The U.S. Census Bureau has released revised county population estimates for the nation, providing a fresh snapshot of Texas' population as of July 6, 2012. This interactive visualizes the growth of the senior (65 and older) population in Texas. Fort Bend, Collin, Denton and Williamson counties take the four top spots in senior growth by percentage, and each is estimated to have increased its 65-plus population by at least 19 percent.
Some of these are among the state's most Republican counties; in Collin and Denton counties, Republican votes made up 65 percent and 64 percent of the voting population, respectively.
To use the map, zoom in and click/tap on a county to view its population totals.
The Texas Tribune is pleased to provide the opportunity for you to share your observations about this story. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask that you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or wandering away from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of the Tribune, and your real name will be displayed. Thanks for taking time to offer your thoughts.
Comments (31)
Isabella Wynnwood
The first time Barack Obama was elected President, we thought East Texas would erupt. People rushed to Wal-Mart, Academy and any other place which sold firearms and ammunition. They bought any and everything they could. In the lines, individuals openly said they hoped to be the person who shot Obama. Demand for firearms and ammo stayed ahead of supply through 2012. Yard signs advising 'Prayer is America's Only Hope," appeared everywhere. There was a sea of anti-Obama bumper sticks. Educated individuals spat out racial epitaphs that had not been openly used since prior to the 1960s.
After Obama was reelected in 2012, East Texas was strangely quiet. I watched the sites for newspapers around the area. Based on how strong the reaction was the first time, I thought there would be a more intense reaction the second. When it didn't present, I wanted to know why. Within days heartfelt columns appeared in both the Tyler and the Athens paper. The columnists were downbeat. They explained that this last presidential election had torn families apart: father against son, wife against husband, etc.
I was flabbergasted. The voters statistics for Smith and Henderson Counties clearly showed overwhelming numbers voted for the Republican candidate. (Henderson and Smith County are some of the reddest of the red.) Given that so many people voted for Romney, why was there discord within families?
I compared the number of voters to population numbers (census data) for the two counties. Even after I adjusted the population numbers to reflect only those old enough to vote, I still remained flabbergasted. A huge number of eligible voters did not vote at all.
Getting to core of such issues is difficult, unless you are an insider--which I am not. Given the nature of the people of East Texas, it is unlikely that discord was caused by people arguing whether Romney or Obama was the better candidate. A more reasonable assumption is that the strife was about options within the Republican Party (how far right).
The 2012 Presidential election may have caused discord in families in East Texas, but that strife did not result in many votes for Obama.
When I went through the census data, it disclosed that there was a significant Hispanic population in these counties. For the most part, these folks are invisible (They know their place). This group should vote, but I bet the greater part of it does not. There are no candidates that represent their interests.
T D
For a party that claims to be wisely interested in our future, Republicans are oddly unconcerned with their own.
Steve Harris
The first time Barack Obama was elected President, we thought East Texas would erupt. People rushed to Wal-Mart, Academy and any other place which sold firearms and ammunition. They bought any and everything they could. In the lines, individuals openly said they hoped to be the person who shot Obama. Demand for firearms and ammo stayed ahead of supply through 2012. Yard signs advising 'Prayer is America's Only Hope," appeared everywhere. There was a sea of anti-Obama bumper sticks. Educated individuals spat out racial epitaphs that had not been openly used since prior to the 1960s.
Similar activities/drama/behavior out West (see Brownwood) as well! FEAR is a great motivator and GOP operatives like Karl Rove, Lee Atwater, Ken Mehlman and Arthur Finkelstein know it. Combine that with bearing false witness emails and church house sermons that were less than "truthy" and this is what you get. Apparently this is the only way "christian" conservatives can win their elections!
Stanley Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Darwinism.
Jay Brakefield via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The New Yorker published a map a few years ago showing that the geographic distributions of Republicans and feral hogs was very similar.
