Texas

Overview

Texas, the Lone Star State, is the second-largest state of the United States by area and by population: the largest state in area except for Alaska, admitted as the 28th state on December 29, 1845, with Austin as its capital and a 2025 estimated population of 31,709,821 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Its name comes from the Caddo word thecas, meaning “allies” or “friends,” and its motto is “Friendship” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Texas occupies the south-central segment of the country and extends nearly 1,000 miles from north to south and about the same distance from east to west (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Water delineates many of its borders: the Red River makes up the eastern two-thirds of its boundary with Oklahoma to the north, the Sabine River forms most of the boundary with Louisiana to the east, the crescent-shaped Gulf of Mexico coastline lies to the southeast, and the Rio Grande separates Texas from Mexico to the southwest, with New Mexico to the west (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The state’s land runs from the fertile and densely populated Coastal Plains in the southeast, covering about two-fifths of its area, through the Hill Country and the Edwards Plateau, to the High Plains and the Trans-Pecos region in the west, where Guadalupe Peak rises to 8,749 feet and much of the native ruggedness is preserved in Big Bend National Park (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Texas counted 29,145,505 people in the 2020 census, and Britannica’s 2025 estimate is 31,709,821 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The growth behind those figures is the fastest in the country in absolute terms: Texas added 562,941 residents between July 2023 and July 2024, the largest numeric gain of any state, or about 1,542 new Texans per day (Texas Demographic Center). The implication is a state still expanding faster than any other in raw numbers, even as its 2024 Census estimate of 31,290,831 keeps it behind California’s 39,431,263 (Texas Demographic Center).

Measure	Figure	Source
2020 census population	29,145,505	Encyclopaedia Britannica
July 2024 Census estimate	31,290,831	Texas Demographic Center / Census Bureau
2025 population estimate	31,709,821	Encyclopaedia Britannica
Area	268,597 sq mi (695,662 sq km)	Encyclopaedia Britannica

From Spanish frontier to 28th state

The territory of Texas was part of the Spanish Empire for more than a century, then part of the new country of Mexico from 1821 to 1836, when it gained its independence and had a short-lived existence as a republic before joining the Union (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The Spanish mission system is where that colonial history is still visible on the ground: Mission San Antonio de Valero was founded on May 1, 1718, by Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares, one of five Franciscan missions established in what is now San Antonio (Handbook of Texas). The mission is most commonly known as the site of the battle of the Alamo in 1836 (Handbook of Texas). Its resident Indian population climbed to 311 in 1745 and 328 in 1756, drawn from more than a hundred groups, before declining; the mission was secularized in 1793, and between 1810 and 1865 the former mission changed hands at least sixteen times among Spanish, Mexican, Texas, Union, and Confederate forces (Handbook of Texas).

Texas’s image, Britannica notes, was that of a raw and lawless frontier when it relinquished its independence to become a state, and although Texans still identify strongly with their cowboy heritage, present-day Texas is known for its agricultural wealth, major oil and natural gas production, industry and finance, and huge urban centers (Encyclopaedia Britannica). East Texas, in Britannica’s division, has a wet climate and is characterized by cotton and by ties to the Old South, while West Texas is dry and known for cattle ranching and an affinity with the West (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

A Pueblo in Texas: Ysleta del Sur and the council link

Most state profiles stop at the missions. Texas’s living Indigenous story includes something they miss: a Pueblo. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, near El Paso, is the oldest community in Texas and the only pueblo still in existence in the state, according to a 2007 US House report (US House Report 110-272). It was established in the early 1680s, after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove Pueblo people south from New Mexico, and it is the Texas member of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents 20 Pueblo Nations in New Mexico and one in Texas (US House Report 110-272). That single fact reframes the council: its reach does not stop at the New Mexico line, and its Texas seat is a community that predates the state itself by more than 160 years.

