The Statistical Facts of Life Along the Border

To get oriented to the differences between the border area and the rest of the country, I’ve assembled three tables of statistics. Like all statistics, these have their limitations. In particular, the unemployment rates along the Texas border have dropped significantly in the last two to four years. Many are now below 10 percent for the first time in decades.

The first is a broad comparison of the four states I will be riding through— Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California— with a composite of the entire country. Even California, whose growth slowed in the 90’s, continued to grow faster than the nation but the other three states are growing much faster— nearly double or better than the national average. The border states, as you might expect, have two to four times the Hispanic population as the entire country.

The second is a similar comparison, this time focused on the metropolitan areas included in the trip, presented in order of my visit. One of the more striking facts is that over half of all children in McAllen live in poverty. Another is the crime rate in Tucson. And still another is the population growth in McAllen and Laredo. They ranked #2 and #3 in the nation. Only Las Vegas added more population.

The third is a look at per capital income in the Texas border counties. Starr county, immediately west of McAllen, has the lowest per capita income at $7,550, only 30 percent of the national average.

Table 1: The Facts of Life and Death, the Border States

Table 2: Facts of Life and Death, Cities

Table 3: Income in the Texas Border Counties

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Photo: Scott Burns/On the bridge to Presidio

(c) A. M. Universal, 2000