Since the mid-1800s, most Texas residents have been of European descent, but for the first time in state history, this group is no longer the majority. Currently, about 49 percent of the population is of northern European ancestry; Roughly 36 percent are Hispanic, and approximately 11 percent are African-American. The remaining 4 percent are listed under “other racial/ethnic groups,” though most are of Asian descent.

The healthy pace of Texas’s increased population is largely due to international immigration, which represented nearly 77 percent of the state’s population growth in recent years. The Texas State Data Center projects that by 2020, Hispanics will represent the majority of the state’s population. Of note is the rapid growth of foreign-born residents in Texas’s major metro areas (112 percent) compared to border metro cities (51 percent). Austin witnessed the greatest increase in foreign-born population (172 percent), likely reflecting the city’s economic growth in the technology sector.