Houston

The Houston area occupying land that was home of the Karankawa (kə rang′kə wä′,-wô′,-wə) and the Atakapa (əˈtɑːkəpə) indigenous peoples for at least 2,000 years before the first known settlers arrived.^[18][19][20] These tribes are almost nonexistent today; this was most likely caused by foreign disease, and competition with various settler groups in the 18th and 19th centuries.^[21] However, the land then remained largely uninhabited from the late the 1700s until settlement in the 1830s.^[22]

Early settlement to the 20th century

The Allen brothers—Augustus Chapman and John Kirby—explored town sites on Buffalo Bayou and Galveston Bay. According to historian David McComb, "[T]he brothers, on August 26, 1836, bought from Elizabeth E. Parrott, wife of T.F.L. Parrott and widow of John Austin, the south half of the lower league [2,214-acre (896 ha) tract] granted to her by her late husband. They paid $5,000 total, but only $1,000 of this in cash; notes made up the remainder."^[23]

The Allen brothers ran their first advertisement for Houston just four days later in the Telegraph and Texas Register, naming the notional town in honor of President Sam Houston.^[11] They successfully lobbied the Republic of Texas Congress to designate Houston as the temporary capital, agreeing to provide the new government with a state capitol building.^[24] About a dozen persons resided in the town at the beginning of 1837, but that number grew to about 1,500 by the time the Texas Congress convened in Houston for the first time that May.^[11] The Republic of Texas granted Houston incorporation on June 5, 1837, as James S. Holman became its first mayor.^[11] In the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County (now Harris County).^[25]

In 1839, the Republic of Texas relocated its capital to Austin. The town suffered another setback that year when a yellow fever epidemic claimed about one life for every eight residents, yet it persisted as a commercial center, forming a symbiosis with its Gulf Coast port, Galveston. Landlocked farmers brought their produce to Houston, using Buffalo Bayou to gain access to Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico. Houston merchants profited from selling staples to farmers and shipping the farmers' produce to Galveston.^[11]

The great majority of enslaved people in Texas came with their owners from the older slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the domestic slave trade. New Orleans was the center of this trade in the Deep South, but slave dealers were in Houston. Thousands of enslaved black people lived near the city before the American Civil War. Many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations,^[26] while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs.^[27]

In 1840, the community established a chamber of commerce, in part to promote shipping and navigation at the newly created port on Buffalo Bayou.^[28]

Houston, c. 1873

By 1860, Houston had emerged as a commercial and railroad hub for the export of cotton.^[25] Railroad spurs from the Texas inland converged in Houston, where they met rail lines to the ports of Galveston and Beaumont. During the American Civil War, Houston served as a headquarters for Confederate Major General John B. Magruder, who used the city as an organization point for the Battle of Galveston.^[29] After the Civil War, Houston businessmen initiated efforts to widen the city's extensive system of bayous so the city could accept more commerce between Downtown and the nearby port of Galveston. By 1890, Houston was the railroad center of Texas.^[30]

In 1900, after Galveston was struck by a devastating hurricane, efforts to make Houston into a viable deep-water port were accelerated.^[31] The following year, the discovery of oil at the Spindletop oil field near Beaumont prompted the development of the Texas petroleum industry.^[32] In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt approved a $1 million improvement project for the Houston Ship Channel. By 1910, the city's population had reached 78,800, almost doubling from a decade before. African Americans formed a large part of the city's population, numbering 23,929 people, which was nearly one-third of Houston's residents.^[33]

President Woodrow Wilson opened the deep-water Port of Houston in 1914, seven years after digging began. By 1930, Houston had become Texas's most populous city and Harris County the most populous county.^[34] In 1940, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Houston's population as 77.5% White and 22.4% Black.^[35]

World War II to the late 20th century

When World War II started, tonnage levels at the port decreased and shipping activities were suspended; however, the war did provide economic benefits for the city. Petrochemical refineries and manufacturing plants were constructed along the ship channel because of the demand for petroleum and synthetic rubber products by the defense industry during the war.^[36] Ellington Field, initially built during World War I, was revitalized as an advanced training center for bombardiers and navigators.^[37] The Brown Shipbuilding Company was founded in 1942 to build ships for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Due to the boom in defense jobs, thousands of new workers migrated to the city, both blacks, and whites competing for the higher-paying jobs. President Roosevelt had established a policy of nondiscrimination for defense contractors, and blacks gained some opportunities, especially in shipbuilding, although not without resistance from whites and increasing social tensions that erupted into occasional violence. Economic gains of blacks who entered defense industries continued in the postwar years.^[38]

In 1945, the M.D. Anderson Foundation formed the Texas Medical Center. After the war, Houston's economy reverted to being primarily port-driven. In 1948, the city annexed several unincorporated areas, more than doubling its size. Houston proper began to spread across the region.^[11][39] In 1950, the availability of air conditioning provided impetus for many companies to relocate to Houston, where wages were lower than those in the North; this resulted in an economic boom and produced a key shift in the city's economy toward the energy sector.^[40][41]

The increased production of the expanded shipbuilding industry during World War II spurred Houston's growth,^[42] as did the establishment in 1961 of NASA's "Manned Spacecraft Center" (renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973). This was the stimulus for the development of the city's aerospace industry. The Astrodome, nicknamed the "Eighth Wonder of the World",^[43] opened in 1965 as the world's first indoor domed sports stadium.

During the late 1970s, Houston had a population boom as people from the Rust Belt states moved to Texas in large numbers.^[44] The new residents came for numerous employment opportunities in the petroleum industry, created as a result of the Arab oil embargo. With the increase in professional jobs, Houston has become a destination for many college-educated persons, most recently including African Americans in a reverse Great Migration from northern areas.

In 1997, Houstonians elected Lee P. Brown as the city's first African American mayor.^[45]

Early 21st century

Tropical Storm Allison's effects in Houston

Houston has continued to grow into the 21st century, with the population increasing 17% from 2000 to 2019.^[46]

Oil & gas have continued to fuel Houston's economic growth, with major oil companies including Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, Halliburton, and ExxonMobil having their headquarters in the Houston area. In 2001, Enron Corporation, a Houston company with $100 billion in revenue, became engulfed in an accounting scandal which bankrupted the company in 2001.^[47] Health care has emerged as a major industry in Houston. The Texas Medical Center is now the largest medical complex in the world and employs 106,000 people.

Three new sports stadiums opened downtown in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2000, the Houston Astros opened their new baseball stadium, Minute Maid Park, in downtown adjacent to the old Union Station. The Houston Texans were formed in 2002 as an NFL expansion team, replacing the Houston Oilers, which had left the city in 1996. NRG Stadium opened the same year. In 2003, the Toyota Center opened as the home for the Houston Rockets. In 2005, the Houston Dynamo soccer team was formed. In 2017, the Houston Astros won their first World Series.

Hurricane Harvey flooding

Flooding has been a recurring problem in the Houston area, exacerbated by a lack of zoning laws, which allowed unregulated building of residential homes and other structures in flood-prone areas.^[48] In June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped up to 40 inches (1,000 mm) of rain on parts of Houston, causing what was then the worst flooding in the city's history and billions of dollars in damage, and killed 20 people in Texas.^[49] In August 2005, Houston became a shelter to more than 150,000 people from New Orleans, who evacuated from Hurricane Katrina.^[50] One month later, about 2.5 million Houston-area residents evacuated when Hurricane Rita approached the Gulf Coast, leaving little damage to the Houston area. This was the largest urban evacuation in the history of the United States.^[51][52] In May 2015, seven people died after 12 inches of rain fell in 10 hours during what is known as the Memorial Day Flood. Eight people died in April 2016 during a storm that dropped 17 inches of rain.^[53] The worst came in late August 2017, when Hurricane Harvey stalled over southeastern Texas, much like Tropical Storm Allison did sixteen years earlier, causing severe flooding in the Houston area, with some areas receiving over 50 inches (1,300 mm) of rain.^[54] The rainfall exceeded 50 inches in several areas locally, breaking the national record for rainfall. The damage for the Houston area was estimated at up to $125 billion U.S. dollars,^[55] and was considered to be one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States,^[56] with the death toll exceeding 70 people.

Discover more about History related topics

History of Houston

History of Houston

The city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas was founded in 1837 after Augustus and John Allen had acquired land to establish a new town at the junction of Buffalo and White Oak bayous in 1836. Houston served as the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas. Meanwhile, the town developed as a regional transportation and commercial hub. Houston was part of an independent nation until 1846 when the United States formally annexed Texas. Railroad development began in the late 1850s but ceased during the American Civil War. Houston served the Confederacy as a regional military logistics center. The population increased during the war and blockade runners used the town as a center for their operations.

Atakapa

Atakapa

The Atakapa or Atacapa were an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Texas and Louisiana. They included several distinct bands.

Augustus Chapman Allen

Augustus Chapman Allen

Augustus Chapman Allen, along with his younger brother, John Kirby Allen, founded the City of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. He was born on July 4, 1806, in Canaseraga Village, New York, to Sarah (Chapman) and Roland Allen.

John Kirby Allen

John Kirby Allen

John Kirby Allen, was a co-founder of the city of Houston and a former member of the Republic of Texas House of Representatives. He was born in Canaseraga Village, New York. He never married. He died of congestive fever on August 15, 1838, and was buried at Founders Memorial Cemetery in Houston, Texas.

Galveston Bay

Galveston Bay

Galveston Bay is a bay in the western Gulf of Mexico along the upper coast of Texas. It is the seventh-largest estuary in the United States, and the largest of seven major estuaries along the Texas Gulf Coast. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by sub-tropical marshes and prairies on the mainland. The water in the bay is a complex mixture of sea water and fresh water, which supports a wide variety of marine life. With a maximum depth of about 10 feet (3 m) and an average depth of only 6 feet (2 m), it is unusually shallow for its size.

Congress of the Republic of Texas

Congress of the Republic of Texas

The Congress of the Republic of Texas was the national legislature of the Republic of Texas established by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836. It was a bicameral legislature based on the model of the United States Congress. It was transformed into the Texas Legislature upon annexation of Texas by the United States in 1846. A vestige of it remains in the name of Austin's main north–south street leading from the State Capitol, Congress Avenue, when it was founded as the intended national capital.

James Sanders Holman

James Sanders Holman

James Sanders Holman was a soldier, entrepreneur, and the first mayor of Houston.

Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city in the United States, the fourth-most-populous city in Texas, the second-most-populous state capital city, and the most populous state capital that is not also the most populous city in its state. It has been one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States since 2010. Downtown Austin and Downtown San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the Interstate 35 corridor. Some observers believe that the two regions may some day form a new "metroplex" similar to Dallas and Fort Worth. Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Beta−level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union and the Confederacy, the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.

Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the seat of government of Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan statistical area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about 85 miles (137 km) east of Houston. With a population of 115,282 at the 2020 census, Beaumont is the largest incorporated municipality by population near the Louisiana border. Its metropolitan area was the 10th largest in Texas in 2019, and 132nd in the United States.

John B. Magruder

John B. Magruder

John Bankhead Magruder was an American and Confederate military officer. A graduate of West Point, Magruder served with distinction during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As a major general, he received recognition for delaying the advance of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's prodigiously large force, the Army of the Potomac, during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, as well as recapturing Galveston, Texas the following year.

Battle of Galveston

Battle of Galveston

The Battle of Galveston was a naval and land battle of the American Civil War, when Confederate forces under Major Gen. John B. Magruder expelled occupying Union troops from the city of Galveston, Texas on January 1, 1863.

Satellite image of Houston, 2020

Houston is 165 miles (266 km) east of Austin,^[57] 88 miles (142 km) west of the Louisiana border,^[58] and 250 miles (400 km) south of Dallas.^[59] The city has a total area of 637.4 square miles (1,651 km²);^[8] this comprises over 599.59 square miles (1,552.9 km²) of land and 22.3 square miles (58 km²) covered by water.^[60] Most of Houston is on the gulf coastal plain, and its vegetation is classified as Western Gulf coastal grasslands while further north, it transitions into a subtropical jungle, the Big Thicket.

Much of the city was built on forested land, marshes, or swamps, and all are still visible in surrounding areas.^[61] Flat terrain and extensive greenfield development have combined to worsen flooding.^[62] Downtown stands about 50 feet (15 m) above sea level,^[63] and the highest point in far northwest Houston is about 150 feet (46 m) in elevation.^[64] The city once relied on groundwater for its needs, but land subsidence forced the city to turn to ground-level water sources such as Lake Houston, Lake Conroe, and Lake Livingston.^[11][65] The city owns surface water rights for 1.20 billion US gallons (4.5 Gl) of water a day in addition to 150 million US gallons (570 Ml) a day of groundwater.^[66]

Houston has four major bayous passing through the city that accept water from the extensive drainage system. Buffalo Bayou runs through Downtown and the Houston Ship Channel, and has three tributaries: White Oak Bayou, which runs through the Houston Heights community northwest of Downtown and then towards Downtown; Brays Bayou, which runs along the Texas Medical Center;^[67] and Sims Bayou, which runs through the south of Houston and Downtown Houston. The ship channel continues past Galveston and then into the Gulf of Mexico.^[36]

Geology

Aerial view of central Houston, showing Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, March 2018

Houston is a flat, marshy area where an extensive drainage system has been built. The adjoining prairie land drains into the city, which is prone to flooding.^[68] Underpinning Houston's land surface are unconsolidated clays, clay shales, and poorly cemented sands up to several miles deep. The region's geology developed from river deposits formed from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains. These sediments consist of a series of sands and clays deposited on decaying organic marine matter, that over time, transformed into oil and natural gas. Beneath the layers of sediment is a water-deposited layer of halite, a rock salt. The porous layers were compressed over time and forced upward. As it pushed upward, the salt dragged surrounding sediments into salt dome formations, often trapping oil and gas that seeped from the surrounding porous sands. The thick, rich, sometimes black, surface soil is suitable for rice farming in suburban outskirts where the city continues to grow.^[69][70]

The Houston area has over 150 active faults (estimated to be 300 active faults) with an aggregate length of up to 310 miles (500 km),^[71][72][73] including the Long Point–Eureka Heights fault system which runs through the center of the city. Land in some areas southeast of Houston is sinking because water has been pumped out of the ground for many years. It may be associated with slip along the faults; however, the slippage is slow and not considered an earthquake, where stationary faults must slip suddenly enough to create seismic waves.^[74] These faults also tend to move at a smooth rate in what is termed "fault creep",^[65] which further reduces the risk of an earthquake.

