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Texas Triangle Megaregion | |
|---|---|
.jpg)    Clockwise from top: Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth | |
 The cities and counties in or near the Texas Triangle, a megaregion of the U.S. state of Texas: City names in bold in the map legend are in the top 10 most populous Texas cities. | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Texas |
| Area | |
| • Metro | 62,000 sq mi (160,000 km2) |
| Population | |
• Estimate (2025) | 22,550,219[1] |
| • Metro density | 340/sq mi (130/km2) |
| GDP | |
| • Metro | $2.7 trillion (2025) |
TheTexas Triangle is a region ofTexas that contains the state's five largest cities and is home to over half of the state's population. The Texas Triangle is formed by the state's four main urban centers,Austin,Dallas-Fort Worth,Houston, andSan Antonio, connected byInterstate 45,Interstate 10, andInterstate 35. In 2025, the population of the Texas Triangle reached nearly 23 million following rapid growth across much of Texas.[1] The Texas Triangle is one of elevenmegaregions in the United States, clusters of urban areas that share economic and cultural ties.
In 2004, the Texas Triangle contained five of the 20 largest cities in the U.S. and was home to more than 70% of all Texans, with a population of 13.8 million.[4] In the next 40 years, the population of the Texas Triangle is projected to increase by more than 65%,[5] or 10 million people, and comprise 78% of all Texans.
Additionalmetropolitan areas in the region includeBryan–College Station,Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood, andWaco. Twelvemicropolitan statistical areas are within the Triangle, which includes 66 counties.[6]Beaumont, located east of Houston, has been considered part of the Texas Triangle by numerous studies dating from 2000.[7][8][9][10][11]Burleson County is the center of the Texas Triangle.
The megaregion is defined in work byAmerica 2050 initiative and others. Dr. Robert Lang of theMetropolitan Institute atVirginia Tech characterized Dallas–Fort Worth as one of the earliest recognized megapolitans. Although each city is distinct, Dallas and Fort Worth developed closely enough to form the urban area widely known asthe Metroplex.
The 60,000-square-mile (160,000 km2) region contains most of the state's largest cities andmetropolitan areas, and in 2008 had a total of 17 million people and by 2020 had grown to nearly 21 million,[1] nearly 75% of Texas's total population.[12] The region is comparable to Florida inpopulation and comparable to Georgia inarea, but the Texas Triangle comprises less than a quarter of Texas's total land area.
According to theUniversity of Texas at Austin Center for Sustainable Development, "the Texas Triangle has three sides measuring 271, 198, and 241 miles in ground distance."[13]
The Texas Triangle contains 65 counties. They areAnderson,Atascosa,Austin,Bandera,Bastrop,Bell,Bexar,Blanco,Bosque,Brazoria,Brazos,Burleson,Burnet,Caldwell,Chambers,Collin,Colorado,Comal,Coryell,Dallas,Denton,DeWitt,Ellis,Falls,Fayette,Fort Bend,Freestone,Galveston,Gonzales,Grimes,Guadalupe,Harris,Hays,Henderson,Hill,Houston,Jackson,Johnson,Kaufman,Kendall,Lampasas,Lavaca,Lee,Leon,Liberty,Limestone,Madison,McLennan,Medina,Milam,Montgomery,Navarro,Rockwall,Robertson,San Jacinto,Tarrant,Travis,Trinity,Victoria,Walker,Waller,Washington,Wharton,Williamson, andWilson.
The Texas Triangle can be considered one of the morepolitically left-wing areas in Texas due to the anchoring cities ofHouston,San Antonio,Dallas,Austin, andFort Worth. All of these cities, and their respective counties ofHarris,Bexar,Dallas,Travis, andTarrant, moved towardsJoe Biden in2020, with Biden flipping Tarrant County, which had gone forDonald Trump in 2016. However in2024, Trump flipped Tarrant county again, when he carried the state with a double-digit margin.
Prior to 2008, with the exception of Austin/Travis and San Antonio/Bexar (the latter a former bellwether/swing county and the former a liberal stronghold), all of these cities/counties were conservative strongholds, having voted for Republican presidential candidates from the 1960s through2004.
This culminated withBarack Obama flipping Dallas, Harris, and Bexar counties to the Democratic party in 2008.[14]Despite the five biggest cities in Texas being within the Triangle, there are also a great number of rural, conservative counties in the Triangle. It is in these counties that Republicans poll their best.
The Texas triangle has also been the subject of rail feasibility studies in particular for high speed rail.[15][16][17]
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