This article on the demographics of Houston in the early 21st century (2001–2015) contains information on population characteristics of Houston, Texas, United States of America, including

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is i ...

family status Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...

, age,

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. Fo ...

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

and ethnicity.

Population and households

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 1,953,631 people in 717,945 households, including 457,330 families, in the city. The population density was 3,371.7 people per square mile (1,301.8/km²). There were 782,009 housing units at an average density of 1,349.6 per square mile (521.1/km²). If the city of Houston were a U.S. state, it would rank 36th in population—its estimated 2.01 million residents in 2004 placed it behind

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

and ahead of New Mexico. In 2005, the Greater Houston area had a population of more than 5.7 million, as the area was growing at a faster rate than the state or the nation. In 2000, there were 717,945 households in the city, of which 33.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.2% were married couples living together, 15.3% had a

female Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

householder with no husband present, and 36.3% were non-families. Twenty-nine percent of all households were one person and 6.2% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.39. The median house price was $115,961 in 2009. The age distribution was 27.5% under the age of 18, 11.2% from 18 to 24, 33.8% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 8.4% 65 or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.8 males. The median household income was $36,616 and the median family income was $40,443. Males had a median income of $32,084 versus $27,371 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,101. Nineteen percent of the population and 16% of families were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

. Out of the total population, 26.1% of those under the age of 18 and 14.3% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. As of 2002, 38,000 residents of Houston were counted among residents of

Fort Bend County Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year. It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days. Th ...

, as the city had expanded into this county. Houston ranked as the third-largest city within Fort Bend County by population, after

Missouri City Missouri City is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County, Texas, Fort Bend County, with a small portion in Harris County, Texas, Harris County. As of the 2020 census, the c ...

and

Sugar Land Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around ...

. Circa the late 1800s Houston's population was fewer than that of

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

. Circa 1890 it was the 18th largest city in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

Race and ethnic origins

Houston is a diverse and international city, in part because of its many academic institutions and strong biomedical, energy, manufacturing and aerospace industries. According to the U.S. Census 2000, The

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the city was 49.3% White, 25.3% Black or

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.4% Native American, 5.3% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 16.5% from other races, and 3.2% from

two or more races 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

; additionally, 37% of the population was

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race. Since the 1990 Census, Houston's population has become

majority-minority A majority-minority or minority-majority area is a term used to refer to a subdivision in which one or more racial, ethnic, and/or religious minorities (relative to the whole country's population) make up a majority of the local population. Ter ...

Religion

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 73% of the population of the city identified as Christian, with 50% saying they attended a variety of churches that could be considered

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, and 19% identifying as

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

. Some 20% did not claim any religious affiliation. The PEW study said that adherents of other religions (including

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

, Islam, and

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

) collectively make up about 7% of the population. Houston is also within the

Bible Belt The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's a ...

Language

In the 2000 U.S. Census, 938,123 residents of the City of Houston said that they spoke English only. Historically, Houstonians tend to pronounce Southern English with the drawl typical of the Lower South. The largest foreign languages in Houston included

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and

Spanish creole A Spanish creole, or Spanish-based creole language, is a creole language (contact language with native speakers) for which Spanish serves as its substantial '' lexifier''. A number of creole languages are influenced to varying degrees by the Sp ...

(679,292 speakers),

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

(26,125 speakers),

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

(24,234 speakers), African indigenous languages (11,603 speakers), and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

(10,669 speakers). Percentages of the non-English groups who said that they spoke English at least "very well" include 42% of the Spanish speakers, 32% of the Vietnamese speakers, 49% of the Chinese speakers, 72% of the speakers of indigenous African languages, and 70% of the speakers of Urdu.Rodriguez, Lori.
TRANSLATING A NEED / Language barriers / Immigrants see English as vital, but work, family limit time to learn
(). ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...

''. Monday September 18, 2006. A1. Retrieved on December 30, 2011. In 2000, 1,961,993 residents of Harris County spoke English only. The five largest foreign languages in the county were

Spanish Creole A Spanish creole, or Spanish-based creole language, is a creole language (contact language with native speakers) for which Spanish serves as its substantial '' lexifier''. A number of creole languages are influenced to varying degrees by the Sp ...

(1,106,883 speakers),

(53,311 speakers), Chinese (33,003 speakers), French including

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

and

Patois ''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon o ...

