Texas Health Atlas

Chapter 1: Demographics

1 Demographics THIS CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS THE DEMOgraphic profile that contextualizes Texas’ main ethnic groups, their educational attainment, and economic conditions as they relate to the data and maps in the following chapters about the state’s health-care system, medical services , diseases, harmful behaviors, and health disparities. About 75% of Texans live in the “Texas Population Triangle” bounded by Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) south along I-45 to Houston, then west on I-10 to San Antonio , and back north to DFW on I-35 through Austin and Waco. Indeed, half the Texas population lives in the Dallas–Fort Worth (6.5 million) and Houston (6.0 million ) metropolitan areas. Both of these population facts underscore that 88% of Texans are urbanites (US Census Bureau 2009). In 2009, the US Census Bureau projected that the Texas population, at its current growth rate, will approach 30 million people by 2020. Texas demographics have changed dramatically in the past 20 years. Texas became a “majority-minority” state with no single ethnic group in the majority in 2004. The total 2008 population was 47.3% white, 36.3% Hispanic, and 11.4% black. At their current population growth rate, Hispanics will increase to about 15 million people and become the majority population in Texas by 2020. The Hispanic population will continue to become younger while the white population ages during the next 10 years. One reason for this difference in ages between the white and Hispanic populations is that Texas has the highest teen birth rate in the nation, and Hispanics have the highest rates of teen pregnancies in Texas (Kluever and Deviney 2007; DSHS 2009e). The Hispanic population is migrating into counties throughout Texas, particularly into urban areas and the Panhandle, but the largest Hispanic population cluster remains in South Texas in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Blacks live mostly in the large urban areas but are also spread across rural East Texas; yet no Texas county has a black majority population (US Census Bureau 2000a, 2009; Claritas 2008; Petersen and Assanie 2005). Lack of education is a primary cause of poverty. In 2007, less than 80% of Texans aged 25 years and older had high school diplomas (national average was 84.5%). In the 2007–2008 Texas school year, 88.8% of white students graduated, 70.8% of Hispanics, and 71.8% of blacks (TEA 2009). Education data for 2008 showed that less than one-third of Texans aged 25 years or older had college degrees (Claritas 2008). Table 1.1 shows that increased levels of education resulted in 2007 in far higher median annual earnings for full-time, year-round workers in the United States. The lowest 2008 median family household incomes in Texas persisted in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (Claritas 2008). The 2006 US Census American Community Survey listed Texas as having the fifth-highest poverty rate in the nation—one of six Texans was poor (defined using a set of income thresholds that vary by family size and composition ). Texas also had the fifth-highest rate of child poverty (one of five children lived in poverty) and the eighthhighest rate of elderly living in poverty (one of eight Texans aged 65 and older) (US Census Bureau 2007a; DeLuna Castro and Kluever 2006). From 2000 to 2008, the highest rates of poverty remained in the Hispanic populations of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and in the Panhandle. TABLE 1.1. MEDIAN ANNUAL EARNINGS ($) OF MAJOR US ETHNIC GROUPS, 2007 Not high school graduate High school graduate College graduate White 26,100 34,900 58,300 Hispanic 23,400 27,800 45,400 Black 22,000 28,700 47,200 Source: US Census Bureau, 2007b. 2 Texas Counties and Major Cities Sources: Claritas, 2008; US Census Bureau, 2000a. 3 Total Population Total Population Population Density per Square Mile 2000 2008 Note: Texas population totaled 20,852,000 in 2000 and 24,007,000 in 2008. Sources: Claritas, 2008; US Census Bureau, 2000a. 4 White Population 2000 2008 White Population Percent of Total Population Notes: 1. The Texas white population totaled 10,933,000 in 2000 and 11,345,000 in 2008. 2. The Texas white population mean percentage of the total population was 52.43 in 2000 and 47.26 in 2008. Sources: Claritas, 2008; US Census Bureau, 2000a. Hispanic Population 5 Hispanic Population Percent of Total Population 2000 2008 Notes: 1. The Texas Hispanic...