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Stats, Facts, and How-About-Thats ◊ Population: 750,525 within city limits; 1.6 million in the metropolitan area; Austin is the 16th largest city in the United States.
◊ The Austin city limits comprise 232 square miles; 2705 sq. mi. in the metro area.
◊ Lady Bird Lake (Town Lake up until 2007) is the name of the “lake” that runs through the heart of downtown. You may think it looks like a river. Even though it is, we’ll tell you it’s not. (But if you really must know, it is the Colorado River with dams at either end. Hence, a lake. Naturally.)
◊ There are 220 public parks in Austin, the largest being Zilker Park at 360 acres. There is also a 10.1-mile hike-and-bike trail around Lady Bird Lake downtown.
◊ “Live Music Capital of the World.” Yes, it really is the official city slogan and, per capita, most likely true. There are 200 live music venues (not to mention live music in parking lots, retail shops, grocery stores, etc.) and 12,600 jobs related to the Austin music industry. Music contributes $616 million in economic impact (plus $11 million in tax revenue) to the local economy. There are more than 2000 recording artists and (we’re totally guessing here) around a half a million non-recording artists—dependent upon the current available couch space.
◊ But back to the subject of slogans. You’ll see it everywhere, but technically, “Keep Austin Weird” has not been sanctioned by the government. Though they certainly do their part.
◊ Austin.com hereby decries the official food of Austin is the breakfast taco. There was too much bickering whether it be the chorizo-egg-cheese taco, migas, bacon-egg-cheese, or the wildcard bean and cheese…so it remains simply breakfast taco. (Turns out the lackey typing this up has the final say after all: go chorizo.)
◊ Elevation in Austin ranges from 425 to 840 feet above sea level; the high point being Mt. Barker (though most locals will mistakenly tell you it’s the popular lookout point Mt. Bonnell, which is directly across Lake Austin from Barker.)
◊ The Green Belt is a system of connected parks (totaling 809 acres) that winds and weaves its way throughout South/Central Austin, providing 8 miles of mountain biking and hiking trails and numerous swimming holes.
◊ The University of Texas is just north of downtown and is one of the largest public universities in the country with nearly 50,000 students.
◊ “Hook ‘em Horns!” If you hear someone shouting this in your vicinity, do not be alarmed (unless you are an Oklahoma Sooner fan). This is the rallying cry for University of Texas Longhorns athletic teams.
◊ More than 40% of Austinites have a bachelor’s degree or higher, the third best average in the nation.
◊ That last fact will surprise you if you drive much in Austin; neither Loop 1 nor Loop 360 are in any way, shape, or form a loop. And don’t get us started on the I-35 upper/lower deck split.
◊ The median age in Austin was roughly 29 years during the last U.S. census (2000), making Austin the second-youngest population for a large U.S. city (Fresno, CA was the youngest).
◊ Counting Lady Bird Lake, Lake Austin, and Lake Travis (30 minutes north of town), there are 405 miles of shoreline in Austin. Eat that Florida! (Editor’s Note: Come to find out Florida in fact has some 2000 miles of coastline. But still, didn’t expect that much water in the middle of Texas, did ya?)
◊ An annual tradition for every Austin family with a child under three years old is to take the toddler’s picture in a field of wild bluebonnets. We love bluebonnets perhaps as much as breakfast tacos. They are the state flower.
◊ On bluebonnets: Lady Bird Johnson (First Lady to Lyndon Baines Johnson) deserves the credit for spreading bluebonnet seeds in every non-paved place she could find and generally beautifying Austin’s green spaces. Hence the name-change from Town Lake to Lady Bird Lake upon her passing in 2007.
◊ The median family annual income is $63,000; average price of a family house is $203,000.
◊ Distances to nearby Texas cities: San Antonio is 75 miles (about an hour) to the southwest; Houston is 127 miles (about 3 hours) to the southeast; Corpus Christi is 173 miles to the south (about 3 hours); Dallas is 181 miles to the north (about 3½ hours) with Waco halfway in between;.
◊ Oh, by the way. Austin is the capital of Texas. With so much carefree open-mindedness being the norm around here, even Austinites scratch our heads on that one.
◊ The Texas State Capitol building is 14 feet taller than the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., and Texans never tire of telling folks that. (If you, however, tire of hearing it, you could point out the Texas Capitol is smaller in total square footage.)
◊ Austin was originally named Waterloo when white settlers settled here in the 1830s. It was renamed Austin in 1839, after Stephen F. Austin, who led the colonization of Texas.
◊ Austin was the third fastest growing major city in the U.S. in 2007 with no signs of slowing. We’ve got a great thing going here, so keep in mind: while everyone’s welcome in Austin, don’t go trying to change it. Really. No kidding.
Population, income, demographic stats sourced from City of Austin demographer (2006 stats) or U.S. Census Bureau (2000 stats); Austin music industry stats by Texas Music Office.
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