Coastal Demographics
Of the total population of approximately 26.5 million in Texas, about 6.5 million people live in coastal portions of the state.
Coastal Economy
Coastal Texas employs almost 3.1 million people annually, earning a total of over $193 billion. This equates to more than $493 billion in gross domestic product.
Natural Hazards
Six billion-dollar weather disasters affected Texas in 2018—and a total of 49 affected the state between 2010 and 2018. In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas as a category 4, causing widespread devastation due to the large region of extreme rainfall across Houston and surrounding areas. More than 30 inches of rain fell on 6.9 million people, while 1.25 million experienced over 45 inches and 11,000 had over 50 inches. This unprecedented rainfall caused massive flooding that displaced over 30,000 people and damaged or destroyed over 200,000 homes and businesses. Hurricane Harvey’s total costs were $128.8 billion.
![Texas graphic](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20210120015932im_/https://coast.noaa.gov/data/nationalfacts/img/fast-fact-texas.png)