Ordered by what stands out in Austin. Another town gets a different order.
Work & commute
About half of working residents work right in Austin
65% of Austin’s working residents work right in town. The top destinations are Houston (3%), Round Rock (3%) and San Antonio (3%). Half commute less than 8 miles.
Austin reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 90% report less. Compared with places its own size, it does better than 31%.
Austin’s public schools outperform 44% of Texas districts
The public schools Austin’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 56% of Texas’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.
Austin ( AW-stin) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. With a population of 961,855 at the 2020 census, it is the 12th-most populous city in the U.S., fifth-most populous city in Texas, and second-most populous U.S. state capital (after Phoenix, Arizona), while the Austin metro area with an estimated 2.55 million residents is the 25th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. Austin is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it has been one of the fastest-growing large cities in the United States since 2010. Located in Central Texas within the greater Texas Hill Country, …