Demographics of Houston

In the U.S. state of Texas, Houston is the largest city by both population and area. With a 1850 United States census population of 2,396—and 596,163 a century later, in 1950—Houston's population has experienced positive growth trends. In 2000, the city had a population of 1,953,631 people in 717,945 households and 457,330 families, increasing to 2,304,580 at the 2020 census.

In common with most U.S. communities leading up to the 20th and 21st centuries, Houston was a predominantly non-Hispanic white city. Since the New Great Migration and immigration from Latin America, Africa, and Asia during the latter half of the 20th century, the city has become a majority-minority city with Hispanic and Latino Americans constituting the plurality at 44% of the population. According to Los Angeles Times and NPR in 2017 and 2013, Houston has been described as the most diverse place in the United States.

Race and ethnicity

White non-Hispanic and European Americans

White Americans of northern and western European origin—particularly those of German and British origins—founded the city of Houston. Historically in the mid-nineteenth century, Southern Anglo settlers primarily from the southeastern United States crossed the Mississippi River, migrating to Texas. Roberto R. Treviño, author of The Church in the Barrio: Mexican American Ethno-Catholicism in Houston, said that German Americans "historically played a central role in Houston, far outnumbering other whites such as the British, Irish, Canadians, French, Czechs, Poles, and Scandinavian groups who historically have comprised a smaller part of the city's ethnic mosaic."

In 1910, prior to new waves of immigration from eastern and southern Europe, descendants of ethnic whites who had founded Houston numerically outnumbered other ethnic groups who had later settled in Houston. After European immigrants and their descendants assimilated into United States culture, they tended to develop with the city of Houston.