LOS ANGELES – The two most populous states in the United States, California and Texas, have long competed to attract companies and talent. Data from the 2020 U.S. census show that Texas is drawing more people, including Californians.
Texans have a saying: “Everything is bigger in Texas.” By size, it is the largest state in the contiguous U.S. There are many reasons why the state’s population is also getting bigger.
“Your quality of life is so much higher here in Austin,” said Alex Backus, who moved with his teenage daughter from San Jose, California, to the Texas capital almost two years ago.
Backus has been bouncing back and forth between the two states over the years. He said that while he missed the outdoor activities and mild weather in California’s Bay Area, it is not a financially friendly place for young adults such as his daughter.
“Most of the kids that are in the Bay Area and they graduate, they kind of need to leave the Bay Area because it’s so expensive. I kind of figured in Austin, there was a shot that she might actually choose to try to stay in Austin to go to college and start her life,” Backus explained.
Correlation between states
“They each have a singular history. Both of them were governed by Spain and Mexico. They both have a sort of a nation-state identity unlike any other state,” said Bill Fulton, director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, in Houston.
Fulton moved to Texas…