Cityscape

Houston's superneighborhoods

The city of Houston was incorporated in 1837 and adopted a ward system of representation shortly afterward, in 1840.^[75] The six original wards of Houston are the progenitors of the 11 modern-day geographically oriented Houston City Council districts, though the city abandoned the ward system in 1905 in favor of a commission government, and, later, the existing mayor–council government.

Intersection of Bagby and McGowen streets in western Midtown, 2016

Locations in Houston are generally classified as either being inside or outside the Interstate 610 loop. The "Inner Loop" encompasses a 97-square-mile (250 km²) area which includes Downtown, pre–World War II residential neighborhoods and streetcar suburbs, and newer high-density apartment and townhouse developments.^[76] Outside the loop, the city's typology is more suburban, though many major business districts—such as Uptown, Westchase, and the Energy Corridor—lie well outside the urban core. In addition to Interstate 610, two additional loop highways encircle the city: Beltway 8, with a radius of approximately 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown, and State Highway 99 (the Grand Parkway), with a radius of 25 miles (40 km). Approximately 470,000 people lived within the Interstate 610 loop, while 1.65 million lived between Interstate 610 and Beltway 8 and 2.25 million lived within Harris County outside Beltway 8 in 2015.^[77]

Though Houston is the largest city in the United States without formal zoning regulations, it has developed similarly to other Sun Belt cities because the city's land use regulations and legal covenants have played a similar role.^[78][79] Regulations include mandatory lot size for single-family houses and requirements that parking be available to tenants and customers. Such restrictions have had mixed results. Though some have blamed the city's low density, urban sprawl, and lack of pedestrian-friendliness on these policies, others have credited the city's land use patterns with providing significant affordable housing, sparing Houston the worst effects of the 2008 real estate crisis. The city issued 42,697 building permits in 2008 and was ranked first in the list of healthiest housing markets for 2009.^[80] In 2019, home sales reached a new record of $30 billion.^[81]

In referendums in 1948, 1962, and 1993, voters rejected efforts to establish separate residential and commercial land-use districts. Consequently, rather than a single central business district as the center of the city's employment, multiple districts and skylines have grown throughout the city in addition to Downtown, which include Uptown, the Texas Medical Center, Midtown, Greenway Plaza, Memorial City, the Energy Corridor, Westchase, and Greenspoint.^[82]

Downtown Houston skyline just after sunset

Uptown Houston skyline in 2013

Texas Medical Center skyline in 2019

Architecture

Houston had the fifth-tallest skyline in North America (after New York City, Chicago, Toronto and Miami) and 36th-tallest in the world in 2015.^[83] A seven-mile (11 km) system of tunnels and skywalks links Downtown buildings containing shops and restaurants, enabling pedestrians to avoid summer heat and rain while walking between buildings. In the 1960s, Downtown Houston consisted of a collection of mid-rise office structures. Downtown was on the threshold of an energy industry–led boom in 1970. A succession of skyscrapers was built throughout the 1970s—many by real estate developer Gerald D. Hines—culminating with Houston's tallest skyscraper, the 75-floor, 1,002-foot (305 m)-tall JPMorgan Chase Tower (formerly the Texas Commerce Tower), completed in 1982. It is the tallest structure in Texas, 19th tallest building in the United States, and was previously 85th-tallest skyscraper in the world, based on highest architectural feature. In 1983, the 71-floor, 992-foot (302 m)-tall Wells Fargo Plaza (formerly Allied Bank Plaza) was completed, becoming the second-tallest building in Houston and Texas. Based on highest architectural feature, it is the 21st-tallest in the United States. In 2007, Downtown had over 43 million square feet (4,000,000 m²) of office space.^[84]

Centered on Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road, the Uptown District boomed during the 1970s and early 1980s when a collection of midrise office buildings, hotels, and retail developments appeared along Interstate 610 West. Uptown became one of the most prominent instances of an edge city. The tallest building in Uptown is the 64-floor, 901-foot (275 m)-tall, Philip Johnson and John Burgee designed landmark Williams Tower (known as the Transco Tower until 1999). At the time of construction, it was believed to be the world's tallest skyscraper outside a central business district. The new 20-story Skanska building^[85] and BBVA Compass Plaza^[86] are the newest office buildings built in Uptown after 30 years. The Uptown District is also home to buildings designed by noted architects I. M. Pei, César Pelli, and Philip Johnson. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a mini-boom of midrise and highrise residential tower construction occurred, with several over 30 stories tall.^[87][88][89] Since 2000 over 30 skyscrapers have been developed in Houston; all told, 72 high-rises tower over the city, which adds up to about 8,300 units.^[90] In 2002, Uptown had more than 23 million square feet (2,100,000 m²) of office space with 16 million square feet (1,500,000 m²) of class A office space.^[91]

• 

  The Niels Esperson Building stood as the tallest building in Houston from 1927 to 1929.

• 

  The JPMorgan Chase Tower is the tallest building in Texas and the tallest 5-sided building in the world.

• 

  The Williams Tower is the tallest building in the US outside a central business district.

• 

  The Bank of America Center by Philip Johnson is an example of postmodern architecture.

Climate

Buffalo Bayou after Hurricane Harvey, August 2017

Houston's climate is classified as humid subtropical (Cfa in the Köppen climate classification system), typical of the Southern United States. While not in Tornado Alley, like much of Northern Texas, spring supercell thunderstorms sometimes bring tornadoes to the area.^[92] Prevailing winds are from the south and southeast during most of the year, which bring heat and moisture from the nearby Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay.^[93]

During the summer, temperatures reach or exceed 90 °F (32 °C) an average of 106.5 days per year, including a majority of days from June to September. Additionally, an average of 4.6 days per year reach or exceed 100 °F (37.8 °C).^[94] Houston's characteristic subtropical humidity often results in a higher apparent temperature, and summer mornings average over 90% relative humidity.^[95] Air conditioning is ubiquitous in Houston; in 1981, annual spending on electricity for interior cooling exceeded $600 million (equivalent to $1.79 billion in 2021), and by the late 1990s, approximately 90% of Houston homes featured air conditioning systems.^[96][97] The record highest temperature recorded in Houston is 109 °F (43 °C) at Bush Intercontinental Airport, during September 4, 2000, and again on August 27, 2011.^[94]

Space Shuttle Independence replica covered in snow, 2017

Houston has mild winters, with occasional cold spells. In January, the normal mean temperature at George Bush Intercontinental Airport is 53 °F (12 °C), with an average of 13 days per year with a low at or below 32 °F (0 °C), occurring on average between December 3 and February 20, allowing for a growing season of 286 days.^[94] Twenty-first century snow events in Houston include a storm on December 24, 2004, which saw 1 inch (3 cm) of snow accumulate in parts of the metro area,^[98] and an event on December 7, 2017, which precipitated 0.7 inches (2 cm) of snowfall.^[99][100] Snowfalls of at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) on both December 10, 2008, and December 4, 2009, marked the first time measurable snowfall had occurred in two consecutive years in the city's recorded history. Overall, Houston has seen measurable snowfall 38 times between 1895 and 2018. On February 14 and 15, 1895, Houston received 20 inches (51 cm) of snow, its largest snowfall from one storm on record.^[101] The coldest temperature officially recorded in Houston was 5 °F (−15 °C) on January 18, 1930.^[94] The last time Houston saw single digit temperatures was on December 23, 1989. The temperature dropped to 7 °F (−14 °C) at Bush Airport, marking the coldest temperature ever recorded there. 1.7 inches of snow fell at George Bush Intercontinental Airport the previous day.^[102]

Houston generally receives ample rainfall, averaging about 49.8 in (1,260 mm) annually based on records between 1981 and 2010. Many parts of the city have a high risk of localized flooding due to flat topography,^[103] ubiquitous low-permeability clay-silt prairie soils,^[104] and inadequate infrastructure.^[103] During the mid-2010s, Greater Houston experienced consecutive major flood events in 2015 ("Memorial Day"),^[105] 2016 ("Tax Day"),^[106] and 2017 (Hurricane Harvey).^[107] Overall, there have been more casualties and property loss from floods in Houston than in any other locality in the United States.^[108] The majority of rainfall occurs between April and October (the wet season of Southeast Texas), when the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico evaporates extensively over the city.^[105][108]

Houston has excessive ozone levels and is routinely ranked among the most ozone-polluted cities in the United States.^[109] Ground-level ozone, or smog, is Houston's predominant air pollution problem, with the American Lung Association rating the metropolitan area's ozone level twelfth on the "Most Polluted Cities by Ozone" in 2017, after major cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York City, and Denver.^[110] The industries along the ship channel are a major cause of the city's air pollution.^[111] The rankings are in terms of peak-based standards, focusing strictly on the worst days of the year; the average ozone levels in Houston are lower than what is seen in most other areas of the country, as dominant winds ensure clean, marine air from the Gulf.^[112] Excessive man-made emissions in the Houston area led to a persistent increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the city. Such an increase, often regarded as "CO₂ urban dome", is driven by a combination of strong emissions and stagnant atmospheric conditions. Moreover, Houston is the only metropolitan area with less than ten million citizens where such a CO₂ dome can be detected by satellites.^[113]

Flooded parking lot during Hurricane Harvey, August 2017

Because of Houston's wet season and proximity to the Gulf Coast, the city is prone to flooding from heavy rains; the most notable flooding events include Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017, along with most recent Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019 and Tropical Storm Beta in 2020. In response to Hurricane Harvey, Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston initiated plans to require developers to build homes that will be less susceptible to flooding by raising them two feet above the 500-year floodplain. Hurricane Harvey damaged hundreds of thousands of homes and dumped trillions of gallons of water into the city.^[117] In places this led to feet of standing water that blocked streets and flooded homes. The Houston City Council passed this regulation in 2018 with a vote of 9–7. Had these floodplain development rules had been in place all along, it is estimated that 84% of homes in the 100-year and 500-year floodplains would have been spared damage.^[117]

In a recent case testing these regulations, near the Brickhouse Gulley, an old golf course that long served as a floodplain and reservoir for floodwaters, announced a change of heart toward intensifying development.^[118] A nationwide developer, Meritage Homes, bought the land and planned to develop the 500-year floodplain into 900 new residential homes. Their plan would bring in $360 million in revenue and boost city population and tax revenue. In order to meet the new floodplain regulations, the developers needed to elevate the lowest floors two feet above the 500-year floodplain, equivalent to five or six feet above the 100-year base flood elevation, and build a channel to direct stormwater runoff toward detention basins. Before Hurricane Harvey, the city had bought $10.7 million in houses in this area specifically to take them out of danger. In addition to developing new streets and single-family housing within a floodplain, a flowing flood-water stream termed a floodway runs through the development area, a most dangerous place to encounter during any future flooding event.^[119] Under Texas law Harris County, like other more rural Texas counties, cannot direct developers where to build or not build via land use controls such as a zoning ordinance, and instead can only impose general floodplain regulations for enforcement during subdivision approvals and building permit approvals.^[119]

Discover more about Geography related topics

Geography of Houston

Geography of Houston

Houston, the most populous city in the Southern United States, is located along the upper Texas Gulf Coast, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. The city, which is the ninth-largest in the United States by area, covers 601.7 square miles (1,558 km2), of which 579.4 square miles (1,501 km2), or 96.3%, is land and 22.3 square miles (58 km2), or 3.7%, is water.

Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city in the United States, the fourth-most-populous city in Texas, the second-most-populous state capital city, and the most populous state capital that is not also the most populous city in its state. It has been one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States since 2010. Downtown Austin and Downtown San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the Interstate 35 corridor. Some observers believe that the two regions may some day form a new "metroplex" similar to Dallas and Fort Worth. Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Beta−level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

Dallas

Dallas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County with portions extending into Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. With a 2020 census population of 1,304,379, it is the ninth-most populous city in the U.S. and the third-largest city in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. Located in the North Texas region, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link to the sea.

Big Thicket

Big Thicket

The Big Thicket is the name given to a somewhat imprecise region of a heavily forested area of Southeast Texas in the United States. This area represents a portion of the mixed pine-hardwood forests of the Southeast US. The National Park Service established the Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP) within the region in 1974 and it is recognized as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Although the diversity of animals in the area is high, with over 500 vertebrates, it is the complex mosaic of ecosystems and plant diversity that is particularly remarkable. Biologists have identified at least eight, and up to eleven, ecosystems in the Big Thicket area. More than 160 species of trees and shrubs, 800 herbs and vines, and 340 types of grasses are known to occur in the Big Thicket, and estimates as high as over 1000 flowering plant species and 200 trees and shrubs have been made, plus ferns, carnivorous plants, and more. The Big Thicket has historically been the most dense forest region in what is now Texas.

