72% of Texans Live on Just 12% of the State’s Land, Averaging 26 Acres Per Texan Outside the Top 5 Metro Areas

DALLAS, Texas (TXAN 24) — Texas is massive, but its population is far more concentrated than the state’s wide-open landscape might suggest.

The state’s five largest metropolitan areas—Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and McAllen—are home to roughly 22.7 million people, or about 72% of Texas’ population.

Together, those metropolitan areas account for approximately 30,600 square miles of land; only about 12% of Texas’ total land area.

That leaves roughly 88% of Texas’ land area outside those five major metropolitan areas, where approximately 28% of the state’s population lives.

The difference becomes even more striking when looking at the average amount of land per person. The approximately 8.9 million Texans living across the remaining 88% of Texas represent an average of about 26 acres of land per person.

That does not mean every Texan outside the major metros has 26 acres surrounding them. It is a mathematical average across the entire land area, including farms, ranches, forests, deserts, small towns and other undeveloped areas.

The numbers highlight one of Texas’ defining characteristics: enormous geographic space paired with highly concentrated population centers.

While millions of Texans live in the state’s major urban corridors, vast portions of Texas remain sparsely populated—creating a dramatic contrast between the state’s crowded metropolitan centers and its wide-open rural landscape.