Dallas-Fort Worth’s New Residents: Where Do They Come From?

by John Egan
October 31, 2016

You could call it the Dallas-Houston shuffle.

A LawnStarter analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows Houston leads U.S. metro areas for feeding the most new residents to the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, and vice versa. From 2009 through 2013, an average of 13,934 transplants from Houston relocated to Dallas-Fort Worth each year, while 13,359 transplants made the annual trek from Big D to the Bayou City.

You don’t need to be a math wizard to realize that Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are exchanging an almost even number of residents every year. In the end, Dallas-Fort Worth wins this relocation contest, but not by much.

If you're in the DFW area and need quality lawn care, check out our Dallas lawn service and Fort Worth lawn service pages.

Interstate 45 links the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas.
Photo: iStock

Close in Size and Proximity

Steve Murdock, director of Rice University’s Hobby Center for the Study of Texas and former director of the Census Bureau, attributes the Dallas-Houston population swap, in part, to the two metro areas being of similar size and less than 240 miles apart. As of 2015, Dallas-Fort Worth’s population was 7.1 million, while Houston’s was nearly 6.7 million.

Furthermore, he says, both metros are growing at similar rates. Murdock points out that the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas experienced the biggest population gains of any U.S. metros from 2010 to 2015, with Dallas-Fort Worth adding 676,582 residents and Houston adding 736,454.

Additionally, the economies of the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metros are comparable, as both are centers for the energy and financial industries, Murdock says.

Dallas and Houston are rivals on and off the field.
Photo: Flickr/AJ Guel

‘So Damn Similar’

Chris Kratovil, a Dallas attorney who’s lived in both metro areas, says the long-simmering bad blood between Big D and the Bayou City stems from the fact that “in so many ways they are so damn similar.”

“The Dallas-Houston rivalry has always struck me as a classic case of familiarity breeding contempt. Most aspects of Dallas life have a direct, clear analog in Houston,” Kratovil says.

Here are the top 15 metro areas for sending new residents to Dallas-Fort Worth, based on our analysis of 2009-13 data from the Census Bureau. The data was released in 2015.

1. Houston, TX

Photo: Tripping.com

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 13,934

2. Austin, TX

Photo: DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Austin

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 8,159

3. Los Angeles, CA

Photo: Flickr/Bill Taylor

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 6,802

4. San Antonio, TX

Photo: Flickr/Pedro Szekely

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 5,662

5. New York, NY

Photo: Flickr/Always Shooting

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 5,257

6. Chicago, IL

Photo: Flickr/Roman Boed

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 4,474

7. Atlanta, GA

Photo: Flickr/Jody Claborn

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 3,657

8. Oklahoma City, OK

Photo: Flickr/Paul McCord Jr.

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 3,652

9. Washington, DC

Photo: Flickr/Rafael Koch Rossi

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 3,415

10. Lubbock, TX

Photo: Flickr/Texas Tech University Student Housing

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 3,346

11. Phoenix, AZ

Photo: Flickr/Texas Tech University Student Housing

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 2,905

12. Bryan-College Station, TX

Photo: Texas A&M University

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 2,836

13. Killeen-Temple, TX

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense/Cherie Cullen

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 2,799

14. San Diego, CA

Photo: Flickr/Geoff Lang

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 2,710

15. Waco, TX

Photo: Baylor University

Average number of residents who relocated per year to Dallas-Fort Worth: 2,527

Top Photo: Green Dallas