Talking Points

POPULATION AND DEMOGRAPHICS

• 7.0 million residents live in the nine-county Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land MSA
• The Houston metro is the nation's 5th most populous metro area, larger than Missouri or Maryland
• Approximate number of city of Houston residents: 2.3 million
• Houston is the nation's 4th most populous city 
• Nearly 1 in 4 Houstonians are foreign born

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 American Community Survey

GLOBAL PRESENCE

• Fifteen foreign governments maintain trade and commercial offices in Houston and the region has 35 active foreign chambers of commerce
• 17.3% of the region's economy is tied to exports and exports support 330,000 jobs
• The Houston Airport System served 58.3 million passengers in '18: 11.8 million international and 46.5 million domestic travelers
• Houston serves 182 nonstop destinations
• $233.3 billion in trade was handled by the Houston-Galveston Customs District in '18: $92.7 in imports and $140.5 in exports
• Houston has the largest export market in the U.S.
• Port Houston is the largest Gulf Coast container port
• Port Houston ranks 1st in foreign tonnage for 22 straight years and 2nd in total tonnage for 26 straight years
• Over 5,000 Houston companies are doing business abroad
• More than 1,700 Houston companies report foreign ownership
• Ninety nations have consular representation in Houston, the third largest representation in the nation
• Nineteen foreign banks are located in Houston from 10 nations

ECONOMY

• If Houston were an independent nation, the region would have the 26th largest economy in the world, behind Belgium and ahead of Thailand
• Real (i.e., net of infation) GDP in the Houston region is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 2.9 percent from ’20 to ’45
• Houston's GDP is expected to more than double between '20 and '45

• Houston is the nation's seventh largest metro economy
• Twenty-one Fortune 500 companies call Houston home

EMPLOYMENT

• There are 3.1 million jobs in the Houston MSA, more jobs than in 35 states
• Service industries account for 4 out of 5 workers in the region
• The goods-producing sector accounts for 1 in 5 of the region's jobs

INDUSTRIES

• The Texas Medical Center is the world's largest medical complex

• Houston is home to 83,100 engineers and architects
• Approximately 230,000 people work in the region's manufacturing industry
• 44 of the 128 publicly-traded oil and gas exploration firms are housed in Houston
• 510 exploration and production firms and 790 oil field service companies are located in the Houston region
• Houston employs 25% of the nation's oil and gas extraction jobs