Summary: Tarrant County is already as ethnically diverse as the U.S. is expected to be in 2050. "As Tarrant County’s population has grown in the past decade, so, too, has its racial and ethnic diversity. But that diversity is greater in suburban areas rather than urban ones, experts observed from the latest census data." However, not for Willow Park... yet.
Latest Update: 01 May 2024
Tags: #AreaGrowth
Tarrant County's demographic reflects the nation's projected ethnic diversity in 2050
Tarrant County is already as ethnically diverse as the U.S. is expected to be in 2050. [1]
As Tarrant County’s population has grown in the past decade, so, too, has its racial and ethnic diversity. But that diversity is greater in suburban areas rather than urban ones, experts observed from the latest census data. [2]
However, not for Willow Park... yet. The 2020 Diversity Index for Tarrant County is 81, for Willow Park, 34.
• How many people live in Census Tract 1407.14, Parker County, Texas [which includes Willow Park]
Census Tract 1407.14, Parker County, Texas
Diversity Index
2020 34
2010 17
Change 17
Diversity Index
2020 81
2010 69
Change 12
Sources and Resources
[1] Tarrant County leads state in Alzheimer’s case numbers – but there’s hope. Fort Worth Report, 10 July 2023
Texas Department of State Health Services found 23% of the state’s Alzheimer’s care recipients are in Tarrant County — the highest among the 254 counties. Tarrant County is far ahead of Harris County, which follows with 10.6%.
In Texas, the number of individuals with Alzheimer’s 65 and older is expected to be 490,000 in 2025, a 22.5% increase since 2021, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
“Tarrant County seems, in my opinion, to do a better job of actually tracking the cases and identifying the cases,” he said. “Another part of that is that more people are being diagnosed.”
The data may also be a result of Tarrant County already being as ethnically diverse as the U.S. is expected to be in 2050, O’Bryant said.
The Hispanic community, which makes up 30% of Tarrant County’s population, is expected to experience the single largest growth in Alzheimer’s patients over the next 20 years.
are currently the youngest major ethnic group in the U.S., meaning more of them will be hitting the age mark for increased Alzheimer risks in the coming years, O’Bryant said.
Another age-related factor is a population shift that increases the number of those who are 65 and older, the ages that are at risk for Alzheimer’s. O’Bryant says he sees many older residents from rural areas move to communities like Tarrant County for better health care.
[2] Tarrant County’s growing racial diversity in suburbs outpaces urban core, Fort Worth Report, 30 August 30, 2021
As Tarrant County’s population has grown in the past decade, so, too, has its racial and ethnic diversity. But that diversity is greater in suburban areas rather than urban ones, experts observed from the latest census data.
The county’s population increased 16.7% in the past decade, reaching 2.1 million people in 2020. Though white non-Hispanic is still the largest racial or ethnic group in Tarrant County at 904,884 people, that population has decreased 3.4% since the 2010 census.
Kyle Walker, Texas Christian University’s director of urban studies, said the census showed the white population was increasing only in “gentrifying urban cores,” like the Fairmount-South Side Historic District. Greater diversity is in newer suburban developments like those off of Chisholm Trail Parkway and to the south of the city toward Crowley, he said.
“The typical idea about suburbs is that they’re sort of homogenous and segregated,” Walker said. “Those places do exist. But really the areas where you have racial and ethnic mixing tend to be outside of Loop 820.”
“Outside of the Loop, you have upwardly mobile individuals of all racial and ethnic backgrounds who are potentially not able to afford the really exclusive, high-dollar neighborhoods (in the urban core). But they aren’t interested in living in the higher poverty neighborhoods,” Walker said.
Suburbs tend to be newer as well, so the neighborhoods don’t have the same history of racial and income segregation that older neighborhoods in the urban core might, he said.
• How Racially and Ethnically Diverse Is Your Neighborhood?, US Census, 03 January 2024
• 2 Dallas-Fort Worth cities make the list of most diverse places in U.S., Culture Map, 26 April 2024
Living in a multicultural city comes with many benefits. Diverse communities bring new perspectives, greater versatility, and economic boosts, to name a few. And according to a new study by WalletHub, Arlington and Dallas are among the most diverse cities in the nation.
The two Dallas-Fort Worth cities earned top-10 spots in WalletHub's annual ranking of the "Most Diverse Cities in the U.S. (2024)," ranking No. 5 and No. 8, respectively. The report compared 501 U.S. cities across 13 metrics in five categories that encompass "diversity" across socioeconomic, cultural, economic, household, and religious factors.
• 2020 U.S. Population More Racially and Ethnically Diverse Than Measured in 2010, US Census, 12 August 2021
• Historical Census Statistics On Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For Large Cities And Other Urban Places In The United States, US Census, February 2005
The United States census enumerated Whites and Blacks since 1790, Asians and Native Americans since 1860 (though all Native Americans in the U.S. were not enumerated until 1890), "some other race" since 1950, and "two or more races" since 2000.[2] Mexicans were counted as White from 1790 to 1930, unless of apparent non-European extraction.[13] Hispanics (as well as the Non-Hispanic White population) were enumerated since 1940 (with the exception of 1950 and 1960), but some estimates for the Hispanic (and Non-Hispanic White) population were made for certain years before 1940 (as well as for 1950 and 1960).
• Tarrant County's census data shows growth in population, diversity, Community Impact, Community Impact, 13 September 2021
• Population: Still Growing and Increasingly Diverse, Texas Almanac
Two Decades of Dominant Growth in Texas
Between 2000 and 2010, Texas’ population increase of nearly 4.3 million was larger than that in all other states (Table 2) and its percentage growth of 20.6 percent exceeded that in all but four other states with much smaller populations...
According to the 2018 population estimates provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas has, once again, added more people than all other states (an increase of 3.6 million people), and its percentage growth of 14.1 percent was surpassed by only Utah (which grew by 14.4 percent to an estimated 3.2 million by 2018). By July 1, 2018, there were an estimated 28.7 million people living in Texas.
While the state has experienced substantial growth over the last few decades, that growth has not been equally distributed throughout the state. Over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st, population growth has occurred primarily in the largest cities and their surrounding counties – particularly in an area commonly called the Texas Triangle (the areas along the I-45, I-35 and I-10 corridors between Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and San Antonio).