Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is named in honor of William Barret Travis, the commander of the Republic of Texas forces at the Battle of the Alamo. Travis County is part of the Austin–

Round Rock Round Rock is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, in Williamson County (with a small part in Travis County), which is a part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 as of the 2020 census. The city straddles the Balc ...

– Georgetown

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

. It is located along the Balcones Fault, the boundary between the Edwards Plateau to the west and the Blackland Prairie to the east.

History

Pre-Columbian and colonial periods

Evidence of habitation of the

Balcones Escarpment The Balcones Fault or Balcones Fault Zone is an area of largely normal faulting Edwards Aquifer in the U.S. state of Texas that runs roughly from the southwest part of the state near Del Rio to the north-central region near Dallas along Inte ...

region of Texas can be traced to at least 11,000 years ago. Two of the oldest

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

archeological sites in Texas, the Levi Rock Shelter and Smith Rock Shelter, are in southwest and southeast Travis County, respectively. Several hundred years before European settlers arrived, a variety of nomadic Native American tribes inhabited the area. These

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

fished and hunted along the creeks, including present-day Barton Springs, which proved to be a reliable campsite. At the time of the first permanent settlement of the area, the Tonkawa tribe was the most common, with the Comanches and Lipan Apaches also frequenting the area. The region (along with all of modern Texas) was claimed by the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

in the 1600s, but at the time no attempt was made to settle the area (or even to fully explore it). In 1691 Domingo Terán de los Ríos made an inspection tour through East Texas that likely took him through Travis Country. The first European settlers in the area were a group of Spanish friars who arrived from East Texas in July 1730. They established three temporary

missions Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion * Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

, La Purísima Concepción, San Francisco de los Neches and San José de los Nazonis, on a site by the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

near Barton Springs. The friars found conditions undesirable and relocated to the San Antonio River within a year of their arrival.

Mexican period

In 1821

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

won its independence from Spain, and the new government enacted laws encouraging colonists to settle the Texas frontier by granting them land and reduced taxation. Over the next decade, thousands of foreign immigrants (primarily from the United States) moved into Texas; in particular, American empresario Stephen F. Austin established one of his colonies near what is now Bastrop, Texas (in future Travis County) in 1827. Josiah and Mathias Wilbarger, Reuben Hornsby, Jacob M. Harrell, and John F. Webber were early settlers who moved into the area in the early 1830s.

Republican period

In 1836 Texas

declared In the sport of cricket, a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture occurs when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings without batting. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 15 of the ''Laws of ...

and

won Won may refer to: *The Korean won from 1902–1910 *South Korean won, the currency of the Republic of Korea *North Korean won, the currency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea * Won (Korean surname) * Won (Korean given name) * Won Buddhis ...

its independence from Mexico, forming a new Republic of Texas. After Texas Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited central Texas during a buffalo-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital (then located in

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

) be relocated to a site on the north bank of the

. In 1839 the site was officially chosen as the republic's new capital and given the name Waterloo, Texas; shortly thereafter the city's name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin. A new county was also established the following year, of which Austin would be the seat; the county was named Travis County, after William B. Travis. Though the Republic's capital moved briefly back to Houston during the events surrounding the Texas Archive War, by 1845 Austin was again the capital, and it became the capital of the new State of Texas when Texas was annexed by the United States later that year.

Civil War and beyond

In 1861 Travis County was one of the few Texas counties to vote against

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...

from the Union. Since the majority of the state did favor secession, Travis County then became a part of the

Confederacy Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

for the duration of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

. After the Confederacy's defeat, Texas was fully readmitted to the Union in 1870. From the end of the Civil War to the early twenty-first century, Travis County has experienced steady, rapid population growth (averaging more than a 36% increase every decade from 1870 to 2010), driven largely by the growth of Austin and its suburbs; it is now the fifth most populous county in Texas, after Harris (Houston),

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Tarrant ( Fort Worth) and Bexar (

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

) counties.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.2%) is water. Travis County is located in the southern part of central Texas, between

and Dallas–Fort Worth. The county's geographical center lies two miles northwest of downtown Austin at 30°18' north latitude and 97°45' west longitude. Travis County straddles the Balcones Fault, the boundary between the Edwards Plateau to the west and the Texas Coastal Plain to the east. The western part of the county is characterized by the karst topography of the Texas Hill Country, while the eastern part exhibits the fertile plains and farmlands of the Blackland Prairie. The

meanders through the county from west to east, forming a series of man-made lakes ( Lake Travis, Lake Austin, and Lady Bird Lake).

Springs

The

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

karst geology of the western and southwestern parts of Travis County gives rise to numerous caverns and

springs Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

, some of which have provided shelter and water for humans in the region for thousands of years. Notable springs in the county include Barton Springs,

Deep Eddy Deep Eddy Pool is a historic man-made swimming pool in Austin, Texas. Deep Eddy is the oldest swimming pool in Texas and features a bathhouse built during the Depression era by the Works Progress Administration. The pool began as a swimming hole ...

and Hamilton Pool.