Lake Houston

Lake Houston

Lake Houston is a reservoir on the San Jacinto River, 15 miles (24 km) northeast of downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The reservoir is the primary municipal water supply for the city of Houston.

Lake Conroe

Lake Conroe

Lake Conroe is a 21,000-acre (85 km2) lake in Montgomery County, Texas, United States. Even though it is named Lake Conroe, only a small portion of the lake is in Conroe, Texas. Most of the lake is in unincorporated Montgomery County. The lake lies on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, just west of Interstate 45 off State Highway 105 in Montgomery and Walker counties. Lake Conroe is a popular attraction for boating, jet-skiing and fishing.

Lake Livingston

Lake Livingston

Lake Livingston is a reservoir located in the East Texas Piney Woods. Lake Livingston was built and is owned and operated by the Trinity River Authority (TRA) of Texas under contract with the City of Houston for water-supply purposes. The lake is the third-largest lake located in the state of Texas. The Livingston Dam, constructed across the Trinity River about 7 miles (11 km) southwest of the city of Livingston is 2.5 miles (4 km) in length and has an average depth of 55 feet (17 m).

Bayou

Bayou

In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river, marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They typically contain brackish water highly conducive to fish life and plankton. Bayous are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States, especially in the Mississippi River Delta, though they also exist elsewhere.

Houston Ship Channel

Houston Ship Channel

The Houston Ship Channel, in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston, one of the busiest seaports in the world. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico, and it serves an increasing volume of inland barge traffic.

Brays Bayou

Brays Bayou

Brays Bayou is a slow-moving river in Harris County, Texas. A major tributary of Buffalo Bayou, the Brays flows for 31 miles (50 km) from the western edge of the county, south of Barker Reservoir along the border with Fort Bend County, east to its convergence with the Buffalo at Harrisburg. Nearly all of the river is located within the city of Houston; it is a defining geographic feature of many neighborhoods and districts, including Meyerland, Braeswood Place, the Texas Medical Center, and Riverside Terrace.

Consolidation (geology)

Consolidation (geology)

In geology, consolidation is used in several senses:Lithification, the overall process of conversion of loose sediments to solid rock. Any other process in which loose or fluid material becomes solid rock, such as solidification of magma. Compaction (geology), the decrease in volume and increase in density of sediments as the weight of overlying sediments increases, mineral grains move to more compact arrangements, and pore water is expelled. The term is particularly used for soil consolidation. Rarely, as a term for the conversion of a mobile belt to a rigid part of a continental platform; an orogeny.

Halite

Halite

Halite, commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride (NaCl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on inclusion of other materials, impurities, and structural or isotopic abnormalities in the crystals. It commonly occurs with other evaporite deposit minerals such as several of the sulfates, halides, and borates. The name halite is derived from the Ancient Greek word for "salt", ἅλς (háls).

Map of ethnic distribution in Houston, 2010 U.S. census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤ White ⬤ Black ⬤ Asian ⬤ Hispanic ⬤ Other

The 2020 U.S. census determined Houston had a population of 2,304,580.^[2] In 2017, the census-estimated population was 2,312,717, and in 2018 it was 2,325,502.^[2] An estimated 600,000 undocumented immigrants resided in the Houston area in 2017,^[120] comprising nearly 9% of the city's metropolitan population.^[121] At the 2010 United States census, Houston had a population of 2,100,263 residents,^[122] up from the city's 2,396 at the 1850 census.

Per the 2019 American Community Survey, Houston's age distribution was 482,402 under 15; 144,196 aged 15 to 19; 594,477 aged 20 to 34; 591,561 aged 35 to 54; 402,804 aged 55 to 74; and 101,357 aged 75 and older. The median age of the city was 33.4.^[123] At the 2014-2018 census estimates, Houston's age distribution was 486,083 under 15; 147,710 aged 15 to 19; 603,586 aged 20 to 34; 726,877 aged 35 to 59; and 357,834 aged 60 and older.^[124] The median age was 33.1, up from 32.9 in 2017 and down from 33.5 in 2014; the city's youthfulness has been attributed to an influx of an African American New Great Migration, Hispanic and Latino American, and Asian immigrants into Texas.^{[125][126][127]} For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males.^[124]

There were 987,158 housing units in 2019 and 876,504 households.^[123][128] An estimated 42.3% of Houstonians owned housing units, with an average of 2.65 people per household.^[129] The median monthly owner costs with a mortgage were $1,646, and $536 without a mortgage. Houston's median gross rent from 2015 to 2019 was $1,041. The median household income in 2019 was $52,338 and 20.1% of Houstonians lived at or below the poverty line.

Race and ethnicity

Houston is a majority-minority city. The Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research, a think tank, has described Greater Houston as "one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse metropolitan areas in the country".^[136] Houston's diversity, historically fueled by large waves of Hispanic and Latino American, and Asian immigrants, has been attributed to its relatively low cost of living, strong job market, and role as a hub for refugee resettlement.^[137][138]

Houston has long been known as a popular destination for African Americans due to the city's well-established and influential African American community. Houston has become known as a black mecca akin to Atlanta because it is a popular living destination for Black professionals and entrepreneurs.^[139] The Houston area is home to the largest African American community west of the Mississippi River.^{[140][141][142]} A 2012 Kinder Institute report found that, based on the evenness of population distribution between the four major racial groups in the United States (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic or Latino, and Asian), Greater Houston was the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the United States, ahead of New York City.^[143]

In 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, non-Hispanic whites made up 23.3% of the population of Houston proper, Hispanics and Latino Americans 45.8%, Blacks or African Americans 22.4%, and Asian Americans 6.5%.^[123] In 2018, non-Hispanic whites made up 20.7% of the population, Hispanics or Latino Americans 44.9%, Blacks or African Americans 30.3%, and Asian Americans 8.2%.^[124] The largest Hispanic or Latino American ethnic groups in the city were Mexican Americans (31.6%), Puerto Ricans (0.8%), and Cuban Americans (0.8%) in 2018.^[124]

As documented, Houston has a higher proportion of minorities than non-Hispanic whites; in 2010, whites (including Hispanic whites) made up 57.6% of the city of Houston's population; 24.6% of the total population was non-Hispanic white.^[144] Blacks or African Americans made up 22.5% of Houston's population, American Indians made up 0.3% of the population, Asians made up 6.9% (1.7% Vietnamese, 1.3% Chinese, 1.3% Indian, 0.9% Pakistani, 0.4% Filipino, 0.3% Korean, 0.1% Japanese) and Pacific Islanders made up 0.1%. Individuals from some other race made up 15.69% of the city's population.^[131] Individuals from two or more races made up 2.1% of the city.^[144]

At the 2000 U.S. census, the racial makeup of the city in was 49.3% White, 25.3% Black or African American, 5.3% Asian, 0.7% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 16.5% from some other race, and 3.1% from two or more races. In addition, Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 37.4% of Houston's population in 2000, while non-Hispanic whites made up 30.8%.^[145] The proportion of non-Hispanic whites in Houston has decreased significantly since 1970, when it was 62.4%.^[35]

Sexual orientation and gender identity

LGBT banners in Montrose

Houston is home to one of the largest LGBT communities and pride parades in the United States.^{[146][147][148]} In 2018, the city scored a 70 out of 100 for LGBT friendliness.^[149] Jordan Blum of the Houston Chronicle stated levels of LGBT acceptance and discrimination varied in 2016 due to some of the region's traditionally conservative culture.^[150]

Before the 1970s, the city's gay bars were spread around Downtown Houston and what is now midtown Houston. LGBT Houstonians needed to have a place to socialize after the closing of the gay bars. They began going to Art Wren, a 24-hour restaurant in Montrose. LGBT community members were attracted to Montrose as a neighborhood after encountering it while patronizing Art Wren, and they began to gentrify the neighborhood and assist its native inhabitants with property maintenance. Within Montrose, new gay bars began to open.^[151] By 1985, the flavor and politics of the neighborhood were heavily influenced by the LGBT community, and in 1990, according to Hill, 19% of Montrose residents identified as LGBT. Paul Broussard was murdered in Montrose in 1991.^[152]

Before the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States the Marriage of Billie Ert and Antonio Molina, considered the first same-sex marriage in Texas history, took place on October 5, 1972.^[153] Houston elected the first openly lesbian mayor of a major city in 2009, and she served until 2016.^[153][154] During her tenure she authorized the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance which was intended to improve anti-discrimination coverage based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the city, specifically in areas such as housing and occupation where no anti-discrimination policy existed.^[155]

Religion

Houston and its metropolitan area are the third-most religious and Christian area by percentage of population in the United States, and second in Texas behind the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.^[156][157] Historically, Houston has been a center of Protestant Christianity, being part of the Bible Belt.^[158] Other Christian groups including Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity, and non-Christian religions did not grow for much of the city's history because immigration was predominantly from Western Europe (which at the time was dominated by Western Christianity and favored by the quotas in federal immigration law). The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed the quotas, allowing for the growth of other religions.^[159]

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 73% of the population of the Houston area identified themselves as Christians, about 50% of whom claimed Protestant affiliations and about 19% claimed Roman Catholic affiliations. Nationwide, about 71% of respondents identified as Christians. About 20% of Houston-area residents claimed no religious affiliation, compared to about 23% nationwide.^[160] The same study says area residents who identify with other religions (including Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism) collectively made up about 7% of the area population.^[160]

In 2020, the Public Religion Research Institute estimated 40% were Protestant and 29% Catholic; overall, Christianity represented 72% of the population.^[161] In 2020, the Association of Religion Data Archives determined the Catholic Church numbered 1,299,901 for the metropolitan area; the second-largest single Christian denomination (Southern Baptists) numbered 800,688; following, non-denominational Protestant churches represented the third-largest Christian cohort at 666,548.^[162] Altogether, however, Baptists of the Southern Baptist Convention, the American Baptist Association, American Baptist Churches USA, Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, National Baptist Convention USA and National Baptist Convention of America, and the National Missionary Baptist Convention numbered 926,554. Non-denominational Protestants, the Disciples of Christ, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, and the Churches of Christ numbered 723,603 altogether according to this study.

Lakewood Church in Houston, led by Pastor Joel Osteen, is the largest church in the United States. A megachurch, it had 44,800 weekly attendees in 2010, up from 11,000 weekly in 2000.^[163] Since 2005, it has occupied the former Compaq Center sports stadium. In September 2010, Outreach magazine published a list of the 100 largest Christian churches in the United States, and on the list were the following Houston-area churches: Lakewood, Second Baptist Church Houston, Woodlands Church, Church Without Walls, and First Baptist Church.^[163] According to the list, Houston and Dallas were tied as the second-most popular city for megachurches.^[163]

Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, the largest Catholic jurisdiction in Texas and fifth-largest in the United States, was established in 1847.^[164] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston claimed approximately 1.7 million Catholics within its boundaries as of 2019.^[164] Its co-cathedral is located within the Houston city limits, while the diocesan see is in Galveston. Other prominent Catholic jurisdictions include the Eastern Catholic Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as well as the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, whose cathedral is also in Houston.^[165]

Debre Selam Medhanealem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church

A variety of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches can be found in Houston. Immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Ethiopia, India, and other areas have added to Houston's Eastern and Oriental Orthodox population. As of 2011 in the entire state, 32,000 people actively attended Orthodox churches.^[166] In 2013 Father John Whiteford, the pastor of St. Jonah Orthodox Church near Spring, stated there were about 6,000-9,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians in Houston.^[167] The Association of Religion Data Archives numbered 16,526 Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Houstonians in 2020.^[162] The most prominent Eastern and Oriental Orthodox jurisdictions are the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,^[168] the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America,^[169] the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria,^[170] and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.^[171]

Houston's Jewish community, estimated at 47,000 in 2001, has been present in the city since the 1800s. Houstonian Jews have origins from throughout the United States, Israel, Mexico, Russia, and other places. As of 2016, over 40 synagogues were in Greater Houston.^[159] The largest synagogues are Congregation Beth Yeshurun, a Conservative Jewish temple, and the Reform Jewish congregations Beth Israel and Emanu-El. According to a study in 2016 by Berman Jewish DataBank, 51,000 Jews lived in the area, an increase of 4,000 since 2001.^[172]

Houston has a large and diverse Muslim community; it is the largest in Texas and the Southern United States, as of 2012.^[173] It is estimated that Muslims made up 1.2% of Houston's population.^[173] As of 2016, Muslims in the Houston area included South Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans, Turks, and Indonesians, as well as a growing population of Latino Muslim converts. In 2000 there were over 41 mosques and storefront religious centers, with the largest being the Al-Noor Mosque (Mosque of Light) of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston.^[174]

The Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist communities form a growing sector of the religious demographic after Judaism and Islam. Large Hindu temples in the metropolitan area include the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Houston, affiliated with the Swaminarayan Sampradaya denomination in Fort Bend County, near the suburb of Stafford as well as the South Indian-style Sri Meenakshi Temple in suburban Pearland, in Brazoria County, which is the oldest Hindu temple in Texas and third-oldest Hindu temple in the United States.^{[175][176][177]}

Of the irreligious community 16% practiced nothing in particular, 3% were agnostic, and 2% were atheist in 2014.^[156]

Discover more about Demographics related topics

1850 United States census

1850 United States census

The United States census of 1850 was the seventh census of the United States. Conducted by the Census Office, it determined the resident population of the United States to be 23,191,876—an increase of 35.9 percent over the 17,069,453 persons enumerated during the 1840 census. The total population included 3,204,313 slaves.

