Interactive table ranking the 10 Houston-area counties by population growth, median age, and senior share from U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates.
The Houston Growth Index:
10 Counties, One Boom
How the 10 counties of metro Houston grew between the April 2020 Census and July 1, 2025.
Pick a metric to re-rank. Source: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates, released March and June 2026.
| County | Insights | Selected metric | Pop. 2025 | 5-yr +/− | 5-yr % | 1-yr +/− | Median age | 65+ share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty | #3 U.S. by % | 121,364 | +29,703 | +32.41% | +5,073 | 32.5 | 11.8% | |
| Montgomery | #5 U.S. by # | 781,194 | +160,643 | +25.89% | +30,011 | 37.1 | 14.9% | |
| Chambers | #17 U.S. by % | 57,594 | +11,055 | +23.75% | +1,606 | 35.2 | 13.2% | |
| Waller | #20 U.S. by % | 69,858 | +13,089 | +23.06% | +3,761 | 30.5 | 13.4% | |
| Fort Bend | #6 U.S. by # | 975,191 | +151,194 | +18.35% | +24,163 | 38.2 | 14.2% | |
| Brazoria | 419,080 | +47,034 | +12.64% | +7,664 | 37.5 | 14.5% | ||
| Austin County | 33,625 | +3,457 | +11.46% | +747 | 41.9 | 22.3% | ||
| San Jacinto | oldest · 45.0 | 29,488 | +2,082 | +7.60% | +160 | 45.0 | 23.8% | |
| Harris | #1 County by # | 5,045,026 | +314,618 | +6.65% | +48,695 | 35.0 | 13.1% | |
| Galveston | 372,207 | +21,525 | +6.14% | +4,840 | 39.9 | 18.1% |
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Cybersecurity ServicesYour County Is Booming. Is Your IT Keeping Up?
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Greater Houston, By the Numbers
America's Growth Race
Where Houston ranks among the biggest U.S. metros for people added. Houston is #1 in the nation for single-year growth.
Two Ways to Read Growth
Harris adds the most people; Liberty grows fastest by percent. Bubble size = people added since 2020.
The Other Growth Number: Business Formation
Population tells you the market is growing. Business applications tell you how fast new companies are entering it. Census released county-level business application data on June 10, 2026 - summed across the 10 metro counties by CinchOps, it is the growth number a business actually competes against. The metro filed 149,902 applications in 2025, its second-highest year ever, and 842,507 since 2020.
Two Decades of Houston Area Business Applications
All 10 metro counties combined, 2005 to 2025. The Houston area’s plateau ended in 2020 and never came back - the metro has filed above 137,000 every year since 2021, and Texas as a whole set its all-time high of 544,133 in 2025.
The Houston Area Files More Than Its Share
The claim this page exists to make: 24.9% of the people, 27.6% of the new business filings. The Houston area converts growth into companies faster than Texas or the nation.
Business Applications by County
Ranked by 2025 filings. Every county beats its 2019 pace - the exurbs lead on percentage, Harris on volume.
| County | Insights | Apps 2025 | Apps 2019 | Change since 2019 | Share of metro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harris | #3 U.S. county | 99,688 | 59,683 | +67% | 66.5% |
| Fort Bend | 20,426 | 11,436 | +79% | 13.6% | |
| Montgomery | 13,861 | 7,114 | +95% | 9.2% | |
| Brazoria | 6,380 | 3,399 | +88% | 4.3% | |
| Galveston | 5,413 | 2,876 | +88% | 3.6% | |
| Liberty | fastest since 2019 | 1,622 | 574 | +183% | 1.1% |
| Waller | 1,023 | 506 | +102% | 0.7% | |
| Chambers | 705 | 363 | +94% | 0.5% | |
| Austin County | 404 | 235 | +72% | 0.3% | |
| San Jacinto | 380 | 165 | +130% | 0.3% |
Ten Years, County by County
The same 2020 step change is visible in all ten counties. Charts are scaled to each county’s own range, so shapes show trend, not relative size.
One honest caveat: a business application is not yet a business. Many filings never become employers, which is why Census tracks actual formations separately. Read 149,902 as the pace of new commercial activity entering the market - every filing is a potential competitor, vendor, or the future employer of your next hire.
Growth Meets Risk: Where the Houston Area Boom and FEMA's Map Overlap
A September 2026 study by RealtyHomes Research ranked the fastest-growing U.S. counties that FEMA's National Risk Index rates Relatively High or Very High for natural hazards. Four Texas counties made the top 25, and two of them are on this page. Montgomery County ranked #2 in the nation and Fort Bend County ranked #9. Harris County sits in FEMA's highest tier and grew 6.6%.
Four Texas Counties, One Harris Comparison
Population growth from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 for the four Texas counties on the list. The two Houston area counties are in orange. Harris is shown for contrast; it is not on the list.
The Other Migration Number: Who Left and Who Arrived
Harris County still grew, but people moving within the U.S. left it on net and landed next door. RealtyHomes lists lightning as FEMA's top-rated hazard for both Montgomery and Fort Bend.
| County | Insights | Growth since Jul 2020 | Residents added | Net domestic moves, 2021-25 | Top FEMA hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery | #2 U.S. high-risk | 24.9% | +155,825 | +116,575 | Lightning |
| Fort Bend | #9 U.S. high-risk | 17.4% | +144,844 | +79,829 | Lightning |
| Harris | FEMA highest tier | 6.6% | +310,966 | -157,010 | Not stated |
Why these numbers differ from the table at the top of this page: RealtyHomes measured growth from the July 1, 2020 estimate. The county table above starts from the April 1, 2020 Census count, which is why Montgomery shows +25.89% there and 24.9% here. Both are correct.
FEMA's rating compares a county to the rest of the country. It is not a forecast, and Hurricane Beryl took power from all three counties on the same day in July 2024. What a Houston area business should protect first, and in what order, is in Fastest-Growing High-Risk Counties in Texas (2026).
CinchOps - Houston Managed IT
I run CinchOps, a managed IT provider in Katy. We built this index because Houston area growth is always reported as one number - people - and that is the number a business feels last. New company formation is the number it feels first: in hiring, in vendors, in who is competing for the same customers. The Census Bureau publishes that data county by county, and almost nobody local reads it. As a service to the Houston area business community, we joined the population and business formation numbers so any company can see what its market is actually doing.
CinchOps is a managed IT services provider based in Katy, Texas, serving small and mid-sized businesses across the Houston metro area. CinchOps specializes in cybersecurity, network security, managed IT support, VoIP, and SD-WAN for businesses with 10 to 200 employees. See IT support in Houston, or talk to CinchOps.
- Shane Stevens, CEO and Founder, CinchOps - LinkedIn
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates - Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX MSA (CBSA 26420), 10 counties. Window: April 1, 2020 census base to July 1, 2025. Metro 65+ growth measured across the same window.
Business applications: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics - Annual Business Applications by County, 2005-2025, released June 10, 2026. Metro rollup, share-of-state and per-1,000-resident figures are CinchOps calculations joining that file to the Vintage 2025 population estimates. Most applications do not become employer businesses.
Hazard ratings and county ranks: RealtyHomes Research, Fastest-Growing U.S. Counties With High Natural Disaster Risk, September 15, 2026, using FEMA National Risk Index v1.20. Growth in that section runs July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025. Net domestic migration for 2021 to 2025 is a CinchOps sum from the Vintage 2025 county file.
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