Gulf Coast | |
|---|---|
 States that border the gulf are shown in red. | |
| Country |  United States |
| States |  Alabama Florida Louisiana Mississippi Texas |
| Principal cities | Houston Tampa Mobile New Orleans Pensacola Gulfport Tallahassee |
| Largest city | Houston |
| Largest metropolitan area | Greater Houston |
| Population | |
• Total | 64,008,345[citation needed] |
TheGulf Coast of the United States, also known as theGulf South or theSouth Coast, is thecoastline along theSouthern United States where they meet theGulf of Mexico. Thecoastal states that have ashoreline on the Gulf of Mexico areTexas,Louisiana,Mississippi,Alabama, andFlorida, and these are known as theGulf States.[1]
The economy of the Gulf Coast area is dominated by industries related to energy, petrochemicals, fishing, aerospace, agriculture, and tourism. The large cities of the region are (from west to east)Brownsville,Corpus Christi,Houston,Galveston,Beaumont,Lake Charles,Lafayette,Baton Rouge,New Orleans,Gulfport,Biloxi,Mobile,Pensacola,Panama City,St. Petersburg, andTampa. All are the centers or major cities of their respectivemetropolitan areas and many contain largeports.
The Gulf Coast is made of manyinlets,bays, andlagoons. The coast is intersected by numerous rivers, the largest of which is theMississippi River. Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was,marshland.[2] Ringing the Gulf Coast is theGulf Coastal Plain, which reaches fromSouthern Texas to the westernFlorida panhandle, while the western portions of the Gulf Coast are made up of manybarrier islands andpeninsulas, including the 130-mile (210 km)Padre Island along the Texas coast. These landforms protect numerousbays andinlets providing as a barrier to oncoming waves. The central part of the Gulf Coast, from eastern Texas through Louisiana, consists primarily of marshland. The eastern part of the Gulf Coast, predominantly Florida, is dotted with many bays and inlets.
The Gulf Coast climate is humid subtropical, althoughSouthwest Florida features a tropical climate. Much of the year is warm to hot along the Gulf Coast, while the three winter months bring periods of cool (or rarely, cold) weather mixed with mild temperatures. The area is highly vulnerable tohurricanes as well asfloods and severethunderstorms. Much of the Gulf Coast has a summer precipitation maximum, with July or August commonly the wettest month due to the combination of frequent summer thunderstorms produced by relentless heat and humidity, and tropical weather systems, including tropical depressions, tropical storms, andhurricanes, while winter and early spring rainfall also can be heavy.
This pattern is evident in southern cites asHouston;New Orleans;Mobile, Alabama; andPensacola, Florida. However, the central and southernFlorida peninsula andSouth Texas has a pronounced winter dry season, as atTampa andFort Myers. On the central and southern Texas coast, winter, early spring and mid-summer are markedly drier, and September is the wettest month on average atCorpus Christi andBrownsville, Texas.Tornadoes are infrequent at the coast but do occur; however, they occur more frequently in inland portions of Gulf Coast states. Over most of the Gulf Coast fromHouston, Texas, eastward, extreme rainfall events are a significant threat, commonly from tropical weather systems, which can bring 4 to 10 or more inches of rain in a single day. In August 2017,Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the central Texas coast, then migrated to and stalled over the greaterHouston area for several days, producing extreme, unprecedented rainfall totals of over 40 inches (1,000 mm) in many areas, unleashing widespread flooding. Climate scientists predict more hurricanes for Florida[3] and the Texas coastline in particular.[4]Earthquakes are extremely rare to the area, but a6.0 earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico on September 10, 2006, could be felt from the cities of New Orleans to Tampa.
Due to the release of greenhouse gas emissions, glaciers and ice sheets are melting and expanding the oceans. The United States coastlines are projected to rise 1 foot in three decades or between 10 and 12 inches on average by 2050.[5] The Gulf Coast will likely see the biggest change, with sea levels expected to rise between 14 and 18 inches. The Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Report predicted more frequent, major and destructive high tide flooding events along with taller storm surges by 2050 after scientists determined high tide flooding has been "increasingly common" over the past few years due to the rising sea levels.[5] The impacts are expected to be dramatic. Low-lying coastal areas are expected to experience multiple factors, including increased levels of flooding, accelerated erosion, loss of wetlands and low-lying terrestrial ecosystems, and seawater intrusion into freshwater sources. Rising sea level and erosion will also imperil critical habitats for many commercially important fisheries that depend on inshore waters for either permanent residence or nursery area.[6] In 2021 alone rising sea levels cost the United States approximately $2.6 billion in relief efforts and caused at least seven deaths.[5] By 2051, the cost of flood damage is expected to increase by 61%, or $32 billion.[7]
The Gulf Coast is a major center of economic activity. The marshlands along the Louisiana and Texas coasts provide breeding grounds and nurseries for ocean life that drive thefishing andshrimping industries. ThePort of South Louisiana (Metropolitan New Orleans inLaplace) and thePort of Houston are two of the ten busiestports in the world by cargo volume.[8] As of 2004, seven of the top ten busiest ports in the U.S. are on the Gulf Coast.[9]
The discovery ofoil andgas deposits along the coast and offshore, combined with easy access to shipping, have made the Gulf Coast the heart of the U.S.petrochemical industry. The coast contains nearly 4,000oil platforms.
Besides the above, the region features other important industries includingaerospace andbiomedical research, as well as older industries such as agriculture and — especially since the development of the Gulf Coast beginning in the 1920s and the increase in wealth throughout the United States —tourism.