1860 United States census

1860 United States census

The United States census of 1860 was the eighth census conducted in the United States starting June 1, 1860, and lasting five months. It determined the population of the United States to be 31,443,322 in 33 states and 10 organized territories. This was an increase of 35.4 percent over the 23,069,876 persons enumerated during the 1850 census. The total population included 3,953,762 slaves.

1870 United States census

1870 United States census

The United States census of 1870 was the ninth United States census. It was conducted by the Census Bureau from June 1, 1870, to August 23, 1871. The 1870 census was the first census to provide detailed information on the African American population, only five years after the culmination of the Civil War when slaves were granted freedom. The total population was 38,925,598 with a resident population of 38,558,371 individuals, a 22.6% increase from 1860.

1880 United States census

1880 United States census

The United States census of 1880 conducted by the Census Bureau during June 1880 was the tenth United States census. It was the first time that women were permitted to be enumerators. The Superintendent of the Census was Francis Amasa Walker. This was the first census in which a city—New York City—recorded a population of over one million.

1890 United States census

1890 United States census

The United States census of 1890 was taken beginning June 2, 1890, but most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in 1921 when a building caught fire and in the subsequent disposal of the remaining damaged records. It determined the resident population of the United States to be 62,979,766—an increase of 25.5 percent over the 50,189,209 persons enumerated during the 1880 census. The data reported that the distribution of the population had resulted in the disappearance of the American frontier.

1900 United States census

1900 United States census

The United States census of 1900, conducted by the Census Office on June 1, 1900, determined the resident population of the United States to be 76,212,168, an increase of 21.01% from the 62,979,766 persons enumerated during the 1890 census.

1910 United States census

1910 United States census

The United States census of 1910, conducted by the Census Bureau on April 15, 1910, determined the resident population of the United States to be 92,228,496, an increase of 21 percent over the 76,212,168 persons enumerated during the 1900 census. The 1910 census switched from a portrait page orientation to a landscape orientation.

1920 United States census

1920 United States census

The United States census of 1920, conducted by the Census Bureau during one month from January 5, 1920, determined the resident population of the United States to be 106,021,537, an increase of 15.0 percent over the 92,228,496 persons enumerated during the 1910 census.

1930 United States census

1930 United States census

The United States census of 1930, conducted by the Census Bureau one month from April 1, 1930, determined the resident population of the United States to be 122,775,046, an increase of 13.7 percent over the 106,021,537 persons enumerated during the 1920 census.

1940 United States census

1940 United States census

The United States census of 1940, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.6 percent over the 1930 population of 122,775,046 people. The census date of record was April 1, 1940.

1950 United States census

1950 United States census

The United States census of 1950, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 150,697,361, an increase of 14.5 percent over the 131,669,275 persons enumerated during the 1940 census.

1960 United States census

1960 United States census

The United States census of 1960, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 179,323,175, an increase of 19 percent over the 151,325,798 persons enumerated during the 1950 census. This was the first census in which all states recorded a population of over 200,000. This census's data determined the electoral votes for the 1964 and 1968 presidential elections. This was also the last census in which New York was the most populous state.

Houston is recognized worldwide for its energy industry—particularly for oil and natural gas—as well as for biomedical research and aeronautics. Renewable energy sources—wind and solar—are also growing economic bases in the city,^[179][180] and the City Government purchases 90% of its annual 1 TWh power mostly from wind, and some from solar.^[181][182] The city has also been a growing hub for technology startup firms.^[183] Major technology and software companies within Greater Houston include Crown Castle, KBR, Cybersoft, Houston Wire & Cable, and HostGator. On April 4, 2022, Hewlett Packard Enterprise relocated its global headquarters from California to the Greater Houston area.^[184] The Houston Ship Channel is also a large part of Houston's economic base.

Because of these strengths, Houston is designated as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network and global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.^[14] The Houston area is the top U.S. market for exports, surpassing New York City in 2013, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. In 2012, the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land area recorded $110.3 billion in merchandise exports.^[185] Petroleum products, chemicals, and oil and gas extraction equipment accounted for roughly two-thirds of the metropolitan area's exports last year. The top three destinations for exports were Mexico, Canada, and Brazil.^[186]

The Houston area is a leading center for building oilfield equipment.^[187] Much of its success as a petrochemical complex is due to its busy ship channel, the Port of Houston.^[188] In the United States, the port ranks first in international commerce and 16th among the largest ports in the world.^[189] Unlike most places, high oil and gasoline prices are beneficial for Houston's economy, as many of its residents are employed in the energy industry.^[190] Houston is the beginning or end point of numerous oil, gas, and products pipelines.^[191]

The Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metro area's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 was $478 billion, making it the sixth-largest of any metropolitan area in the United States and larger than Iran's, Colombia's, or the United Arab Emirates' GDP.^[192] Only 27 countries other than the United States have a gross domestic product exceeding Houston's regional gross area product (GAP).^[193] In 2010, mining (which consists almost entirely of exploration and production of oil and gas in Houston) accounted for 26.3% of Houston's GAP up sharply in response to high energy prices and a decreased worldwide surplus of oil production capacity, followed by engineering services, health services, and manufacturing.^[194]

The University of Houston System's annual impact on the Houston area's economy equates to that of a major corporation: $1.1 billion in new funds attracted annually to the Houston area, $3.13 billion in total economic benefit, and 24,000 local jobs generated.^[195][196] This is in addition to the 12,500 new graduates the U.H. System produces every year who enter the workforce in Houston and throughout Texas. These degree-holders tend to stay in Houston. After five years, 80.5% of graduates are still living and working in the region.^[196]

In 2006, the Houston metropolitan area ranked first in Texas and third in the U.S. within the category of "Best Places for Business and Careers" by Forbes magazine.^[197] Ninety-one foreign governments have established consular offices in Houston's metropolitan area, the third-highest in the nation.^[198] Forty foreign governments maintain trade and commercial offices here with 23 active foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations.^[199] Twenty-five foreign banks representing 13 nations operate in Houston, providing financial assistance to the international community.^[200]

In 2008, Houston received top ranking on Kiplinger's Personal Finance "Best Cities of 2008" list, which ranks cities on their local economy, employment opportunities, reasonable living costs, and quality of life.^[201] The city ranked fourth for highest increase in the local technological innovation over the preceding 15 years, according to Forbes magazine.^[202] In the same year, the city ranked second on the annual Fortune 500 list of company headquarters,^[203] first for Forbes magazine's "Best Cities for College Graduates",^[204] and first on their list of "Best Cities to Buy a Home".^[205] In 2010, the city was rated the best city for shopping, according to Forbes.^[206]

In 2012, the city was ranked number one for paycheck worth by Forbes and in late May 2013, Houston was identified as America's top city for employment creation.^[207][208]

In 2013, Houston was identified as the number one U.S. city for job creation by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics after it was not only the first major city to regain all the jobs lost in the preceding economic downturn, but also after the crash, more than two jobs were added for every one lost. Economist and vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership Patrick Jankowski attributed Houston's success to the ability of the region's real estate and energy industries to learn from historical mistakes. Furthermore, Jankowski stated that "more than 100 foreign-owned companies relocated, expanded or started new businesses in Houston" between 2008 and 2010, and this openness to external business boosted job creation during a period when domestic demand was problematically low.^[208] Also in 2013, Houston again appeared on Forbes' list of "Best Places for Business and Careers".^[209]

Discover more about Economy related topics

Economy of Houston

Economy of Houston

The economy of Houston is based primarily on the energy industry, particularly oil. However, health care, biomedical research, and aerospace also constitute large sectors. In 2021, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area (MSA) was 537 U.S. dollars billion, the fourth-largest of any metro area in the United States. The Houston metropolitan area comprises the largest concentration of petrochemical manufacturing in the world, including for synthetic rubber, insecticides, and fertilizers. It is the world's leading center for oilfield equipment construction, with the city of Houston home to more than 3,000 energy-related businesses, including many of the top oil and gas exploration and production firms and petroleum pipeline operators. As of 2011, 23 companies on the Fortune 500 list have their headquarters in, or around, Houston.

List of companies in Houston

List of companies in Houston

This is a list of major companies or subsidiaries headquartered in Houston, Texas and Greater Houston.

Fortune 500

Fortune 500

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along with privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available. The concept of the Fortune 500 was created by Edgar P. Smith, a Fortune editor, and the first list was published in 1955. The Fortune 500 is more commonly used than its subset Fortune 100 or superset Fortune 1000.

ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.

Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes Company, organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, production, and reservoir consulting. It operates in over 120 countries, with research and manufacturing facilities in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Norway, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Missouri. From 2017 to 2020, the company was majority owned by General Electric (GE); however, GE no longer owns a material stake in the company.

Halliburton

Halliburton

Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries. It owns hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands, and divisions worldwide and employs approximately 55,000 people. The company has dual headquarters located in Houston and in Dubai, and remains incorporated in the United States.

EOG Resources

EOG Resources

EOG Resources, Inc. is an American energy company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in the Heritage Plaza building in Houston, Texas.

Kinder Morgan

Kinder Morgan

Kinder Morgan, Inc. is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. The company specializes in owning and controlling oil and gas pipelines and terminals.

CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 electric and natural gas utility serving several markets in the American states of Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Texas. It was formerly known as Reliant Energy, NorAm Energy, Houston Industries, and HL&P. The company is headquartered in the CenterPoint Energy Tower at 1111 Louisiana Street in Downtown Houston.

Group 1 Automotive

Group 1 Automotive

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. is an international Fortune 300 automotive retailer with automotive dealerships and collision centers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Group 1 sells new and used cars and light trucks, arranges financial services, provides maintenance and repair services, and sells vehicle parts. As of 2021, the company employs over 13,000 people globally.

Calpine

Calpine

Calpine Corporation is the largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources in the United States, with operations in competitive power markets.

Cheniere Energy

Cheniere Energy

Cheniere Energy, Inc. is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) company headquartered in Houston, Texas. In February 2016 it became the first US company to export liquefied natural gas. As of 2018 it is a Fortune 500 company.

The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo held inside the NRG Stadium, 2006

Houston Art Car Parade

Johnson Space Center, 1989

Fountain of the Downtown Aquarium, Houston, in 2012

Located in the American South, Houston is a diverse city with a large and growing international community.^[210] The Greater Houston metropolitan area is home to an estimated 1.1 million (21.4 percent) residents who were born outside the United States, with nearly two-thirds of the area's foreign-born population from south of the United States–Mexico border since 2009.^[211] Additionally, more than one in five foreign-born residents are from Asia.^[211] The city is home to the nation's third-largest concentration of consular offices, representing 92 countries.^[212]

Many annual events celebrate the diverse cultures of Houston. The largest and longest-running is the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, held over 20 days from early to late March, and is the largest annual livestock show and rodeo in the world.^[213] Another large celebration is the annual night-time Houston Gay Pride Parade, held at the end of June.^[214] Other notable annual events include the Houston Greek Festival,^[215] Art Car Parade, the Houston Auto Show, the Houston International Festival,^[216] and the Bayou City Art Festival, which is considered to be one of the top five art festivals in the United States.^[217][218]

Houston is highly regarded for its diverse food and restaurant culture. Several major publications have consistently named Houston one of "America's Best Food Cities".^{[219][220][221][222][223]} Houston received the official nickname of "Space City" in 1967 because it is the location of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Other nicknames often used by locals include "Bayou City", "Clutch City", "Crush City", "Magnolia City", "H-Town", and "Culinary Capital of the South".^{[224][225][226]}

Arts and theater

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Houston Theater District, in Downtown, is home to nine major performing arts organizations and six performance halls. It is the second-largest concentration of theater seats in a Downtown area in the United States.^{[227][228][229]}

Houston is one of few United States cities with permanent, professional, resident companies in all major performing arts disciplines: opera (Houston Grand Opera), ballet (Houston Ballet), music (Houston Symphony Orchestra), and theater (The Alley Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars).^[17][230] Houston is also home to folk artists, art groups and various small progressive arts organizations.^[231]

Houston attracts many touring Broadway acts, concerts, shows, and exhibitions for a variety of interests.^[232] Facilities in the Theater District include the Jones Hall—home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Society for the Performing Arts—and the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.

The Museum District's cultural institutions and exhibits attract more than 7 million visitors a year.^[233][234] Notable facilities include The Museum of Fine Arts, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, the Holocaust Museum Houston, the Children's Museum of Houston, and the Houston Zoo.^{[235][236][237]}

Located near the Museum District are The Menil Collection, Rothko Chapel, the Moody Center for the Arts and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum.

Bayou Bend is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) facility of the Museum of Fine Arts that houses one of America's most prominent collections of decorative art, paintings, and furniture. Bayou Bend is the former home of Houston philanthropist Ima Hogg.^[238]

The National Museum of Funeral History is in Houston near the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The museum houses the original Popemobile used by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s along with numerous hearses, embalming displays, and information on famous funerals.