Major highways

Travis County is crossed by Interstate Highway 35, US Highways

183 Year 183 ( CLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 936 ''Ab urbe ...

and

290 __NOTOC__ Year 290 ( CCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valerius and Valerius (or, less frequently, ye ...

, and Texas Highway 71. IH-35 leads northward to Waco and Dallas–Fort Worth and southward to

. US-183 leads northward through Cedar Park to Lampasas and southward to Lockhart. US-290 leads westward to Fredericksburg and eastward to

. TX-71 leads westward to Marble Falls and eastward to Bastrop. Other major highways within the county include Texas Highway Loop 1 (the "Mopac Expressway"), which runs from north to south through the center of the county, and Texas Highway 45, which forms parts of an incomplete highway loop around Austin. Texas Highway 130 (constructed as an alternative to IH-35 for long-distance traffic wishing to avoid Austin and San Antonio) also runs from north to south through the sparsely populated eastern part of the county.

Adjacent counties

* Williamson County (north) * Bastrop County (east) * Caldwell County (south) * Hays County (southwest) *

Blanco County Blanco County (Spanish: "white", ) is a United States county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located in Central Texas and its county seat is Johnson City. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,374. The county is named for ...

(west) *

Burnet County Burnet County ( ) is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,130. Its county seat is Burnet. The county was founded in 1852 and later organized in 1854. It is named ...

(northwest)

Protected areas

* Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Demographics

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.'' According to the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2010, there were 1,024,266 people, 320,766 households, and 183,798 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 1034 persons per square mile (387/km²). There were 335,881 housing units at an average density of 340 per square mile (131/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 68.21% White, 9.26% Black or African American, 0.58% Native American, 4.47% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 14.56% other races, and 2.85% from two or more races. 28.20% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. English is the sole language spoken at home by 71.42% of the population age 5 or over, while 22.35% speak Spanish, and a

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

(including

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, Taiwanese, and

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

) is spoken by 1.05%. As of the 2010 census, there were about 11.1 same-sex couples per 1,000 households in the county. According to the

of 2000, there were 812,280 people, of which 29.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.60% were married couples living together, 10.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.70% were non-families. 30.10% of all households were composed of individuals, and 4.40% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.15. 12.0% were of German, 7.7% English, 6.6% Irish and 5.5% American ancestry according to Census 2000 The population's age distribution was 23.80% under the age of 18, 14.70% from 18 to 24, 36.50% from 25 to 44, 18.20% from 45 to 64, and 6.70% age 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.50 males.

Government and infrastructure

Like other Texas counties, Travis County is governed by a Commissioners' Court composed of the county judge and four county commissioners. The court levies county taxes and sets the budgets for county officials and agencies. The judge and commissioners are elected for four-year terms (the judge at-large, and the commissioners from geographic precincts). The other major county-wide official is the county clerk, who maintains the county's records, administers

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

s, and oversees legal documentation (such as property

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferrin ...

s, marriage licenses and assumed name certificates). The clerk is also elected at-large for a four-year term. The Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse is located in

downtown Austin Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas. Downtown is located on the north bank of the Colorado River. The approximate borders of Downtown include Lamar Boulevard to the west, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the U ...

. The county courthouse holds civil and criminal trial courts and other functions of county government. , the county's probate courts are in the process of being moved from the county courthouse into Austin's 1936 United States Courthouse, which was acquired by the county in 2016.

Corrections

The Travis County Jail and the Travis County Criminal Justice Center are located in Downtown Austin. The Travis County Correctional Complex is located in an unincorporated area in Travis County, next to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jai ...

operates the

Travis County Unit Travis may refer to: People and fictional characters * Travis (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Travis (surname), a list of people Places in the United States * Travis, Staten Island, a neighborhood * Travis Air Force Base ...

, a state jail for men, in eastern Austin.

Economy

As of 2017, Travis County had a median household income of $68,350 per year, and a

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

of $38,820 per year. 13.9% of the population lived below the

poverty level The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. The county's largest employers are governments (the State of Texas, the US Federal Government, Travis County and the City of Austin) and public education bodies. Other major employers are concentrated in industries relating to semiconductors,

software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ' ...

and healthcare. Travis County, along with other Texas counties, has one of the nation's highest property tax rates. In 2009, the county was ranked 88th in the nation for property taxes as percentage of the homes value on owner-occupied housing. Travis County also ranked in the top 100 for amount of property taxes paid and for percentage of income paid as tax. Property tax rates are generally high in Texas because the state does not levy an

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

Education

K-12 education

Travis County is served by a number of public school districts; the largest is Austin Independent School District, serving most of Austin. Other districts wholly or mainly located in Travis County include Eanes ISD, Lake Travis ISD, Lago Vista ISD, Leander ISD, Del Valle ISD, Manor ISD, and Pflugerville ISD. Parts of

Elgin ISD Elgin Independent School District is a public school district based in Elgin, Texas (USA). The district is located in northern Bastrop County and extends into small portions of Travis and Lee counties. It includes parts of Manor. In 2009, t ...

