Texas Outperforms US Economy

The recently-released 2010 Census results echoed our regular message that Texas continues to outperform the broader U.S. economy. The April 1 head count revealed that the state’s population leapt by more than 4 million in the last decade to 25.1 million residents. Texas added more citizens than any other state. And the state accounted for its biggest share ever –15.7 percent—of U.S. inter-census population growth. To be sure, the state still trailed almost 12 million behind California in total population. But, its strong gain narrowed the gap by almost a million bodies over the past decade.

The state’s population growth did dip by roughly two percentage points—to 20.6 percent—from the pace in the 1990s (see chart). But in percentage terms, its gain was the fifth strongest among the 50 states. Texas grew 2.5 times faster than the rest of the nation. Even more impressive, it expanded fifty percent faster than the South and the West (excluding Texas). These two regions are the fastest growing in the nation as they benefit from the continuing influx of snowbirds and migrants.

Population growth provides a building block for economic growth. It delivers such growth, however, only when this

This solid hiring has continued since the census was taken in April. In the seven months ended November Texas employers added another 120,000 jobs—or roughly one in every three jobs added nationwide. The District of Columbia (2.2 percent) and New Hampshire (1.6 percent) managed to beat Texas’ 1.2 percent job gain. But none of the other five largest states even managed meaningful job growth; two states even saw payrolls shrink further.

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Texas’ relatively robust hiring helped to fuel a 42 percent gain in the state’s inflation-adjusted personal income between the 2000 and the 2010 Census. Only four states bested that gain, while national personal income advanced only about half as much (23 percent) in the period. The upshot was that Texas climbed four slots in the state per capita income rankings over the past 10 years—from 28^{th to 24th}people power is converted into jobs and thus, into spending power. Texas has managed this transition reasonably well. As with population, Texas created more jobs—941,000—in the 10-year census interval than any other state. Even in percentage terms, the state’s job creation trailed only five other substantially smaller states. Among the other five largest states, only Florida managed to expand jobs over the decade, and only by one quarter as much as Texas employment grew.