ABOUT THE REGION

The Foundation’s service area consists of 22 counties in East Texas and one Arkansas county: Anderson, Angelina, Bowie, Cass, Cherokee, Hardin, Houston, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Panola, Polk, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, Tyler, and Miller County in Arkansas.

Within this area, there are three distinct economic regions. The economic regions are defined by commuting patterns of workers in the region. An analysis of where employed residents work reveals clear economic ties between counties. Each county was assigned to the region that was the principal destination for workers in that county. For example, the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of Hardin, Jefferson, and Orange Counties. In Jasper County, more than 26 percent of workers commute to the BeaumontPort Arthur Metro Area for work, while about 4 percent of workers commute to the Lufkin area for work. Thus, Jasper County was assigned to the Beaumont-Port Arthur economic region. In Rusk County, almost 23 percent of workers commute to Longview and more than 8 percent to Tyler. Less than 5 percent of workers commute to Lufkin and Nacogdoches combined. Thus, Rusk County was not assigned to one of the three economic regions in East Texas because it has closer ties to metro areas outside of the Foundation’s service area.

In Figure 2, the map of the region delineates the three sub-regions. Figure 1 provides a list of the counties by sub-region and shows population, population change, metropolitan or micropolitan area, and workforce board service area. Of note is that the populations of each of the economic regions were stable between 2014 and 2019. However, beneath the regional totals, the individual counties experienced varied growth rates. Six of the counties had negative growth rates – these were Angelina, Jefferson, Newton, Panola, San Augustine, and Shelby. This population loss was balanced by population gains in other parts of the regions – Liberty, Polk, San Jacinto, Hardin, Cherokee, Trinity, Rusk, Sabine, Tyler, and Houston all gained population. The counties with the highest population growth were the counties with spillover from the Houston metro area – Liberty, Polk, and San Jacinto.

Figure 2. ECONOMIC REGIONS OF EAST TEXAS

Sources: Alexander Research & Consulting and T.L.L. Temple Foundation.