The Texas Triangle megaregion consists of three metropolitan complexes: Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston, and Austin-San Antonio. This network, comprised of four U.S. Census-designated metropolitan statistical areas, has been recognized as an emerging megaregion and dubbed “The Economic Engine of the Southwest United States.” Metropolitan scholar Richard Florida has popularized the idea that the most important geographic units driving the US economy today are neither states nor cities, but megaregions.
The Texas Triangle currently consists of three of the 10 most populous cities in the country (Dallas, San Antonio and Houston) – and is on the brink of gaining a fourth (Austin). This territory houses 66% of the state’s population and generates 77% of the state’s total gross domestic product. But what truly separates the Texas Triangle from others is the fact that each of the diverse metropolitan regions are in the same state. This provides the individual regions an opportunity to align incentives and form a cohesive plan for future growth.
As of June 2022, there are 54 Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in the triangle metro areas. In 2019, this megaregion accounted for $1.23 trillion dollars of economic output, ranking it as the fourth largest in the country and the seventh largest in the world.
DALLAS / FORT WORTH
- A key U.S. financial center
- Telecommunications pioneer
- Aerospace and aviation powerhouse
- DFW International Airport is 2nd busiest in the U.S.
- More than 40 Fortune1,000 companies
AUSTIN
- The new U.S. tech hub
- About to surpass San Jose as the 10th largest city in the country
- Austin inventors received more than 4,700 patents in 2019
- Consistently ranked as a best place to live
SAN ANTONIO
- 20 million+ tourists visit the city annually
- A hot spot for international business
- Has the nation’s second-largest concentration of cybersecurity companies
- Home to three major Armed Forces commands
HOUSTON
- Energy capital of the world
- A port city, it handles the most foreign tonnage in the country
- Houston firms shipped $140.8B in products overseas in 2021
- Home to Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world
