Partnership Talking Points Q3-26

• 7.9 million people live in the 10-county Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA.
• The Houston metro is the nation’s fifth most populous metro area.
• Metro Houston ranks between Arizona and Washington by population.
• One in 4 Houstonians are foreign-born.
• The City of Houston has 2.4 million residents, the fourth most in the U.S.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 American Community Survey, 2025 Population Estimates

• Eleven foreign governments maintain trade and commercial offices in Houston, and the region has 41 active foreign chambers of commerce.
• Cargo activity at the Houston Ship Channel supported 1.5 million direct, indirect, and induced jobs across Texas.
• Houston’s two international airports service 200 nonstop destinations, including 129 domestic and 71 international.
• The Houston-Galveston Customs District handled $353.7 billion in trade in ’25, $111.1 billion in imports and $242.6 billion in exports.
• Port Houston is the busiest container port on the Gulf Coast.
• Over 5,000 Houston companies are doing business abroad.
• More than 1,000 Houston companies report foreign ownership.
• Nineteen foreign banks from 10 nations are located in Houston.

• If Houston were an independent nation, the region would have the 22nd-largest economy in the world, ranking between Poland and Belgium.
• Since 2019, real GDP in the Houston region has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 3.8 percent.

• Houston is the sixth-largest metro economy in the U.S.
• Twenty-seven Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Houston.

• There are 3.5 million jobs in the Houston MSA.
• The Health, Education, and Business & Professional Services industries account for over 1 in 4 jobs in the region.
• The goods-producing sector accounts for nearly 1 in 6 jobs.

• The Texas Medical Center is the world’s largest medical complex

• Roughly 240,200 people work in the region’s manufacturing industry sector.
• Houston has more than 500 aviation and aerospace-related companies
• Houston is home to 7,675 tech-related firms.
• Houston employs more than 83,670 workers in computer and mathematical occupations.
• Nearly 79,000 engineers, architects, and related techs work in Houston.