among the ranks of the battered and beleaguered. The City of Austin can be credited with implementing a recently adopted comprehensive plan which is aspirational, yet persuasively calls for a much smarter pattern of future urbanization.”

Die-hard Austinites would be proud to know that the city’s unofficial slogan, “Keep Austin Weird,” embodies what Robinson believes is perhaps the most compelling reason for moving to Austin.

“Austin encourages migrants to move here simply by being so open and vibrant,” Robinson said. “We just can't help it.”

Crash Fatalities in Austin - 2012

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Source: 2012 APD Crash Fatality Data, data.austintexas.gov

Although Austin’s traffic congestion has recently been found to be worse than that of New York City, data from the Austin Police Department shows that fatal traffic accidents are not a significant contributor to the problem.

According to a recent study by the National Traffic Scoreboard, drivers in Austin spent an average of 41 hours in traffic in 2013, which is an increase of 3 hours from 2012. Austin was ranked fourth in the nation for traffic congestion, surpassed only by Los Angeles, Honolulu and San Francisco. IH-35 and Mopac Expressway were cited as the two worst traffic corridors in the city.

Several factors contribute to Austin’s traffic woes, some of which are by-products of the city’s recent prosperity. A rapidly growing population and a healthy economy where people need to travel to work puts more cars on the road. However, a lack of robust public transportation infrastructure puts excess pressure on the roads to accommodate the increasing number of drivers. Austin also faces universal problems such as distracted drivers and traffic accidents.

Fortunately, data compiled by the Austin Police Department suggests that traffic fatalities are probably not a significant contributor to Austin’s traffic congestion problem, at least on the city’s two most troubled corridors. APD’s 2012 Crash Fatality Data Report shows that fewer fatal accidents occur on Austin’s major roadways than on surface streets.

Less than 16% of Austin’s 78 traffic fatalities occurred on IH-35. Less than 25% occurred on high-speed roadways other than IH-35. Almost 60% of 2012’s traffic fatalities occurred on local streets.

It may seem counterintuitive that fewer fatal crashes happen on high-speed roadways than on slower surface streets, because higher speeds would seem to imply higher danger.

However, Darren McDaniel, a speed zone engineer for TxDOT, said most crashes happen not simply because of high speeds, but because of a high differential in the speeds of cars on a roadway. When some cars are traveling much faster or slower than others, the potential for dangerous collisions increases.

“The safest speed to drive is the same speed everybody else is driving,” McDaniel said.

While most people know and obey the speed limit on the highways, surface street speed limits can be more ambiguous and more often ignored. It is not common to encounter someone traveling 45 mph on IH-35 where everyone else is going 65 mph. It is much more common to encounter a situation where one driver is going 65 mph on a 45 mph stretch of surface street. Both situations are equally dangerous, but these differentials are somewhat less likely to occur on a high-speed roadway like Mopac or IH-35, where drivers are traveling at consistent and similar speeds.

Intersections and turns are also less of an issue on high-speed roadways, which makes them relatively safer to drive on.

It must also be noted that there are many more roads designated as local streets than there are high-speed roadways in Austin, which undoubtedly plays a significant role in the higher percentage of fatal accidents.

Currently, city leaders are focusing on public transportation as a viable weapon against Austin’s traffic congestion. Mayor Lee Leffingwell advocated for the creation of more transportation options, including an urban rail system, during his 2014 State of the City Address.

However, Dr. Randy Machemehl, Professor of Transportation Engineering at The University of Texas and former Director of the Center for Transportation Research, said he doesn’t believe this particular plan will have a very significant impact on traffic congestion. He argues that more widespread changes such as improved highway design and more flexible work schedules are necessary to significantly increase the efficiency of local roadways.

“Austin has been plagued by a divisive view of transportation and the result has often been that we do nothing while demand increases,” Machemehl said. “We can’t build our way out of congestion with highways, rail or anything else. We have to attack it from all sides if we’re going to be successful.”

Fusion Tables Assignment - Health Insurance Coverage in Texas

This map shows the percentage of individuals living within each of Texas' 254 counties who do not health insurance. The population being examined includes only those individuals 16 years of age and older. Individuals within the uninsured population do not have a private health insurance plan and are not enrolled in any type of public health insurance program.

The data I used came from the Selected Economic Characteristics portion of the 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. From within this dataset, I used the "Total Population 16 Years and Over" and "Percent Uninsured" columns.

If I were to write a full-length article to accompany this data visualization, I would interview an uninsured person, a person who does have health insurance, a representative from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, and perhaps a few medical professionals. Through these interviews, I would be able to portray the struggles of not having health insurance, the security that health insurance provides, what Texas is doing to help more of the population obtain coverage, and how the healthcare system is impacted by large numbers of uninsured patients.

In my story, I would also examine reasons why the uninsured population is so high in some areas compared to others, what prevents people from obtaining health insurance and what types of populations are most likely to be uninsured. Because this data was collected before the Affordable Care Act was fully implemented, it would be interesting to compare this data with more current estimates of the uninsured population to determine how large of an impact the law has had on the state.

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