, Coupland ISD, Hutto ISD, Round Rock ISD,

Marble Falls ISD Marble Falls Independent School District ("MFISD") is a school district based in the city of Marble Falls, in Burnet County, Texas, USA which is located in the heart of the Highland Lakes region of the Texas Hill Country. The district encompass ...

, Johnson City ISD, Dripping Springs ISD and Hays Consolidated ISD also cross into Travis County. State-operated schools include: * Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired * Texas School for the Deaf

Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School was a school for blind and deaf black people in Austin, Texas. Throughout its history, due to educational segregation in the United States, the school served only black students and had black teachers; whites at ...

was formerly in operation for black students pre-desegregation.

Colleges and universities

The largest university in Travis County is the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Other universities include

St. Edward's University St. Edward's University is a private, Catholic university in Austin, Texas. It was founded and is operated in the Holy Cross tradition. History Founding and early history St. Edward's University was founded by the Reverend Edward Sorin, CSC, ...

, Huston–Tillotson University, and Concordia University Texas. Under Texas law Austin Community College District (ACC) is the designated

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...

for most of the county. However areas in Marble Falls ISD are zoned to

Central Texas College District Central Texas College (CTC) is a community college in Killeen, Texas. Founded in 1965, it has branch campuses in Europe and on military installations across the U.S. History Central Texas College was established by a vote of the citizens of C ...

Healthcare

Central Health, a hospital district, was established in 2004.

Brackenridge Hospital Brackenridge Hospital, also known as University Medical Center Brackenridge, (UMC Brackenridge) was the public hospital of Austin, Texas. It had the nickname "Brack". History On July 3, 1884 the City-County Hospital, which had two stories, was es ...

was originally built as the City-County Hospital in 1884 but Travis County ended its share of the ownership in 1907. In 2017 Brackenridge was replaced by the Dell Seton Medical Center.

Politics

Travis County is one of the most consistently Democratic counties in Texas, having voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in twelve of the last fifteen elections since 1960. The only exceptions have been the Republican landslide years of 1972 and 1984, when

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

and Ronald Reagan each won 49 out of 50 states, and 2000, when the Republican nominee was incumbent Texas Governor George W. Bush. In 2005 Travis County was the only county in Texas to vote against the Proposition 2 state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, with slightly under 60% of voters being against it. In 2020, Travis County backed Democrat Joe Biden with nearly 72% of the vote, which was the highest percentage he received in any Texas county, and the largest percentage received by any winner of the presidential election in the county since 1948. The county's Democratic advantage is not limited to the presidential level, as all of the county-level officials and state representatives are Democrats.

County government

Travis County elected officials

Communities

Cities (multiple counties)

* Austin (county seat) (small parts in Hays and Williamson counties) * Cedar Park (mostly in Williamson County) *

Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Chatham-Kent, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario ...

(mostly in Bastrop County) * Leander (mostly in Williamson County) * Mustang Ridge (small parts in Caldwell and Bastrop counties) *

Pflugerville Pflugerville ( ) is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States, with a small portion in Williamson County. The population was 65,191 at the 2020 census. Pflugerville is a suburb of Austin and part of the Austin–Round Rock–San Mar ...

(small part in Williamson County) *

(mostly in Williamson County)

Cities

Bee Cave Bee Cave is a city located in Travis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 9,144 as of the 2020 census. History Bee Cave was named by early settlers for a large cave of wild bees found near the site. A post office opened there under th ...

* Creedmoor * Jonestown * Lago Vista * Lakeway *

Manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

* Rollingwood *

Sunset Valley Sunset Valley is a city in Travis County, Texas. The population was 749 at the time of the 2010 census. An enclave, it is surrounded on all sides by the city of Austin. Geography Sunset Valley is located at (30.225631, –97.816133), 5 miles ...

West Lake Hills West Lake Hills (locally referred to as "Westlake") is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,444 at the 2020 census. The city developed rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s on the south side of the Colorado River. Accordin ...

Villages

* Briarcliff * Point Venture * San Leanna * The Hills * Volente * Webberville

Census-designated places

* Anderson Mill (former) * Barton Creek * Garfield * Hornsby Bend * Hudson Bend * Jollyville (former) * Lost Creek * Manchaca * Onion Creek (former) * Shady Hollow * Steiner Ranch * Tanglewood Forest (former) * Wells Branch * Windemere (former)

Unincorporated communities

* Bluff Springs * Cele * Del Valle * Elroy * Kimbro * Littig * Lund * Marshall Ford *

McNeil McNeil may refer to: * McNeil, Arkansas * McNeil, Caldwell County, Texas * McNeil, Travis County, Texas * McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson & Johnson, distributor of Tylenol * McNeil High School, high school in Austin, Texas * ...

* Nameless * New Sweden * Pilot Knob

References

External links

Travis County Government website
* * {{coord, 30.33, -97.78, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX, display=title 1840 establishments in the Republic of Texas Populated places established in 1840 Greater Austin Texas Hill Country Majority-minority counties in Texas