Venues across Houston regularly host local and touring rock, blues, country, dubstep, and Tejano musical acts. While Houston has never been widely known for its music scene,^[239] Houston hip-hop has become a significant, independent music scene that is influential nationwide. Houston is the birthplace of the chopped and screwed remixing-technique in Hip-hop which was pioneered by DJ Screw from the city. Some other notable Hip-hop artists from the area include Destiny's Child, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Bun B, Geto Boys, Trae tha Truth, Kirko Bangz, Z-Ro, South Park Mexican, Travis Scott and Megan Thee Stallion.^[240]

Beyoncé Knowles also originated in Houston.

Tourism and recreation

The Theater District is a 17-block area in the center of Downtown Houston that is home to the Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas, and parks. Bayou Place is a large multilevel building containing full-service restaurants, bars, live music, billiards, and Sundance Cinema. The Bayou Music Center stages live concerts, stage plays, and stand-up comedy. Space Center Houston is the official visitors' center of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. The Space Center has many interactive exhibits including moon rocks, a shuttle simulator, and presentations about the history of NASA's manned space flight program. Other tourist attractions include the Galleria (Texas's largest shopping mall, in the Uptown District), Old Market Square, the Downtown Aquarium, and Sam Houston Race Park.

Houston's current Chinatown and the Mahatma Gandhi District are two major ethnic enclaves, reflecting Houston's multicultural makeup. Restaurants, bakeries, traditional-clothing boutiques, and specialty shops can be found in both areas.

Houston is home to 337 parks, including Hermann Park, Terry Hershey Park, Lake Houston Park, Memorial Park, Tranquility Park, Sesquicentennial Park, Discovery Green, Buffalo Bayou Park and Sam Houston Park. Within Hermann Park are the Houston Zoo and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Sam Houston Park contains restored and reconstructed homes which were originally built between 1823 and 1905.^[241] A proposal has been made to open the city's first botanic garden at Herman Brown Park.^[242]

Of the 10 most populous U.S. cities, Houston has the most total area of parks and green space, 56,405 acres (228 km²).^[243] The city also has over 200 additional green spaces—totaling over 19,600 acres (79 km²) that are managed by the city—including the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. The Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark is a public skatepark owned and operated by the city of Houston, and is one of the largest skateparks in Texas consisting of a 30,000-ft² (2,800 m²)in-ground facility.

The Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park—in the Uptown District of the city—serves as a popular tourist attraction and for weddings and various celebrations. A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Houston the 23rd most walkable of the 50 largest cities in the United States.^[244]

Discover more about Culture related topics

Culture of Houston

Culture of Houston

Houston is a multicultural city with a thriving international community supported by the third largest concentration of consular offices in the United States, representing 86 nations. In addition to historical Southeast Texas culture, Houston became the fourth-most populous city in the United States. Officially, Houston is nicknamed the "Space City" as it is home to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, where Mission Control Center is located. "Houston" was the first word spoken on the moon. Many locals refer to Houston as "Bayou City." Other nicknames include "H-Town", "Clutch City", and "Magnolia City".

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, also called RodeoHouston or abbreviated HLSR, is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world. It includes one of the richest regular-season professional rodeo events. It has been held at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, since 2003, with the exception of 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was previously held in the Astrodome. It is considered to be the city's "signature event", much like New Orleans's Mardi Gras, Dallas's Texas State Fair, San Diego's Comic-Con and New York City's New Year's Eve at Times Square.

Houston Art Car Parade

Houston Art Car Parade

The Houston Art Car Parade is an annual event in Houston, Texas, featuring a display of all types of rolling art. The first and largest Art Car parade in the world, at any given parade spectators will see cars, bicycles, motorcycles, roller-skaters, and many other types of motorized and human-powered vehicles all decorated in various themes. There are also classic cars, lowriders, and various other highly modified roadworthy vehicles. The parade has been a Houston tradition since 1988, when 40 decorated vehicles were featured during the Houston International Festival. The first art car parade took place on May 14, 1986, when 11 vehicles participated in a parade down Montrose Boulevard within the Neartown area. In recent years, the parade has been held on Allen Parkway until the 2015 season prior to the re-routing of Allen Parkway where the westbound lanes have been converted into parking spaces; since 2016 the parade has been relocated to a section of Downtown Houston going up Smith Street with parade route going past Houston City Hall exiting westbound to Allen Parkway. The 2004 parade featured 250 entries observed by a live audience of over 100,000 people. There were over 260 entries in the 2006 parade. The 2007 parade featured 282 entries. On November 28, 2009, Houston had an illuminated art car parade, dubbed Glowarama. Dan Aykroyd served as the Grand Marshal for the 2010 parade. 2020-21 saw no parades as the COVID-19 pandemic was to blame; the 35th parade returns come 2022.

Johnson Space Center

Johnson Space Center

The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight, where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late US president and Texas native, Lyndon B. Johnson, by an act of the United States Senate on February 19, 1973.

Mexico–United States border

Mexico–United States border

The Mexico–United States border is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. The Mexico–United States border is the most frequently crossed border in the world, with approximately 350 million documented crossings annually. It is the tenth-longest border between two countries in the world.

Houston Gay Pride Parade

Houston Gay Pride Parade

The Houston Gay Pride Parade is the major feature of a gay pride festival held annually since 1979. The festival takes place in June to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. This event commemorates the 1969 police raid of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood, which is generally considered to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.

Houston Auto Show

Houston Auto Show

The Houston Auto Show is an annual, 5 day long auto show that takes place in January at NRG Park. The show attracts many of the biggest automobile manufacturers. Each year, over 500 of the newest model year import and domestic vehicles, alternative fuel/electric vehicles and concept cars from 40+ manufacturers debut at the show.

Bayou City Art Festival

Bayou City Art Festival

The Bayou City Art Festival is an arts festival held biannually by the Art Colony Association in Houston, Texas. The festival is held in Memorial Park in the spring and in Downtown Houston in the fall.

Clutch City

Clutch City

Clutch City is a nickname given to the city of Houston, Texas after the city's National Basketball Association (NBA) club, the Houston Rockets.

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts is a theater in Houston, Texas, United States. Opened to the public in 2002, the theater is located downtown on the edge of the Houston Theater District. Hobby Center features 60-foot-high (18 m) glass walls with views of Houston's skyscrapers, Tranquility Park and Houston City Hall. The Hobby Center is named for former Texas lieutenant governor and Houston businessman, William P. Hobby, Jr., whose family foundation donated the naming gift for the center. The center replaced the former Houston Music Hall and Sam Houston Coliseum.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building in 2020, it is the 12th largest art museum in the world based on square feet of gallery space. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 6,000 years of history with approximately 70,000 works from six continents.

Houston Theater District

Houston Theater District

The Houston Theater District, a 17-block area in the heart of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States, is home to Houston's nine professional performing arts organizations, the 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas, and parks. More than two million people visit the Houston Theater District annually.

Toyota Center is home of the Houston Rockets.

Houston has sports teams for every major professional league except the National Hockey League. The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball expansion team formed in 1962 (known as the "Colt .45s" until 1965) that have won the World Series in 2017 and 2022 and appeared in it in 2005, 2019, and 2021. It is the only MLB team to have won pennants in both modern leagues.^[245] The Houston Rockets are a National Basketball Association franchise based in the city since 1971. They have won two NBA Championships, one in 1994 and another in 1995, under star players Hakeem Olajuwon, Otis Thorpe, Clyde Drexler, Vernon Maxwell, and Kenny Smith.^[246] The Houston Texans are a National Football League expansion team formed in 2002. The Houston Dynamo is a Major League Soccer franchise that has been based in Houston since 2006, winning two MLS Cup titles in 2006 and 2007. The Houston Dash team plays in the National Women's Soccer League.^[247] The Houston SaberCats are a rugby team that plays in Major League Rugby.^[248]

NRG Stadium is the home of the Houston Texans.

Minute Maid Park (home of the Astros) and Toyota Center (home of the Rockets), are in Downtown Houston. Houston has the NFL's first retractable-roof stadium with natural grass, NRG Stadium (home of the Texans).^[249] Minute Maid Park is also a retractable-roof stadium. Toyota Center also has the largest screen for an indoor arena in the United States built to coincide with the arena's hosting of the 2013 NBA All-Star Game.^[250] PNC Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium for the Houston Dynamo, the Texas Southern Tigers football team, and Houston Dash, in East Downtown. Aveva Stadium (home of the SaberCats) is in south Houston. In addition, NRG Astrodome was the first indoor stadium in the world, built in 1965.^[251] Other sports facilities include Hofheinz Pavilion (Houston Cougars basketball), Rice Stadium (Rice Owls football), and NRG Arena. TDECU Stadium is where the University of Houston's Cougars football team plays.^[252]

Houston has hosted several major sports events: the 1968, 1986 and 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Games; the 1989, 2006 and 2013 NBA All-Star Games; Super Bowl VIII, Super Bowl XXXVIII, and Super Bowl LI, as well as hosting the 1981, 1986, 1994 and 1995 NBA Finals, winning the latter two, and hosting the 2005 World Series, 2017 World Series, 2019 World Series, 2021 World Series and 2022 World Series. The city won its first baseball championship during the 2017 event and won again 5 years later. NRG Stadium hosted Super Bowl LI on February 5, 2017.^[253] Houston will host multiple matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The city has hosted several major professional and college sporting events, including the annual Houston Open golf tournament. Houston hosts the annual Houston College Classic baseball tournament every February, and the Texas Kickoff and Bowl in September and December, respectively.^[254]

The Grand Prix of Houston, an annual auto race on the IndyCar Series circuit was held on a 1.7-mile temporary street circuit in NRG Park. The October 2013 event was held using a tweaked version of the 2006–2007 course.^[255] The event had a 5-year race contract through 2017 with IndyCar.^[256] In motorcycling, the Astrodome hosted an AMA Supercross Championship round from 1974 to 2003 and the NRG Stadium since 2003.

Houston is also one of the first cities in the world to have a major esports team represent it, in the form of the Houston Outlaws. The Outlaws play in the Overwatch League and are one of two Texan teams, the other being the Dallas Fuel. Houston is also one of eight cities to have an XFL team, the Houston Roughnecks.

Discover more about Sports related topics

Houston Rockets

Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home games at the Toyota Center, located in Downtown Houston. Throughout its history, Houston has won two NBA championships and four Western Conference titles. It was established in 1967 as the San Diego Rockets, an expansion team originally based in San Diego. In 1971, the Rockets relocated to Houston.

Houston Astros

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after spending their first 51 seasons in the National League (NL).

Expansion team

Expansion team

An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also hope that the expansion of their competition will grow the popularity of the sport generally. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues but is applied to sports leagues in other countries with a closed franchise system of league membership. The term refers to the expansion of the sport into new areas. The addition of an expansion team sometimes results in the payment of an expansion fee to the league by the new team and an expansion draft to populate the new roster.

2017 World Series

2017 World Series

The 2017 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2017 season. The 113th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League (AL) champion Houston Astros. The series was played between October 24 and November 1.

2022 World Series

2022 World Series

The 2022 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2022 season. The 118th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Houston Astros and the National League (NL) champion Philadelphia Phillies. The Astros defeated the Phillies in six games to earn their second championship. The series was broadcast in the United States on Fox television and ESPN Radio.

2005 World Series

2005 World Series

The 2005 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2005 season. The 101st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Chicago White Sox and the National League (NL) champion Houston Astros. The White Sox swept the Astros in four games, winning their third World Series championship and their first in 88 years. The series was played between October 22–26, 2005.

2019 World Series

2019 World Series

The 2019 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2019 season. The 115th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Houston Astros and the National League champion Washington Nationals. The series was played from October 22 to October 30. The Nationals won the series, four games to three, to secure their first title in franchise history and first in the capital city since the 1924 series. Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg was named the World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) after earning two wins in the series.

2021 World Series

2021 World Series

The 2021 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2021 season. The 117th World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Atlanta Braves and the American League (AL) champion Houston Astros. The series began on October 26 and concluded on November 2.

1971–72 NBA season

1971–72 NBA season

The 1971–72 NBA season was the 26th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the New York Knicks 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.

1994 NBA Finals

1994 NBA Finals

The 1994 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1993–94 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Houston Rockets played the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks for the championship, with the Rockets holding home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series. The Rockets defeated the Knicks 4 games to 3 to win the team's first NBA championship.

1995 NBA Finals

1995 NBA Finals

The 1995 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1994–95 National Basketball Association (NBA) season. The series pitted the Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic against the defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Houston Rockets. The pre-series hype and buildup of the Finals was centered on the meeting of the two centers opposing each other: Shaquille O'Neal of the Magic and Hakeem Olajuwon of the Rockets. Going into the series the matchup was compared to the Bill Russell–Wilt Chamberlain matchup of the 1960s.