Hurricane Katrina andHurricane Rita have destroyed a number of museums and archives in the Gulf Coast. In 2008 floods in Iowa destroyed the localFlood Museum which held materials from theGreat Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993.[10]
Before European settlers arrived in the region, the Gulf Coast was home to several pre-Columbian kingdoms which had extensive trade networks with empires such as the Aztecs and the Mississippi Mound Builders. Shark and alligator teeth and shells from the Gulf have been found as far north as Ohio, in the mounds of the Hopewell culture.[11]
The first Europeans to settle the Gulf Coast were primarily theFrench and theSpanish. TheLouisiana Purchase (1803),Adams–Onís Treaty (1819) and theTexas Revolution (1835–1836) made the Gulf Coast a part of the United States during the first half of the 19th century. As the U.S. population continued to expand its frontiers westward, the Gulf Coast was a natural magnet in theSouth providing access to shipping lanes and both national and international commerce. The development ofsugar andcotton production (enabled byslavery) allowed the South to prosper. By the mid-19th century the city ofNew Orleans, being situated as a key to commerce on theMississippi River and in the Gulf, had become the largest U.S. city not on theAtlantic seaboard and the fourth largest in the U.S. overall.
Two major events were turning points in the earlier history of the Gulf Coast region. The first was theAmerican Civil War, which caused severe damage to some economic sectors in theSouth, including the Gulf Coast. The second event was theGalveston Hurricane of 1900. At the end of the 19th centuryGalveston was, with New Orleans, one of the most developed cities in the region. The city had the third busiest port in the U.S.[12] and its financial district was known as the "Wall Street of the South".[13]
Since then the Gulf Coast has been hit with numerous other hurricanes. On August 29, 2005,Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast as aCategory 3 hurricane. It was themost damaging storm in the history of the United States, causing upwards of $80 billion in damages, and leaving over 1,800 dead. Again in 2008, the Gulf Coast was struck by a catastrophic hurricane. Due to its immense size,Hurricane Ike caused devastation from theLouisiana coastline all the way to theKenedy County, Texas, region nearCorpus Christi.[14] In addition, Ike caused flooding and significant damage along theMississippi coastline and theFlorida panhandle.[15] Ike killed 112 people and left upwards of 300 people missing, never to be found.[16] Hurricane Ike was thethird most damaging storm in the history of the United States, causing more than $25 billion[17] in damage along the coast, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless, and sparking the largest search-and-rescue operation in U.S. history.[18]
Other than the hurricanes, the Gulf Coast has redeveloped dramatically over the course of the 20th century. The gulf coast is highly populated. The petrochemical industry, launched with the major discoveries of oil in Texas and spurred on by further discoveries in the Gulf waters, has been a vehicle for development in the central and western Gulf which has spawned development on a variety of fronts in these regions.Texas in particular has benefited tremendously from this industry over the course of the 20th century and economic diversification has made the state a magnet for population and home to moreFortune 500 companies than any other U.S. state.Florida has grown as well, driven to a great extent by its long established tourism industry but also by its position as a gateway to theCaribbean andLatin America. As of 2024, Texas and Florida are the second and thirdmost populous states in the nation, respectively. Other areas of the Gulf Coast have benefited less, though economic development fueled by tourism has greatly increased property values along the coast, and is now a severe danger to the valuable but fragileecosystems of the Gulf Coast.
Within the United States, a process was started on January 20, 2025 to rename the waters enclosed by the Gulf States, extending southward to the maritime borders with Mexico and Cuba, the"Gulf of America" for federal use.[19] On February 10, 2025, theU.S. Board on Geographic Names and theFederal Aviation Administration officially recognized the change.[20][21]
The following table lists the 11 largestcore-based statistical areas along the Gulf Coast.
| Rank | Metropolitan statistical area | 2020 pop. (est.) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston-The Woodlands, TX Combined Statistical Area | 7,340,823 |
| 2 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area | 3,243,963 |
| 3 | New Orleans-Metairie-Hammond, LA-MS Combined Statistical Area | 1,510,672 |
| 4 | Cape Coral-Fort Myers-Naples, FL Combined Statistical Area | 1,226,553 |
| 5 | North Port-Sarasota, FL Combined Statistical Area | 1,087,915 |
| 6 | McAllen-Edinburg, TX Combined Statistical Area | 939,466 |
| 7 | Baton Rouge, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area | 858,571 |
| 8 | Mobile-Daphne-Fairhope, AL Combined Statistical Area | 661,964 |
| 9 | Lafayette-Opelousas-Morgan City, LA Combined Statistical Area | 619,529 |
| 10 | Pensacola-Ferry Pass, FL-AL Combined Statistical Area | 547,784 |
| 11 | Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX Combined Statistical Area | 536,258 |
| Highway | Significant cities served |
|---|---|
 LA 1 | Grand Isle,Port Fourchon,Thibodaux |
 S.R. 85 | Crestview,Fort Walton Beach |
 S.H. 35 | Houston,Bay City,Port Lavaca,Rockport,Corpus Christi |
 S.H. 288 |
International destinations
| Train | Route | Gulf Coast cities served |
|---|---|---|
| City of New Orleans | Chicago toNew Orleans | New Orleans |
| Crescent | New York City toNew Orleans | New Orleans,Picayune, MS,Slidell, LA |
| Silver Star | New York City toMiami | Tampa, with connection available toAmtrak Thruway toClearwater, FL,Bradenton, FL,Sarasota, FL,Port Charlotte, FL andFort Myers, FL |
| Sunset Limited | Los Angeles toOrlando (temporarilyNew Orleans) | Bay St. Louis, MS,Beaumont, TX,Biloxi,Crestview, FL,Gulfport, MS,Houston,Lafayette, LA,Lake Charles, LA,Baton Rouge, LA,Mobile,New Orleans,Panama City, FL,Scriever, LA,Pascagoula, MS,Pensacola, FL |
Montgomery (capital) | |
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