Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex

DFW has become the crossroad of the United States

My family relocated to the Dallas Fort Worth Area (DFW)in 1976.  Since that time, the area's expansion rate has increased by 48 percent, making it the eighth-most rapidly expanding city in the nation.

Much of that growth has occurred over the last 12 years. New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show DFW:

• As the country’s fourth-largest metro area, with 7,637,387 residents counted.
• As one of only three U.S. metro areas to gain at least 1.2 million residents over the decade (Houston and New York City were the second and third).
• Gained almost 100,000 residents from July 2020 to July 2021, the largest population gain in the nation.

Suburban communities outside the metroplex region accounted for roughly three-quarters of the population growth. Collin and Denton Counties have a combined population of 2 million, larger than all but four U.S. cities. Together, the population of the five largest suburban towns in these counties—Plano, McKinney, Frisco, Denton, and Allen—roughly doubled and now exceeds the population of San Francisco.

Much of the growth can be attributed to building various forms of transportation strategically ahead of actual need beginning with the DFW International Airport.

The airport set the region to be recognized as a national crossroad. Being strategically centered in the middle of the country, DFW Airport allows travelers to travel to either coast in a matter of a few hours.

Furthermore, the surrounding transportation supporting the 12^th largest airport in the country and nearby towns is equally as impressive. The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system has been built around servicing the airport. It has been expanded to service 12 surrounding cities with modern public transit services and customer facilities tailored to make riding fast, comfortable, and economical. Its extensive network of DART Light Rail, Trinity Railway Express commuter rail, bus routes, and paratransit services moves more than 220,000 passengers per day across a 700-square-mile service area.

The North Texas Tollway Authority is an integral component of the transportation system in DFW.  It operates more than 1,089 toll miles, connecting people throughout the area.

According to Fred Perpall, CEO of Beck Construction and former Board Chair of the Dallas Citizens Council, these suburban cities have excelled at building out infrastructure ahead of surging population growth and creating “plug-and-play” opportunities for relocating firms. They also offer outstanding public schools, low crime rates, and far better affordability than the core city of Dallas. Consequently, they’re seeing the lion’s share of population growth in North Texas and a disproportionate share of corporate relocations and expansions to the region.

The northern suburbs constitute an increasingly self-contained economic system, dominating DFW’s employment in technology, telecommunications, and back-office processing industries. Industry diversification allows DFW to be well poised for future growth. Jobs in the leading cities of Collin and Denton Counties are growing faster than the population. The daytime working population in these cities roughly matches the population of working residents who sleep there at night.

Location, transportation, and a large, diverse labor pool keep DFW a prime destination for relocating and expanding businesses.

When my family arrived, the area had only five Fortune 500 companies. Today DFW is home to 24 Fortune 500 company headquarters, including American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Kimberly-Clark, and Toyota Motor North America.

At the end of 2021, more than 100 substantial prospects are weighing a corporate headquarters relocation or major expansion to North Texas, and a prestigious international conference is in the sights of economic developers and government officials tasked with luring prospects and raising the profile of the region.

DFW’s economy has grown markedly faster than its three largest rivals (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago), and it has come through the COVID-19 pandemic with less employment loss than any other metro in the nation’s 12 largest.

Yet, the DFW area is one of the most affordable in the country. The low cost of living is a competitive advantage for companies as they seek to keep labor costs down and recruit the best workers. Employees in DFW enjoy a higher standard of living with lower housing costs and lower costs for groceries, transportation, and health care. The region’s relatively low housing prices — about 50 percent lower than the average of other major metropolitan areas —provide a decisive edge for companies that operate here.

If projections are accurate, the population of the DFW area is set to double by 2050; DFW is the place to watch and may be the place to be, now and in the future.