Hakeem Olajuwon

Hakeem Olajuwon

Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon, nicknamed "the Dream", is a Nigerian-American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets and, in his last season, the Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. Olajuwon was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest centers, as well as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Houston City Hall

Harris County Family Law Center

The city of Houston has a strong mayoral form of municipal government.^[257] Houston is a home rule city and all municipal elections in Texas are nonpartisan.^[257][258] The city's elected officials are the mayor, city controller and 16 members of the Houston City Council.^[259] The current mayor of Houston is Sylvester Turner, a Democrat elected on a nonpartisan ballot. Houston's mayor serves as the city's chief administrator, executive officer, and official representative, and is responsible for the general management of the city and for seeing all laws and ordinances are enforced.^[260]

The original city council line-up of 14 members (nine district-based and five at-large positions) was based on a U.S. Justice Department mandate which took effect in 1979.^[261] At-large council members represent the entire city.^[259] Under the city charter, once the population in the city limits exceeded 2.1 million residents, two additional districts were to be added.^[262] The city of Houston's official 2010 census count was 600 shy of the required number; however, as the city was expected to grow beyond 2.1 million shortly thereafter, the two additional districts were added for, and the positions filled during, the August 2011 elections.

The city controller is elected independently of the mayor and council. The controller's duties are to certify available funds prior to committing such funds and processing disbursements. The city's fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. Chris Brown is the city controller, serving his first term as of January 2016^[update].

As the result of a 2015 referendum in Houston, a mayor is elected for a four-year term and can be elected to as many as two consecutive terms.^[263] The term limits were spearheaded in 1991 by conservative political activist Clymer Wright.^[264] During 1991–2015, the city controller and city council members were subjected to a two-year, three-term limitation–the 2015 referendum amended term limits to two four-year terms. As of 2017^[update] some councilmembers who served two terms and won a final term will have served eight years in office, whereas a freshman councilmember who won a position in 2013 can serve up to two additional terms under the previous term limit law–a select few will have at least 10 years of incumbency once their term expires.

Houston is considered to be a politically divided city whose balance of power often sways between Republicans and Democrats. According to the 2005 Houston Area Survey, 68 percent of non-Hispanic whites in Harris County are declared or favor Republicans while 89 percent of non-Hispanic blacks in the area are declared or favor Democrats. About 62 percent of Hispanics (of any nationality) in the area are declared or favor Democrats.^[265] The city has often been known to be the most politically diverse city in Texas, a state known for being generally conservative.^[265] As a result, the city is often a contested area in statewide elections.^[265] In 2009, Houston became the first U.S. city with a population over 1 million citizens to elect a gay mayor, by electing Annise Parker.^[266]

Texas has banned sanctuary cities,^[267] but Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Houston will not assist ICE agents with immigration raids.^[268]

Crime

Houston Police Department headquarters

Houston had 303 homicides in 2015 and 302 homicides in 2016. Officials predicted there would be 323 homicides in 2016. Instead, there was no increase in Houston's homicide rate between 2015 and 2016.^[269]

Houston's murder rate ranked 46th of U.S. cities with a population over 250,000 in 2005 (per capita rate of 16.3 murders per 100,000 population).^[270] In 2010, the city's murder rate (per capita rate of 11.8 murders per 100,000 population) was ranked sixth among U.S. cities with a population of over 750,000 (behind New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, and Philadelphia) according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.^[271]

Murders fell by 37 percent from January to June 2011, compared with the same period in 2010. Houston's total crime rate including violent and nonviolent crimes decreased by 11 percent.^[272] The FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) indicates a downward trend of violent crime in Houston over the ten- and twenty-year periods ending in 2016, which is consistent with national trends. This trend toward lower rates of violent crime in Houston includes the murder rate, though it had seen a four-year uptick that lasted through 2015. Houston's violent crime rate was 8.6% percent higher in 2016 than the previous year. However, from 2006 to 2016, violent crime was still down 12 percent in Houston.^[273]

Houston is a significant hub for trafficking of cocaine, cannabis, heroin, MDMA, and methamphetamine due to its size and proximity to major illegal drug exporting nations.^[274]

In the early 1970s, Houston, Pasadena and several coastal towns were the site of the Houston mass murders, which at the time were the deadliest case of serial killing in American history.^[275][276]

In 1853, the first execution in Houston took place in public at Founder's Cemetery in the Fourth Ward; initially, the cemetery was the execution site, but post-1868 executions took place in the jail facilities.^[277]

Discover more about Government related topics

Houston City Hall

Houston City Hall

The Houston City Hall building is the headquarters of the City of Houston's municipal government. Constructed during 1938 and 1939, the City Hall complex is located on Bagby Street on the western side of Downtown Houston. It is surrounded by the Houston Skyline District and is similar in design to dozens of other city halls built in the southwest United States during the same time period. City Hall is flanked by Tranquility Park and the Houston Public Library. The simply designed structure featured many construction details that have helped to make this building an architectural classic.

Mayor–council government

Mayor–council government

The mayor–council government system is a system of local government that has a mayor who is directly elected by the voters serve as chief executive, and a separately elected legislative city council. It is one of the two most common forms of local government in the United States, and is also used in Brazil, Canada, Italy, Israel, New Zealand, Poland, and Turkey. It is the one most frequently adopted in large cities, although the other form, council–manager government, is the local government form of more municipalities.

Home rule in the United States

Home rule in the United States

In the United States, home rule is an authority of a constituent part of a U.S. state to exercise powers of governance delegated to it by its state government. In some states, known as home rule states, the state's constitution grants municipalities and/or counties the ability to pass laws to govern themselves as they see fit. In other states, only limited authority has been granted to local governments by passage of statutes in the state legislature. In these states, a city or county must obtain permission from the state legislature if it wishes to pass a law or ordinance which is not specifically permitted under existing state legislation.

Houston City Council

Houston City Council

The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.

Comptroller

Comptroller

A comptroller is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executive who acts as the head of accounting, and oversees the preparation of financial reports, such as balance sheets and income statements.

Clymer Wright

Clymer Wright

Clymer Lewis Wright Jr. was a Texas conservative political activist and journalist. He brought term limits to Houston municipal government and encouraged Ronald Reagan to run for president.

Annise Parker

Annise Parker

Annise Danette Parker is an American politician who served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller from 2004 to 2010.

Crime in Houston

Crime in Houston

Houston's murder rate in 2005 ranked 46th of U.S. cities with a population over 250,000 in 2005. In 2010, the city's murder rate was ranked sixth among U.S. cities with a population of over 750,000 according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Houston had over 400 homicides in 2020 and 473 by the end of December in 2021 a predicted increase of 30% year on year.

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U.S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.

Cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant. As an extract it is mainly used recreationally and often illegally for its euphoric effects. It is also used in medicine by Indigenous South Americans for various purposes and rarely as a local anaesthetic elsewhere. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South America: Erythroxylum coca and E. novogranatense. After extraction from the plant, and further processing into cocaine hydrochloride, the drug is administered by being either snorted, applied topically to the mouth, or dissolved and injected into a vein. It can also then be turned into free base form, in which it can be heated until sublimated and then the vapours can be inhaled.

Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various traditional medicines for centuries. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive component of cannabis, which is one of the 483 known compounds in the plant, including at least 65 other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract.

MDMA

MDMA

3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy ; and molly or mandy, is a potent empathogen–entactogen with stimulant properties primarily used for recreational purposes. The desired effects include altered sensations, increased energy, empathy, and pleasure. When taken by mouth, effects begin in 30 to 45 minutes and last three to six hours.

The first Hattie Mae White Administration Building; it has been sold and demolished.

Nineteen school districts exist within the city of Houston. The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the seventh-largest school district in the United States and the largest in Texas.^[278] HISD has over 100 campuses that serve as magnet or vanguard schools—specializing in such disciplines as health professions, visual and performing arts, and the sciences. There are also many charter schools that are run separately from school districts. In addition, some public school districts also have their own charter schools.

The Houston area encompasses more than 300 private schools,^{[279][280][281]} many of which are accredited by Texas Private School Accreditation Commission recognized agencies. The Greater Houston metropolitan area's independent schools offer education from a variety of different religious as well as secular viewpoints.^[282] The Greater Houston area's Catholic schools are operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Colleges and universities

Houston has four state universities. The University of Houston (UH) is a research university and the flagship institution of the University of Houston System.^{[283][284][285]} The third-largest university in Texas, the University of Houston has nearly 44,000 students on its 667-acre (270-hectare) campus in the Third Ward.^[286] The University of Houston–Clear Lake and the University of Houston–Downtown are stand-alone universities within the University of Houston System; they are not branch campuses of the University of Houston. Slightly west of the University of Houston is Texas Southern University (TSU), one of the largest historically black universities in the United States with approximately 10,000 students. Texas Southern University is the first state university in Houston, founded in 1927.^[287]

Several private institutions of higher learning are within the city. Rice University, the most selective university in Texas and one of the most selective in the United States,^[288] is a private, secular institution with a high level of research activity.^[289] Founded in 1912, Rice's historic, heavily wooded 300-acre (120-hectare) campus, adjacent to Hermann Park and the Texas Medical Center, hosts approximately 4,000 undergraduate and 3,000 post-graduate students. To the north in Neartown, the University of St. Thomas, founded in 1947, is Houston's only Catholic university. St. Thomas provides a liberal arts curriculum for roughly 3,000 students at its historic 19-block campus along Montrose Boulevard. In southwest Houston, Houston Christian University (formerly Houston Baptist University), founded in 1960, offers bachelor's and graduate degrees at its Sharpstown campus. The school is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and has a student population of approximately 3,000.

Three community college districts have campuses in and around Houston. The Houston Community College System (HCC) serves most of Houston proper; its main campus and headquarters are in Midtown. Suburban northern and western parts of the metropolitan area are served by various campuses of the Lone Star College System, while the southeastern portion of Houston is served by San Jacinto College, and a northeastern portion is served by Lee College.^[290] The Houston Community College and Lone Star College systems are among the 10 largest institutions of higher learning in the United States.

Houston also hosts a number of graduate schools in law and healthcare. The University of Houston Law Center and Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University are public, ABA-accredited law schools, while the South Texas College of Law, in Downtown, serves as a private, independent alternative. The Texas Medical Center is home to a high density of health professions schools, including two medical schools: McGovern Medical School, part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and Baylor College of Medicine, a highly selective private institution. Prairie View A&M University's nursing school is in the Texas Medical Center. Additionally, both Texas Southern University and the University of Houston have pharmacy schools, and the University of Houston hosts a medical school and a college of optometry.

• 

  Texas Southern University, in the Third Ward, is the first public institution of higher education in Houston and the most comprehensive HBCU in Texas.^[291][292]

• 

  The University of Houston–Downtown, in Downtown, is the second-largest institution of higher education in Houston.^[293]

• 

  The University of Houston, in the Third Ward, is a public research university and the third-largest institution of higher education in Texas.^[294]

• 

  Rice University, near the Museum District and Texas Medical Center, is the most selective private institution in Texas.^[295]

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Education in Houston

Education in Houston

This article is intended to give an overview of the education in Houston.

List of school districts in Houston

List of school districts in Houston

The following is a complete list of school districts serving the city limits of Houston, Texas.Aldine Independent School District Alief Independent School District Clear Creek Independent School District Crosby Independent School District Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Fort Bend Independent School District Galena Park Independent School District Houston Independent School District Huffman Independent School District Humble Independent School District Katy Independent School District Klein Independent School District Lamar Consolidated Independent School District New Caney Independent School District North Forest Independent School District Pasadena Independent School District Sheldon Independent School District Spring Independent School District Spring Branch Independent School District Tomball Independent School District

Houston Independent School District

Houston Independent School District

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and insular municipalities in addition to some unincorporated areas. Like most districts in Texas, it is independent of the city of Houston and all other municipal and county jurisdictions. The district has its headquarters in the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center in Houston.

List of Houston Independent School District schools

List of Houston Independent School District schools

This is a list of schools operated by the Houston Independent School District.

List of colleges and universities in Houston

List of colleges and universities in Houston

The following is a list of colleges and universities in Houston, located within the city limits.

Texas Southern University

Texas Southern University

Texas Southern University is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the United States with nearly 10,000 students enrolled and over 100 academic programs. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and it is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".

Historically black colleges and universities

Historically black colleges and universities

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving African Americans. Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era and are concentrated in the Southern United States. During the period of racial segregation in the United States, the majority of American institutions of higher education served predominantly white students, and disqualified or limited black American enrollment. Later on some universities, either after expanding their inclusion of Black people and African Americans into their institutions or gaining the status of minority-serving institution, became Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).

Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, known simply as Rice University, is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center.

Campus of Rice University

Campus of Rice University

The campus of Rice University is located on a heavily wooded 290-acre (120-hectare) plot of land on South Main Street in the Museum District of Houston, Texas. It is located east of Rice Village, a retail district, south of Boulevard Oaks and Southampton, west of the Texas Medical Center, and north of Southgate.

Hermann Park

Hermann Park

Hermann Park is a 445-acre (180-hectare) urban park in Houston, Texas, situated at the southern end of the Museum District. The park is located immediately north of the Texas Medical Center and Brays Bayou, east of Rice University, and slightly west of the Third Ward. Hermann Park is home to numerous cultural institutions including the Houston Zoo, Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Hermann Park Golf Course, which became one of the first desegregated public golf courses in the United States in 1954. The park also features the Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Reflection Pool, numerous gardens, picnic areas, and McGovern Lake, an 8-acre (32,000 m2) recreational lake.

Texas Medical Center

Texas Medical Center

The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a 2.1-square-mile (5.4 km2) medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrated in a triangular area between Brays Bayou, Rice University, and Hermann Park, are members of the Texas Medical Center Corporation—a non-profit umbrella organization—which constitutes the largest medical complex in the world. The TMC has an extremely high density of clinical facilities for patient care, basic science, and translational research.

