Cameron County, Texas

Cameron County – History, Demography, Government and Others

History of Cameron County

This county was established around 1848 and was named after Captain Ewen Cameron who was a soldier in the Texas Revolution and in the tragically-dead Mier Expedition. The latter half of the 19th century, and into World War II, Fort Brown was an important US Army outpost which aided in the growth in the town of Brownsville.

Demography

In 2010’s Census 2010 census, there were 406,220 residents, 119,631 households and 96.579 families lived within the County. Its number of people living there was 370 persons in a sq mile (143/km ²). There were 141,924 dwelling units that had an average of 130 per sq mile (51/km ²). The ethnic makeup for the entire county is 87.0 percentage Whitewith 0.5 percentage African American, 0.4% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 9.8 percent from other races and 1.5 percentage of at least two races. Around 88.1 percent of the total population was Hispanic and Latino, regardless of race.

From the total of 119.631 families 50.3 percent had children younger than 18 years old living in the household, 60.80 percent are married couples who live together. 20.0 percent were female householders with no husband as well as 19.3 percent of households were not families. The majority of households comprised 16.40 percent of households were comprised of single people. 7.30 percent of households had a person living on their own who was 65 years old or older. The average size of a household was 3.36 The average size of a family was 3.80.

The county’s distribution of age was 33.0 percent less than 18 years old, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 25.6% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64 as well as 11.10 percent with a 65+ age group. Median age of 30.6 years old. To every female they had 91.90 males. To every female aged 18 or over they had 86.30 males.

There was a mean earnings for a family in this county is $31,264 for a family, it was $33,770. Males had a median salary of $21,410 as opposed to $15,597 in the case of females. The per-capita amount of income of the entire county is $13,695. The county’s per capita income was $13,695. 30.0 percent of households and 34.7 percent of the total population lived less than the poverty threshold that includes 46.8 percent of the population aged 18 or less and 24.8 percent of those aged 65 and over.

An study from 2000 by Texas A&M study revealed that, of the people from Cameron County, 43% are not proficient in reading skills.

In the decade of the 2010s there was a notable increase in the population of the county was evident. It is apparent that the growth of the city’s northern regions (defined as cities that have city limits that extend to either the east or north from U.S. Highway 83 in the county) generally has been higher than cities along U.S. Highway 83 in the county, indicating the possibility of a desire for locals as well as new residents outside of the Rio Grande Valley to move away from the major cities within the County. This trend is also observed in nearby Hidalgo County.

Los Fresnos, for instance, increased by 42.2 percent between 2010 and 2018. Other cities of significance like Indian Lake, Primera and Rio Hondo, each of which grew by more than 15% during the same time. Contrastingly the cities of Harlingen, La Feria , and San Benito, all located along U.S. Highway 83, have seen growth of lower than 1% during the same time frame. The city that expanded the fastest of the Highway 83 cities in the county was Brownsville the city that increased by 4.4 percent between 2010 and 2019.

Population

Cameron County Government

At a Glance – Cameron County, Texas