Josh Venghaus via Texas Tribune on Facebook
^^^ Yeah, because Republicans are more like feral hogs than Democrats. Jiminy Christmas.
Vibeke Mendonca Lee via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I am 68 and we are not all crazy - will never vote for these Republicans.
Eric Arning via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Repubs are more drawn to jackasses than hogs.
Daniel Eaves
Providing this information on a county basis, rather than House of Representatives basis, makes this information very hard to use. I live just inside Williamson county, just North of Austin. This is one of the red counties surrounding and diluting Travis county's leftward leaning tendencies. An overlay would help me to start figuring out just what's going on locally. But there'd have to be several, given the problems of the still progressing redistricting that has been knocked back by the courts.
Curtis Beaird
Isabella. Thank you for your analysis.
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And yet Sen. Davis loses to Perry by 14 points in a poll released by PPP
Suzi Suzen Crenshaw West via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If u want to imply that aging Republicans are the reasons for so many blue counties & old conservative values, your confused- but, cool the census recognized them:) could just be foundations of truth in a screwed up thinking nation:( mentors:) examples of truth:) remember, denton county has SEVERAL colleges:) The youth of Texas are also recognizing liberal bs when they hear & see it:( cough, cough, cough
Ann Cornelison via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'd like to see that one, Jay. Do you have a link? I tried to find it.
Jay Brakefield via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Refresh my memory on your reference here. I'm engaging in what I suppose one could call serial multitasking, causing short-term memory issues.
Angelica Marie Mendoza-Romero via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Those Republicans are a dying breed, soon they will be gone!!
Heather-Rose Ryan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Wow! Where's that poll? That's great news. Perry must be having a nervous breakdown right about now.
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No not at all, considering people were calling her the darling of the left, and people think this state is blue she should have polled higher than or just a few points behind Perry. 14 points in Texas Politics is a landslide and is not good news for the Dems
Heather-Rose Ryan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Where's the poll, Matthew?
Isabella Wynnwood
"No not at all, considering people were calling her the darling of the left, and people think this state is blue she should have polled higher than or just a few points behind Perry. 14 points in Texas Politics is a landslide and is not good news for the Dems."
Polls like the Public Policy Polling (PPP) one can be very misleading. Methodology, in many cases, is not staying current with "likely voters." We've seen this in the last two presidential elections with Gallop. And, Rasmussen was way off in 2012. Romney really thought he had it won because his polling told him he did.
I've cut an paste a section from the PPP press release which covered a match between Sen. Wendy Davis and Rick Perry. Please read HOW the poll is conducted.
" PPP surveyed 500 Texas voters from June 28th to July 1st, 2013. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 4.4%. This poll was not authorized or paid for by any campaign or political organization. PPPs surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews."
Who responds to automated telephone interviews? I don't. I don't even have a land line. I don't answer my cell unless I know who is calling me.
The sample for the poll is small to begin with "500 voters." The statistical viability of this poll is very limited. Small data sets generate questionable results.
I hope it works, the link for the PPP poll at issue is: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_TX_070213.pdf
Earle Hager via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The PPP polling is flawed. Younger voters are more likely to not have a land line. Automated polling tends to get hangups as well, particularly when there are kids in the house. On the other hand, a relatively unknown (from knowing all her policy views) down 14 points to Perry is actually a pretty encouraging number.