The Pueblo’s modern legal history is a story of recognition, loss, and restoration. The tribe was recognized by the State of Texas in 1968, and in 1987 it received federal recognition through the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Alabama and Coushatta Indian Tribes of Texas Restoration Act, which restored the federal trust relationship and extended federal services and benefits to the tribe (US House Report 110-272). The same 1987 Act, however, required tribal members to meet a one-eighth blood-quantum requirement, and in 2000, 27 individuals were removed from the tribe’s rolls because their blood quantum was determined to be below that minimum (US House Report 110-272). A 2007 House bill, H.R. 1696, proposed deleting the requirement so the tribe itself could determine its membership criteria; the House report warned that if the requirement remained, tribal membership would decline significantly within three generations (US House Report 110-272).

Energy, growth, and the state’s only World Heritage Site

Texas’s economy expanded to $2.77 trillion in current-dollar GDP in 2024, up from $2.64 trillion in 2023, growing 3.95 percent against 2.79 percent for the United States as a whole (Office of the Texas Governor). The growth has continued into 2026: Texas gained 112,200 jobs from January 2025 to January 2026, and in February 2026 its exports totaled more than $37 billion, up 2.1 percent from the same period a year earlier (Office of the Texas Governor). The stat that anchors the energy story is the scale of production: Texas is the top oil and gas state in the country, producing 42 percent of US crude oil and 27 percent of marketed natural gas, with 32 petroleum refineries able to process more than 5.9 million barrels of crude oil per day, or 32 percent of US refining capacity (Texas Comptroller). The implication is that Texas is not only an extraction state but the country’s refining center — and, at the same time, its wind leader, producing about 26 percent of all US wind-powered electricity generation, the most of any state, and more electricity overall than any other state (Texas Comptroller).

That energy system runs on an unusual grid: most of Texas is on a power grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the only one of the contiguous 48 states with its own electricity grid, covering 214 of the state’s 254 counties (Texas Comptroller). The fuel mix has shifted with it: wind turbines produced 40,556 MW in 2022, solar capacity grew from just 72 MW in 2012 to 14,818 MW in 2022, and the state’s two nuclear plants, the South Texas Project and Comanche Peak, provide a combined 5,000 MW (Texas Comptroller).

Texas’s heritage story has a second, quieter landmark beside the Alamo. In 2015, a group of five Spanish colonial missions in the San Antonio area — Mission Concepción, Mission San José, Mission San Juan, Mission Espada, and Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo — together with Rancho de las Cabras and their associated irrigation and agricultural features, were named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (US National Park Service). The designation is the first and only World Heritage Site in Texas, and the missions together form the most complete and intact group of Spanish Colonial mission complexes in the world (US National Park Service). The site is not a ruin: all four missions within the national historical park are active parishes, the site includes 5 missions, 1 Spanish colonial ranch, 1 aqueduct, and 13 miles of flowing historic acequias, and in 2023 the management group completed its first periodic report to UNESCO since inscription, reaffirming the integrity of the site’s resources (US National Park Service).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim a single settled founding year for Ysleta del Sur Pueblo: the House report gives 1681 and other accounts give 1682, and the profile says “early 1680s” in its body text for that reason. It does not claim a single settled height for Guadalupe Peak (8,749 feet here, 8,751 feet elsewhere) or a single settled US World Heritage count (the Park Service page gives both 23 and 24). It does not present the $2.77 trillion GDP figure and the March 2025 release’s rounded $2.7 trillion preliminary figure as different facts — they are the same BEA estimate at different stages of rounding. It does not claim a current membership number for Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, a current governor or legislature composition, or any 2026 election outcome, none of which appear in the sources relied on here. It does not claim the All Pueblo Council of Governors’ Chaco campaign concerns Texas land: the campaign concerns the Greater Chaco region, and the Texas link is representation through Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. And it does not claim the 2007 blood-quantum bill became law — only that it was reported favorably by the House committee in 2007.