(33,003 speakers), and

(14,595 speakers). Percentages of language groups who said that they spoke English at least "very well" include 46% of Spanish speakers, 37% of Vietnamese speakers, 50% of Chinese speakers, 85% of French speakers, and 72% of Urdu speakers. Southwestern Louisiana Creole language is spoken in Houston. As of 2015, about 40% of Harris County residents spoke languages other than English.Rhor, Monica.
Immigrants from around the world are transforming Houston
" ''

''. March 5, 2015. Updated March 7, 2015. Retrieved on March 8, 2015.

National origin

Houston's foreign-born population increased by 400,000 in a ten-year span ending in 2010. During that span, of all U.S. cities, Houston had the second-largest increase of foreign-born persons. As of 2011, 22% of Greater Houston residents were born in another country. This percentage was the fifth-largest in Texas. In 2015 about 25% of the residents of Harris County, over one million persons, were immigrants. Surrounding counties have percentages similar to that of Harris County. As of that year, immigrants were widely dispersed throughout the Houston area.

Refugee populations

Since the 1970s, when Houston began absorbing Vietnamese refugees after the

Fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, t ...

, Houston has become a destination for refugee resettlement. About 1,600 refugees arrive at

George Bush Intercontinental Airport George Bush Intercontinental Airport is an international airport in Houston, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Located about north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 5 ...

per year. Refugees from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, El Salvador,

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, and

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

have settled in Houston; Burundians from Rwanda have also settled in Houston. Over the three years leading to 2009, Houston took about 2,200 Burmese.Giglio, Mike. "The Burmese Come to Houston," ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

''. September 1, 2009
1
Retrieved on December 19, 2009. The number of people born outside of the United States in the Houston area increased by 400,000 between 2000 and 2010. In 2014 4,818 refugees from 40 countries settled in Harris County. That year, of all counties in Texas, Harris County had the largest number of refugee settlements. In 2015 there were about 1 million people born outside of the United States in the Houston metropolitan area, which would be below 25% of the total population. if the Houston area was its own country, it would rank among the top five countries in the world for refugee resettlement. From 1975 to 2018, 74,050 refugees settled Harris County, the seventh largest figure for a county.

LGBT community

Montrose historically has been the center of the LGBT community in Houston. By 2011 many in the LGBT community moved to the

Houston Heights Houston Heights (often referred to simply as "The Heights") is a community in northwest-central Houston, Texas, United States. "The Heights" is often referred to colloquially to describe a larger collection of neighborhoods next to and including ...

and to suburbs in

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States, encompassing nine counties along the Gulf Co ...

due to

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

.Oaklander, Mandy. "The Mayor of Montrose." ''

''. 18 May 2011
4
Retrieved on May 18, 2011.

Health

In 2010 the

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a public academic health science center in Houston, Texas, United States. It was created in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is located in the T ...

released a Health of Houston Survey. Based on the survey results, 20% of area residents considered themselves to be in poor or fair health. Half of the Houston area residents did not have dental insurance. The area's percentage of individuals who reported having psychiatric distress was twice the U.S. national average. Of the racial groups, after excluding

illegal immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwa ...

, Hispanics had the lowest rates of health insurance. Houston is also part of the Stroke Belt along with many other Southern cities.

Politics

In 2013 Allen Turner of the ''

'' reported that residents of Harris County were "consistently conservative in elections," voting for Republican candidates in local, state and federal elections. But, according to a

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

Kinder Institute for Urban Research Kinder is the German word for "children"; it may also refer to: Businesses *Kinder, a trademark of Ferrero SpA, Ferrero, an Italian confectioner: **Kinder Surprise **Kinder Chocolate bars **Kinder Happy Hippo **Kinder Bueno **Kinder Joy *Kinder M ...

2013 opinion poll, they were surprisingly liberal on a variety of hot-button social topics, "such as immigration, gun control and equal matrimonial rights for same-sex couples".Turner, Allen.
"Survey finds area growing in 'tolerant traditionalists'
" ''

'', 24 April 2013. Retrieved on April 25, 2013.

References

External links

Houston demographics
- Greater Houston Partnership - Houston.org
Health of Houston Survey 2010
-

City of Houston page on demographic information
at

University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire The University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UW–Eau Claire, UWEC or simply Eau Claire) is a public university in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's and master's degrees. UW–Eau Claire h ...

{{Demographics of US

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Culture of Houston Geography of Houston Economy of Houston