Neartown Houston

Neartown Houston

Montrose is an area located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States and is one of the city's major cultural areas. Montrose is a 7.5 square miles (19 km2) area roughly bounded by Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. Montrose neighborhoods include Cherryhurst, Courtlandt Place, Hyde Park, Montrose, Vermont Commons, North and East Montrose, Mandell Place and Winlow Place. Montrose is also less well known by the moniker Neartown, encompassing Superneighborhood #24.

The current Houston Chronicle headquarters, formerly the Houston Post headquarters

The primary network-affiliated television stations are KPRC-TV channel 2 (NBC), KHOU channel 11 (CBS), KTRK-TV channel 13 (ABC), KTXH channel 20 (MyNetworkTV), KRIV channel 26 (Fox), KIAH channel 39 (The CW), KXLN-DT channel 45 (Univision), KTMD-TV channel 47 (Telemundo), KPXB-TV channel 49 (Ion Television), KYAZ channel 51 (MeTV) and KFTH-DT channel 67 (UniMás). KTRK-TV, KTXH, KRIV, KTXH, KIAH, KXLN-DT, KTMD-TV, KPXB-TV, KYAZ and KFTH-DT operate as owned-and-operated stations of their networks.^[296]

The Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area is served by one public television station and two public radio stations. KUHT channel 8 (Houston Public Media) is a PBS member station and is the first public television station in the United States. Houston Public Radio is listener-funded and comprises one NPR member station, KUHF (News 88.7). The University of Houston System owns and holds broadcasting licenses to KUHT and KUHF. The stations broadcast from the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting on the campus of the University of Houston. Houston additionally is served by the Pacifica Foundation public radio station KPFT.

Houston and its metropolitan area are served by the Houston Chronicle, its only major daily newspaper with wide distribution. Hearst Communications, which owns and operates the Houston Chronicle, bought the assets of the Houston Post—its long-time rival and main competition—when Houston Post ceased operations in 1995. The Houston Post was owned by the family of former Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby of Houston. The only other major publication to serve the city is the Houston Press—which was a free alternative weekly newspaper before the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey resulted in the publication switching to an online-only format on November 2, 2017.^[297] Other notable publications include Houston Forward Times, OutSmart, and La Voz de Houston. Houston Forward Times is one of the largest black-owned newspapers in the metropolitan area and owned by Forward Times Publishing Company.^[298] OutSmart is an LGBT magazine in Houston and was ranked "Best Local Magazine" by the Houston Press in 2008.^[299] La Voz de Houston is the Houston Chronicle's Spanish-language newspaper and the largest in the area.

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List of newspapers in Houston

List of newspapers in Houston

List of radio stations in Texas

List of radio stations in Texas

The following is a list of FCC-licensed AM and FM radio stations in the U.S. state of Texas, which can be sorted by their call signs, broadcast frequencies, cities of license, licensees, or programming formats.

KPRC-TV

KPRC-TV

KPRC-TV is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Graham Media Group. Its studios are located on Southwest Freeway in the Southwest Management District, and its transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County. Houston is the second-largest television market where the NBC station is not owned and operated by the network.

KHOU

KHOU

KHOU is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Conroe-licensed Quest station KTBU. Both stations share studios on Westheimer Road near Uptown Houston, while KHOU's transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County.

CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainment Group division of Paramount Global.

KTRK-TV

KTRK-TV

KTRK-TV is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, serving as the market's ABC outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Bissonnet Street in Houston's Upper Kirby district. Its transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County.

American Broadcasting Company

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California, on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building. The network's secondary offices, and headquarters of its news division, are in New York City, at its broadcast center at 77 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

KTXH

KTXH

KTXH, branded on-air as My 20 Vision, is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox outlet KRIV. Both stations share studios on Southwest Freeway in Houston, while KTXH's transmitter is located near Missouri City, Texas.

KRIV (TV)

KRIV (TV)

KRIV is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, serving as the market's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station KTXH. Both stations share studios on Southwest Freeway in Houston, while KRIV's transmitter is located near Missouri City, Texas.

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company

The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and additional offices at the Fox Network Center in Los Angeles and the Fox Media Center in Tempe. Launched as a competitor to the Big Three television networks on October 9, 1986, Fox went on to become the most successful attempt at a fourth television network. It was the highest-rated free-to-air network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2012 and again in 2020, and was the most-watched American television network in total viewership during the 2007–08 season.

KIAH

KIAH

KIAH is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from The CW. Owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios adjacent to the Westpark Tollway on the southwest side of Houston, and its transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated Fort Bend County.

KXLN-DT

KXLN-DT

KXLN-DT is a television station licensed to Rosenberg, Texas, United States, serving as the Houston-area outlet for the Spanish-language network Univision. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Alvin-licensed UniMás station KFTH-DT. Both stations share studios near the Southwest Freeway on Houston's southwest side, while KXLN-DT's transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County.

Healthcare

MD Anderson Cancer Center

Houston is the seat of the Texas Medical Center, which is the largest medical center in the world,^[300] and describes itself as containing the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions.^[301] All 49 member institutions of the Texas Medical Center are non-profit organizations. They provide patient and preventive care, research, education, and local, national, and international community well-being. Employing more than 73,600 people, institutions at the medical center include 13 hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, four nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. It is where one of the first—and still the largest—air emergency service, Life Flight, was created, and an inter-institutional transplant program was developed. Around 2007, more heart surgeries were performed at the Texas Medical Center than anywhere else in the world.^[302]

Some of the academic and research health institutions at the center include MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, UT Health Science Center, Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, and University of Houston College of Pharmacy.

In the 2000s, the Baylor College of Medicine was annually considered within the top ten medical schools in the nation; likewise, the MD Anderson Cancer Center had been consistently ranked as one of the top two U.S. hospitals specializing in cancer care by U.S. News & World Report since 1990.^[303][304] The Menninger Clinic, a psychiatric treatment center, is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston Methodist Hospital System.^[305] With hospital locations nationwide and headquarters in Houston, the Triumph Healthcare hospital system was the third largest long term acute care provider nationally in 2005.^[306]

Harris Health System (formerly Harris County Hospital District), the hospital district for Harris County, operates public hospitals (Ben Taub General Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital) and public clinics. The City of Houston Health Department also operates four clinics.^[307] As of 2011^[update] the dental centers of Harris Health System take patients of ages 16 and up with patients under that age referred to the City of Houston's dental clinics.^[308] Montgomery County Hospital District (MCHD) serves as the hospital district for Houstonians living in Montgomery County. Fort Bend County, in which a portion of Houston resides, does not have a hospital district. OakBend Medical Center serves as the county's charity hospital which the county contracts with.^[309]

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List of hospitals in Houston

List of hospitals in Houston

This is a list of hospitals in the Houston area sorted by name. There are more than 80 hospitals in Harris County and more than 125 in the Greater Houston area.Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center Ben Taub Hospital Clear Lake Regional Medical Center Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center HCA Houston Healthcare Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital Houston Methodist Continuing Care Hospital Houston Methodist Hospital Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital Houston Methodist West Hospital Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital Intracare Hospital North Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital Memorial Hermann–Texas Medical Center Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital Menninger Clinic St. Joseph Medical Center Texas Children's Hospital Texas Orthopedic Hospital The Woman's Hospital of Texas TIRR Memorial Hermann University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center West Houston Medical Center Westbury Community Hospital

List of hospitals in Texas

List of hospitals in Texas

List of hospitals in Texas, sorted alphabetically.

Texas Medical Center

Texas Medical Center

The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a 2.1-square-mile (5.4 km2) medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrated in a triangular area between Brays Bayou, Rice University, and Hermann Park, are members of the Texas Medical Center Corporation—a non-profit umbrella organization—which constitutes the largest medical complex in the world. The TMC has an extremely high density of clinical facilities for patient care, basic science, and translational research.

MD Anderson Cancer Center

MD Anderson Cancer Center

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a comprehensive cancer center in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the U.S. and one of the original three comprehensive cancer centers in the country. It is both a degree-granting academic institution and a cancer treatment and research center located at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. It is affiliated with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. According to Newsweek, MD Anderson Cancer Center is considered the best hospital in the world for oncology and related cancer treatment.

Memorial Hermann Life Flight

Memorial Hermann Life Flight

Memorial Hermann Life Flight is a hospital-based air medical transport service in Houston, Texas. Prior to 2020, Life Flight flew into 12th floor of the John S. Dunn Heli-Stop atop Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center. In March of 2020, Memorial Hermann-TMC opened the new 18 story Sarofim Pavilion, which now serves as the home for Life Flight operations in addition to an expanded helipad atop the pavilion. Life Flight was founded in 1976.

Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; the School of Health Professions, and the National School of Tropical Medicine.

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a public academic health science center in Houston, Texas, United States. It was created in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is located in the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world. It is composed of six schools: McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UTHealth School of Dentistry, Cizik School of Nursing, UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics and UTHealth School of Public Health.

Houston Methodist Hospital

Houston Methodist Hospital

Houston Methodist Hospital is the flagship quaternary care hospital of Houston Methodist academic medical center. Located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, Houston Methodist Hospital was established in 1919 during the height of the Spanish influenza epidemic as an outreach ministry of Methodist Episcopal Church. Houston Methodist comprises eight hospitals, an academic institute, a primary care group, and more than 300 locations throughout greater Houston.

Texas Children's Hospital

Texas Children's Hospital

Texas Children's Hospital is a nationally ranked, freestanding 973-bed, acute care women's and children's hospital located in Houston, Texas. It is the primary pediatric teaching hospital affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and is located within the Texas Medical Center. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialty and subspecialty care to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout Texas and features an ACS verified level I pediatric trauma center. Its regional pediatric intensive-care unit and neonatal intensive care units serve the Southern United States region and also has programs to serve children from around the world. With 973 beds, it is the largest children's hospital in the United States.

Harris Health System

Harris Health System

The Harris Health System, previously the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD), is a governmental entity with taxing authority that owns and operates three hospitals and numerous clinics throughout Harris County, Texas, United States, including the city of Houston. The entity's administrative offices are in Bellaire, Texas.

Houston is considered an automobile-dependent city, with an estimated 77.2% of commuters driving alone to work in 2016,^[310] up from 71.7% in 1990^[311] and 75.6% in 2009.^[312] In 2016, another 11.4% of Houstonians carpooled to work, while 3.6% used public transit, 2.1% walked, and 0.5% bicycled.^[310] A commuting study estimated the median length of commute in the region was 12.2 miles (19.6 km) in 2012.^[313] According to the 2013 American Community Survey, the average work commute in Houston (city) takes 26.3 minutes.^[314] A 1999 Murdoch University study found Houston had both the lengthiest commute and lowest urban density of 13 large American cities surveyed,^[315] and a 2017 Arcadis study ranked Houston 22nd out of 23 American cities in transportation sustainability.^[316] Harris County is one of the largest consumers of gasoline in the United States, ranking second (behind Los Angeles County) in 2013.^[317]

Despite the region's high rate of automobile usage, attitudes towards transportation among Houstonians indicate a growing preference for walkability. A 2017 study by the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research found 56% of Harris County residents have a preference for dense housing in a mixed-use, walkable setting as opposed to single-family housing in a low-density area.^[318] A plurality of survey respondents also indicated traffic congestion was the most significant problem facing the metropolitan area.^[318] In addition, many households in the city of Houston have no car. In 2015, 8.3 percent of Houston households lacked a car, which was virtually unchanged in 2016 (8.1 percent). The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Houston averaged 1.59 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.^[319]

Roadways

The Interstate 10/U.S. Route 90 and Interstate 45 stack interchange northwest of Downtown Houston

The eight-county Greater Houston metropolitan area contains over 25,000 miles (40,000 km) of roadway, of which 10%, or approximately 2,500 miles (4,000 km), is limited-access highway.^[320] The Houston region's extensive freeway system handles over 40% of the regional daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT).^[320] Arterial roads handle an additional 40% of daily VMT, while toll roads, of which Greater Houston has 180 miles (290 km), handle nearly 10%.^[320]

Greater Houston possesses a hub-and-spoke limited-access highway system, in which a number of freeways radiate outward from Downtown, with ring roads providing connections between these radial highways at intermediate distances from the city center. The city is crossed by three Interstate highways, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, and Interstate 69 (commonly known as U.S. Route 59), as well as a number of other United States routes and state highways. Major freeways in Greater Houston are often referred to by either the cardinal direction or geographic location they travel towards. Highways that follow the cardinal convention include U.S. Route 290 (Northwest Freeway), Interstate 45 north of Downtown (North Freeway), Interstate 10 east of Downtown (East Freeway), Texas State Highway 288 (South Freeway), and Interstate 69 south of Downtown (Southwest Freeway). Highways that follow the location convention include Interstate 10 west of Downtown (Katy Freeway), Interstate 69 north of Downtown (Eastex Freeway), Interstate 45 south of Downtown (Gulf Freeway), and Texas State Highway 225 (La Porte or Pasadena Freeway).

