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Texas counties by population, 1850–2025

Where the people were, at every census from 1850 to 2020, and the Census Bureau's estimate for 2025. Every county is shaded by its count, on one scale across the hundred and seventy-five years, and the fifteen most populous are ranked. Unlike the town figures, these are all federal census totals — the county was the unit the census actually reported — until the last step, which is the Bureau's estimate and is labelled as one. The map opens on the Republic-era settlement tilted hard to the east and the Gulf. Then the counties of the north central prairie — Collin, Grayson, Dallas — climb the table through the 1860s and 1870s; Dallas County enters the fifteen in 1870, is second to Grayson in 1880, and is the most populous county in Texas from 1890 to 1920, when Harris passes it and stays ahead. Since 2000 Tarrant, on the other side of the Trinity, has been third.

1860

Drag the slider or use the arrow keys. Hover a county for its count; click for the act that created it. Counties with no census return are left unshaded. Each year's count belongs to the county as it was drawn that year, so a county's shape and its figure change together.

The fifteen most populous counties

#County1860
1Rusk15,803
2Washington15,215
3Harrison15,001
4Bexar14,454
5Smith13,392
6Cherokee12,098
7Fayette11,604
8Upshur10,645
9Anderson10,398
10Grimes10,307
11Austin10,139
12Lamar10,136
13Titus9,648
14Collin9,264
15Fannin9,217
About the sources

Counties are the Newberry Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Texas dataset, sliced at 1 June of each census year by src/land/texas.py — the same polygons as the towns map. The atlas runs to the end of 2000. The last county Texas created was Kenedy, in April 1921; the lines barely move after that, and the script keeps only the slices that differ (eleven files carry the sixteen censuses).

Populations to 2010 are the Texas Almanac's Population History of Counties from 1850–2010, which reprints the census county totals; unlike the Almanac's town table it carries no estimates. 2020 is table P1 of the Census Bureau's PL 94-171 redistricting file for Texas, read directly, county by county. 2025 is not a census: it is the Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimate of the population on 1 July 2025, and the page says so wherever it appears. From 2010 on the counties are drawn on the atlas's 2000 lines, no county line having moved since. The Almanac's county names are matched to the atlas's names for each year, which needs a few translations: Cass County was named Davis from 1861 to 1871 and is drawn as Davis in 1870; the Almanac's “Stephens” of 1860 was still Buchanan that year; the 1870 census reported the unorganized west separately as the “Bexar District”, drawn here on the Bexar Land District; Buchel and Foley, counties of 1887–1897, and Encinal, are matched to the atlas's “(extinct)” polygons; and the Almanac's “Schelicher” is Schleicher. In 1850 Cameron, Starr and Webb were reported together, credited to Cameron. A figure with no county of that name in the atlas on census day is dropped; the one case is the 1,033 the Almanac gives Kenedy County for 1920, ten months before the county existed. Data in src/land/texas/county_pop.json.

The fifteen largest towns, 1850–1900 → · Dallas city limits, 1855–2022 →