Texas has been the envy of economic developers in the south, more than doubling its population since 1980. In comparison, Mississippi’s population has grown 17 percent since 1980. Over the last 45 years, Texas has grown seven times faster than Mississippi.
I asked ChatGPT why. The main answer is that Texas has big urban areas and Mississippi has small rural areas. Over the last 45 years, big urban areas have grown while rural areas have shrunk. Basically, the rich get richer.
Texas does indeed have some massive urban areas. The Dallas/Ft. Worth and Houston Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) are the fourth and fifth biggest in the nation at 8.1 and 7.5 million people. Compare that to Mississippi’s total population of 2.94 million.
I would argue that Austin and San Antonio are merging into one big metropolitan area. Combined, they have a total MSA population of five million.
Compare that to Jackson’s MSA of 594,000 and the Gulfport-Biloxi MSA of 427,000. Mississippi’s biggest MSA is one-fourteenth the size of Texas’ biggest MSA.
Beyond that, Texas has several other MSA’s that are substantial. El Paso’s MSA is 879,000 — bigger than Jackson’s 594,000. Other MSA’s are Corpus Christi at 450,000, Brownsville at 423,000, Beaumont at 399,000, Lubbock at 329,000, College Station at 287,000, Laredo at 251,000, Amarillo at 274,000, Midland at 189,000, Abilene at 185,000, Wichita Falls at 149,000 and San Angelo at 120,000.
So not only does Texas have three megalopolises, it has a dozen medium sized cities all of which are bigger than any Mississippi MSA but Jackson and Biloxi-Gulfport.
True, Texas’ landmass is 5.7 times bigger than Mississippi. But Texas’ population is 10.6 times that of Mississippi. Population density in Texas is 111 people per square mile compared to Mississippi’s 63 per square mile.
More significantly, the population density of the megalopolis triangle of Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Austin-San Antonio is 643. That’s 18 million people crammed into an area half the size of Mississippi, 28,000 square miles.
Put another way, the population density of the high population area of Texas is 10 times more dense than Mississippi.
My recent trip to Texas involved a ring through this entire area. The trip was a sevenfer. 1) Visit my old home in Dallas. 2) Visit my son and daughter in Austin and go to the Austin City Limits outdoor concert. 3) Attend a wedding at my cousin's ranch in between Austin and San Antonio. 4) Visit my sister and brother-in-law in the tiny hamlet of Utopia 50 miles west of San Antonio. 5) Visit my 99-year-old Aunt Fae on her birthday in San Antonio. 6) Have lunch with my surrogate brother Tommy in Houston. 7) Visit my father-in-law Bob Knight and his wife Linda on the way back to Baton Rouge.
All of this underscores my connection with Texas. Although born in McComb, Mississippi, I lived in Houston, Texas, between the ages of seven and 15 when my father was editor of the editorial page and later assistant to the president of the Houston Chronicle, before buying the Greenwood Commonwealth and moving back to Mississippi.
Additionally, my Aunt Fae, my father’s sister, married a neurosurgeon who practiced in San Antonio all his life. Aunt Fae and Uncle Bob had five children who then had 18 children. So I have a whole clan of cousins in San Antonio. In addition, my son Lawrence has lived in Austin six years and my sister Melanie has lived in Texas most of her adult life.
Having so many stops, we drove. The drive was at the max of my personal limit, about 12 hours from Jackson to the most distant point, all through the heart of the most densely populated part of Texas.
Driving along the interstates, it seems like I was in a cavern of 18 wheelers. The traffic was congested almost always with road construction everywhere. It felt overcrowded.
On the first leg of our trip to Dallas, we had lunch at a sushi place in Shreveport in the vast and empty Boardwalk development along the Red River. Seeing all the empty buildings in this vast and beautiful development is a cautionary tale of those who believe “if you build it they will come.”
In Dallas, we visited the White Rock Lake botanical garden and visited the beautiful biking trail around the lake, around which I biked regularly during my summer stay in Dallas. Dinner that night at Terilli’s on Lower Greenville Avenue was perfect.
We splurged and stayed at the Magdalena Hotel off Congress Street in Austin. You could walk to everything. Fancy shops and restaurants abounded. We joked that we were so old we had to get fake IDs to get into Austin City Limits.
The wedding at Poco Loco was huge and beautiful. Uncle Bob bought the 400 acres along the Guadalupe River 50 years ago for $1,000 an acre. Who knows what it’s worth now. It was a happy occasion watching my first cousin once removed Chase Hardy say his vows with Amber. Life goes on.
Wonderful visit with my sister at her beautiful hilltop home. Talked at length with my dear Aunt Fae, etc.
When I finally crossed into Mississippi, I-55 felt like a private drive. The countryside was beautiful and open. No smog, no congestion. I was happy to be home.