Three loop freeways provide north–south and east–west connectivity between Greater Houston's radial highways. The innermost loop is Interstate 610, commonly known as the Inner Loop, which encircles Downtown, the Texas Medical Center, Greenway Plaza, the cities of West University Place and Southside Place, and many core neighborhoods. The 88-mile (142 km) State Highway Beltway 8, often referred to as the Beltway, forms the middle loop at a radius of roughly 10 miles (16 km). A third, 180-mile (290 km) loop with a radius of approximately 25 miles (40 km), State Highway 99 (the Grand Parkway), is currently under construction, with six of eleven segments completed as of 2018^[update].^[321] Completed segments D through G provide a continuous 70.4-mile (113.3 km) limited-access tollway connection between Sugar Land, Katy, Cypress, Spring, and Porter.^[321]

A system of toll roads, operated by the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) and Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority (FBCTRA), provides additional options for regional commuters. The Sam Houston Tollway, which encompasses the mainlanes of Beltway 8 (as opposed to the frontage roads, which are untolled), is the longest tollway in the system, covering the entirety of the Beltway with the exception of a free section between Interstate 45 and Interstate 69 near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The region is serviced by four spoke tollways: a set of managed lanes on the Katy Freeway; the Hardy Toll Road, which parallels Interstate 45 north of Downtown up to Spring; the Westpark Tollway, which services Houston's western suburbs out to Fulshear; and Fort Bend Parkway, which connects to Sienna Plantation. Westpark Tollway and Fort Bend Parkway are operated conjunctly with the Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority.

Greater Houston's freeway system is monitored by Houston TranStar, a partnership of four government agencies which is responsible for providing transportation and emergency management services to the region.^[322]

Greater Houston's arterial road network is established at the municipal level, with the City of Houston exercising planning control over both its incorporated area and extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). Therefore, Houston exercises transportation planning authority over a 2,000-square-mile (5,200 km²) area over five counties, many times larger than its corporate area.^[323] The Major Thoroughfare and Freeway Plan, updated annually, establishes the city's street hierarchy, identifies roadways in need of widening, and proposes new roadways in unserved areas. Arterial roads are organized into four categories, in decreasing order of intensity: major thoroughfares, transit corridor streets, collector streets, and local streets.^[323] Roadway classification affects anticipated traffic volumes, roadway design, and right of way breadth. Ultimately, the system is designed to ferry traffic from neighborhood streets to major thoroughfares, which connect into the limited-access highway system.^[323] Notable arterial roads in the region include Westheimer Road, Memorial Drive, Texas State Highway 6, Farm to Market Road 1960, Bellaire Boulevard, and Telephone Road.

Transit

METRORail light rail

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) provides public transportation in the form of buses, light rail, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and paratransit to fifteen municipalities throughout the Greater Houston area and parts of unincorporated Harris County. METRO's service area covers 1,303 square miles (3,370 km²) containing a population of 3.6 million.^[324]

METRO's local bus network services approximately 275,000 riders daily with a fleet of over 1,200 buses.^[324] The agency's 75 local routes contain nearly 8,900 stops and saw nearly 67 million boardings during the 2016 fiscal year.^[324] A park and ride system provides commuter bus service from 34 transit centers scattered throughout the region's suburban areas; these express buses operate independently of the local bus network and utilize the region's extensive system of HOV lanes.^[325] Downtown and the Texas Medical Center have the highest rates of transit use in the region, largely due to the park and ride system, with nearly 60% of commuters in each district utilizing public transit to get to work.^[325]

METRO began light rail service in 2004 with the opening of the 8-mile (13 km) north-south Red Line connecting Downtown, Midtown, the Museum District, the Texas Medical Center, and NRG Park. In the early 2010s, two additional lines—the Green Line, servicing the East End, and the Purple Line, servicing the Third Ward—opened, and the Red Line was extended northward to Northline, bringing the total length of the system to 22.7 miles (36.5 km). Two light rail lines outlined in a five-line system approved by voters in a 2003 referendum have yet to be constructed.^[326] The Uptown Line, which runs along Post Oak Boulevard in Uptown,^[327] was under construction as a bus rapid transit line—the city's first—while the University Line has been postponed indefinitely.^[328] The light rail system saw approximately 16.8 million boardings in fiscal year 2016.^[324]

Amtrak's thrice-weekly Los Angeles–New Orleans Sunset Limited serves Houston at a station northwest of Downtown. There were 14,891 boardings and alightings in FY2008,^[329] 20,327 in FY2012,^[330] and 20,205 in FY2018.^[331] A daily Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach connects Houston with Amtrak's Chicago–San Antonio Texas Eagle at Longview.^[332]

Cycling

Houston has the largest number of bike commuters in Texas with over 160 miles of dedicated bikeways.^[333] The city is currently in the process of expanding its on and off street bikeway network.^[334] In 2015, Downtown Houston added a cycle track on Lamar Street, running from Sam Houston Park to Discovery Green.^[335] Houston City Council approved the Houston Bike Plan in March 2017, at that time entering the plan into the Houston Code of Ordinances.^[336] In August 2017, Houston City Council approved spending for construction of 13 additional miles of bike trails.^[337]

Houston's bicycle sharing system started service with nineteen stations in May 2012. Houston Bcycle (also known as B-Cycle), a local non-profit, runs the subscription program, supplying bicycles and docking stations, while partnering with other companies to maintain the system.^[338] The network expanded to 29 stations and 225 bicycles in 2014, registering over 43,000 checkouts of equipment during the first half of the same year.^[339] In 2017, Bcycle logged over 142,000 check outs while expanding to 56 docking stations.^[340]

Airports

Newest part of Terminal C, used exclusively by United Airlines, at George Bush Intercontinental Airport

The Houston Airport System, a branch of the municipal government, oversees the operation of three major public airports in the city. Two of these airports, George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport, offer commercial aviation service to a variety of domestic and international destinations and served 55 million passengers in 2016. The third, Ellington Airport, is home to the Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base. The Federal Aviation Administration and the state of Texas selected the Houston Airport System as "Airport of the Year" in 2005, largely due to the implementation of a $3.1 billion airport improvement program for both major airports in Houston.^[341]

George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), 23 miles (37 km) north of Downtown Houston between Interstates 45 and 69, is the eighth busiest commercial airport in the United States (by total passengers and aircraft movements) and forty-third busiest globally.^[342][343] The five-terminal, five-runway, 11,000-acre (4,500-hectare) airport served 40 million passengers in 2016, including 10 million international travelers.^[342] In 2006, the United States Department of Transportation named IAH the fastest-growing of the top ten airports in the United States.^[344] The Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center is at Bush Intercontinental.

Houston was the headquarters of Continental Airlines until its 2010 merger with United Airlines with headquarters in Chicago; regulatory approval for the merger was granted in October of that year. Bush Intercontinental is currently United Airlines' second largest hub, behind O'Hare International Airport.^[345] United Airlines' share of the Houston Airport System's commercial aviation market was nearly 60% in 2017 with 16 million enplaned passengers.^[346] In early 2007, Bush Intercontinental Airport was named a model "port of entry" for international travelers by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.^[347]

William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), known as Houston International Airport until 1967, operates primarily short- to medium-haul domestic and international flights to 60 destinations.^[342] The four-runway, 1,304-acre (528-hectare) facility is approximately 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Downtown Houston. In 2015, Southwest Airlines launched service from a new international terminal at Hobby to several destinations in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. These were the first international flights flown from Hobby since the opening of Bush Intercontinental in 1969.^[348] Houston's aviation history is showcased in the 1940 Air Terminal Museum in the old terminal building on the west side of the airport. In 2009, Hobby Airport was recognized with two awards for being one of the top five performing airports globally and for customer service by Airports Council International.^[349] In 2022 Hobby Airport was certified as the first 5-Star Airport in North America by Skytrax. It became the first Airport in North America to do so and just the 16th airport worldwide to receive the accomplishment.^[350]

Houston's third municipal airport is Ellington Airport, used by the military, government (including NASA) and general aviation sectors.^[351]

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Carpool

Carpool

Carpooling is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves.

Murdoch University

Murdoch University

Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its name is taken from Sir Walter Murdoch (1874–1970), the Founding Professor of English and former Chancellor of the University of Western Australia.

Arcadis

Arcadis

Arcadis NV is a global design, engineering and management consulting company based in the Zuidas, Amsterdam, Netherlands. It currently operates in excess of 350 offices across 40 countries. The company is a member of the Next 150 index.

Gasoline

Gasoline

Gasoline or petrol is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. On average, U.S. refineries produce, from a barrel of crude oil, about 19 to 20 gallons of gasoline; 11 to 13 gallons of distillate fuel ; and 3 to 4 gallons of jet fuel. The product ratio depends on the processing in an oil refinery and the crude oil assay. A barrel of oil is defined as holding 42 US gallons, which is about 159 liters or 35 imperial gallons.

Los Angeles County, California

Los Angeles County, California

Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,861,224 residents estimated in 2022. Its population is greater than that of 40 individual U.S. states. Comprising 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas within a total area of 4,083 square miles (10,570 km2), it is home to more than a quarter of Californians and is one of the most ethnically diverse U.S. counties. The county's seat, Los Angeles, is the second most populous city in the United States, with about 3.9 million residents.

Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, known simply as Rice University, is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center.

Interstate 10 in Texas

Interstate 10 in Texas

Interstate 10 (I-10) is the major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. In the U.S. state of Texas, it runs east from Anthony, at the border with New Mexico, through El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston to the border with Louisiana in Orange, Texas. At just under 880 mi (1,420 km), the Texas segment of I-10, maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, is the longest continuous untolled freeway in North America that is operated by a single authority. It is also the longest stretch of Interstate Highway with a single designation within a single state. Mile marker 880 and its corresponding exit number in Orange, Texas, are the highest numbered mile marker and exit on any freeway in North America. After widening was completed in 2008, a portion of the highway west of Houston is now also believed to be the widest in the world, at 26 lanes when including feeders.

Interstate 45

Interstate 45

Interstate 45 (I-45) is a major Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Texas. While most Interstate routes which have numbers ending in "5" are cross-country north–south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, with the entire route located in Texas. Additionally, it has the shortest length of all the interstates that end in a "5." It connects the cities of Dallas and Houston, continuing southeast from Houston to Galveston over the Galveston Causeway to the Gulf of Mexico.

Limited-access road

Limited-access road

A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited-access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a controlled-access highway, including limited or no access to adjacent property, some degree of separation of opposing traffic flow, use of grade separated interchanges to some extent, prohibition of slow modes of transport, such as bicycles, (draught) horses, or self-propelled agricultural machines; and very few or no intersecting cross-streets or level crossings. The degree of isolation from local traffic allowed varies between countries and regions. The precise definition of these terms varies by jurisdiction.

Arterial road

Arterial road

An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways or expressways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible. As such, many arteries are limited-access roads, or feature restrictions on private access. Because of their relatively high accessibility, many major roads face large amounts of land use and urban development, making them significant urban places.

Spoke–hub distribution paradigm

Spoke–hub distribution paradigm

The spoke–hub distribution paradigm is a form of transport topology optimization in which traffic planners organize routes as a series of "spokes" that connect outlying points to a central "hub". Simple forms of this distribution/connection model contrast with point-to-point transit systems, in which each point has a direct route to every other point, and which modeled the principal method of transporting passengers and freight until the 1970s. Delta Air Lines pioneered the spoke–hub distribution model in 1955, and the concept revolutionized the transportation logistics industry after Federal Express demonstrated its value in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s the telecommunications and information technology sector subsequently adopted this distribution topology, dubbing it the star network network topology.

Ring road

Ring road

A ring road is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducing traffic volumes in the urban centre, such as by offering an alternate route around the city for drivers who do not need to stop in the city core. Ring roads can also serve to connect suburbs to each other, allowing efficient travel between them.

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The Mayor's Office of Trade and International Affairs (MOTIA) is the city's liaison to Houston's sister cities and to the national governing organization, Sister Cities International. Through their official city-to-city relationships, these volunteer associations promote people-to-people diplomacy and encourage citizens to develop mutual trust and understanding through commercial, cultural, educational, and humanitarian exchanges.^[352][353]

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Huelva

Huelva

Huelva is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The rias are of the Odiel and Tinto rivers and are good natural harbors. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 149,410. Huelva is home to Recreativo de Huelva, the oldest football club in Spain.

Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Chiba (city)

Chiba (city)

Chiba is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It sits about 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of the centre of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. The city became a government-designated city in 1992. In June 2019, its population was 979,768, with a population density of 3,605 people per km2. The city has an area of 271.77 square kilometres (104.93 sq mi).

France

France

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

Nice

Nice

Nice is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly 1 million on an area of 744 km2 (287 sq mi). Located on the French Riviera, the southeastern coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the French Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast and second-largest city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille. Nice is approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) from the principality of Monaco and 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the French–Italian border. Nice's airport serves as a gateway to the region.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Baku is the capital and largest city.

Baku

Baku

Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, on the Bay of Baku. Baku's urban population was estimated at two million people as of 2009. Baku is the primate city of Azerbaijan—it is the sole metropolis in the country, and about 25% of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area.

Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas, and has a 2020 population estimate of 198,590 for the city of Aberdeen, and 227,560 for the local council area making it the United Kingdom's 39th most populous built-up area. The city is 93 mi (150 km) northeast of Edinburgh and 398 mi (641 km) north of London, and is the northernmost major city in the United Kingdom. Aberdeen has a long, sandy coastline and features an oceanic climate, with cool summers and mild, rainy winters.

Norway

Norway

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency of Norway; it also lays claims to the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. The capital and largest city in Norway is Oslo.

Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi), Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, is the largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, cultural and historic hub. The city straddles the Bosporus strait, lying in both Europe and Asia, and has a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is the most populous European city, and the world's 15th-largest city.

China

China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions. The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai.