By Mike Snyder
Fort Bend County’s population will increase by 368 percent, or more than 2.1 million people, by 2050 if current migration trends continue, according to new projections by researchers at the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs.
The county would experience the fourth-highest growth in the state in raw numbers, behind Harris, Collin and Denton counties, and the third-highest in percentage terms, behind Hays and Collin counties. Fort Bend County’s population now is about 700,000.
Statewide, the study indicates that the population will continue to get larger, older and more racially and ethnically diverse. The ratio of working age residents to those over 65 could drop by one-third, putting a strain on health care and other services for the aging.
“Texas will continue to grow, even if the flow of people from other states and countries slows,” Jim Granato, executive director of the Hobby School, said in a news release. “But the population will also become older, and the Hispanic population, especially, is expected to grow dramatically.”
The Hobby Center researchers also found that three out of four Texans will live in one of the state’s metropolitan areas by 2050, 36 counties are projected to lose population while becoming more diverse, and the over-65 population could increase from 10.3 percent in 2010 to 17.4 percent in 2050 under a scenario that assumes increased levels of immigration.
›› Longtime Chronicle staffer Mike Snyder writes a column about Greater Houston.