Texas Tribune via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Here's that poll: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/07/davis-popular-but-gubernatorial-bid-a-long-shot.html
Rudy Gonzales
Republican strongholds getting older and concentration of minorities, coupled with intra-party squabbling is going to decimate the TEA-GOP-Libertarian-Evangelical fringed elements. The re-districting suit must consider all data and information as well as the last census numbers in Texas. Ethnic changes mandates changes in representation of minorities. Just look at the numbers. and see they do not adequately allow full representation of the ethnic breakup of Texas as a whole and proportionally in the state house. The different ethnic balance for representation of the current population must be changed to reflect today's count. Here's the count: Some points of interest to be considered when re-districting is to be addressed is 39.5% of Texas' population is Hispanic/Latino. The black percentage is 11.5% and the white population is 44.3%. Reviewing the mix in specific portions of the state show Brownsville-Harlingen is 87.45 to 11.3% Hispanic/Latino to White population. Corpus Christi is 59.5% to 34%, Greater El Paso is 84.7% to 10.4% Hispanic/Latino to White population. Greater Laredo's ratio is 95.2% to 3.6% and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission is 91.7% to 6.9% Hispanic/Latino to White population. San Antonio ratio is 54.3% to 35.5% and Victoria is 47.9% to 44.7% Hispanic/Latino to White population. Those efforts collided head-on with the hard demographic reality that more than 90 percent of the states population growth over the prior decade came from Hispanics, African-Americans and Asian-Americans has impacted the ethnic demographics of Texas. Yet the Texas Legislature wants to keep the same old lines in place to hold onto control of the Legislature and Governor. The litigious battles of the past will continue until the federal courts make it permanent.
Heather-Rose Ryan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ha, amusing to see how disliked Perry and Dewhurst are.
Isabella Wynnwood
"Yet the Texas Legislature wants to keep the same old lines in place to hold onto control of the Legislature and Governor. The litigious battles of the past will continue until the federal courts make it permanent."
Hi Rudy,
This is Isabella, out in East Texas. I was very pleased to see your comment. When I look at election results, I see hope in South Texas (Except for Nueces County). There has to be a better tomorrow coming, but I fear that will be a distant day when we see real change.
In the area in which I live, many people do not want a level playing field. Christianity, as practiced by many in East Texas, is different from (what we have come to call) real Christianity. For many people here, they see themselves as chosen by God. They will go to heaven while the rest of us will be left behind. Because of this, this type of Christian does not believe it is necessary to treat the "others" fairly. That fairness standard applies to others like them, who are chosen.
Because of this (and other cultural factors), there are areas in East Texas where, at the county level, precincts are shifted based on "local factors." For instance, in one county, after 2008, the precinct was dissolved in a traditionally Black area. Instead of voting in the community center of that little town, the voters were required to drive to a nearby settlement that is predominantly white. They were required to vote in the Baptist church of the white community.
Outsiders (such as me) have traditionally voted at the courthouse (because there might be less of a chance that my ballet is lost). For as long as I have voted in this county, there have been Black poll workers at the court house. For the 2012 Presidential Election, it was stipulated that, if you voted on election day, you had to vote in your precinct--they cut our ability to vote at the courthouse. (I voted early.)
Demographic are changing, but the old guard will only engage in even more tawdry tactics when they see the potential of losing control.
Sam Davis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It's old white people like we've said all along. Quoting a poll by PPP is just plain ignorant or in Matthew Coward's case, normal.
Sam Davis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And more than a few are regular posters on Texas Tribune
Sam Davis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Don't confuse Matthew Coward with the facts; he thinks gays are evil and global warming is false.
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Poor Sam Davis, is all upset because he can not understand the significance of the poll. Oh well poor Sam is a low information type person! LOL Have a good 4th!
Debra Uetz via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If Republicans age, what do Democrats do, live forever?
Heather-Rose Ryan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"39% of Texans have a favorable opinion of Davis to 29% with a negative one after her week in the spotlight. Her net favorability is up 14 points from -4 at 15/19 in January. By a 45/40 margin voters say they support her filibuster last week, and by a narrow 44/43 margin they don't think Perry should call another special session. Voters oppose Senate Bill 5 by an 8 point margin, 28/20, although the 52% with no opinion is a reality check on how closely most people follow state politics."
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And yet Perry, if as hated as you portray him to be, still had a 14 point commanding lead over Wendy Davis. That is a devastating lead in Texas. After this session her visibility will fade as will her support.
FYI 62% favor SB5. That is a reality check that shows why Wendy Davis is 14 points down!.