Introduction
Hays County is situated to the southwest of Austin. The county seat is San Marcos. In 2021, the population of Hays County was 255,397.
Demographic Profile
Hays County has grown every year in the past decade. Far and away, the growth is due to domestic migration, people moving in from other parts of the US. However, natural increase, more births than deaths, also contributed to its steady growth.
Employment Trends
The unemployment rate in Hays County in 2021 was 5.6%, slightly higher than the national and state rates of 5.5% and 5.4%, respectively. However, a somewhat lower than usual percentage of the adult population is not in the labor force: 32.3%. For comparison, 36.4% of the adult population in the nation and 34.9% in the state are not in the labor force. There may be a higher unemployment rate in Hays County simply because there are more workers in the labor force.
|
Subject |
Estimate |
Percent |
|
Population 16 years and over |
185,763 |
--- |
|
In labor force |
125,783 |
67.7% |
|
Civilian Labor Force |
125,476 |
67.5% |
|
Employed |
118,438 |
63.8% |
|
Unemployed |
7,038 |
3.8% |
|
Not in labor force |
59,980 |
32.3% |
|
Unemployment rate |
--- |
5.6% |
Educational Attainment
In Hays County, 90.5% of the population (over 25 years-old) holds at least a high school degree, and 38.7% of the population has a bachelor’s degree or higher. Both of these statistics are higher than state and national averages. In Texas, 84.8% have at least a high school diploma and 31.5% have at least a four-year degree. While in the United States as a whole, those figures are 88.9% and 33.7% respectively. Overall, Hays County has a higher-than-average rate of education compared to its peers in the RCA, the state, and the nation. Hays County is home to two higher education institutions, Austin Community College (full time enrollment of approximately 34,500 undergraduate students[1]) and Texas State University (full time enrollment of approximately 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students). This may account for the high educational attainment rate.
Wage Trends
Median Household Income (MHI) growth in Hays County fluctuates more dramatically than US trends. However, Hays County is on average trending upward more quickly in MHI growth than the US. Furthermore, Hays County has not decreased in year-to-year MHI growth since 2012.
Similarly, per capita income income growth in Hays County has not decreased in the past decade. However, there was a notable decline in percentage point growth in 2022. This shift was not contained in Hays County, as national growth similarly declined.
Industry and Occupation Snapshots
Hays County is more services than production oriented. Hospitality, Logistics, and Back Office rank the highest in Hays County’s occupation clusters. Fortunately, the next tier of occupational clusters tends to be on the higher end of the scale among services in terms of income and skills.
Gross Regional Product
Interestingly, unlike the nation as a whole, Hays County’s growth in Gross Regional Product (GRP) did not decrease in 2020. In fact, the county has seen a growth in GRP for the past decade.
In Hays County, the industry that generates the most GRP is Real estate and rental and leasing, followed by Retail trade.
One way to visualize this is by thinking of the GRP for Hays County as a $100 bill. Of that $100, real estate-related revenue contributed $25, retail trade $11, construction $10, and manufacturing $9. The other $45 was brought in by all other industries.
