What the Texas Competition Score Means and What It Does Not
Every Texas city guide shows a score between 0 and 100. Higher means more local-search businesses compete for the same customers around that city. This page explains the ingredients, the data and the blind spots, in that order.
Ingredients
Four Measures, Equal Weight
Each measure is turned into a percentile among the 203 Texas cities, then the four percentiles are averaged.
| Measure | Level | Why it is included |
|---|---|---|
| Competition of local-search industries | County | Shows how many rivals sit in the businesses that depend on Google and the map |
| Local-search businesses per 10,000 residents | County | Shows how thick the field is relative to the customers available |
| Median household income | City | Higher-income cities tend to attract more providers |
| Residents per square mile | City | Dense places put more businesses within reach of one searcher |
County figures describe the county that holds most of the city's residents. Each guide labels them that way.
Which industries count
The Fifteen Local-Search Industries
The two county measures look at employer locations in fifteen industries that live on Google searches and the map pack: law offices, dentists and physicians, real estate and insurance, accounting, plumbing and HVAC, roofing, electrical work, remodeling, landscaping, auto repair, restaurants, salons and janitorial services. The counts come from County Business Patterns, compared with the typical U.S. county.
Data
Where Each Figure Comes From
| Census product | Used for | Years |
|---|---|---|
| American Community Survey 5-year | People, income, housing, language, jobs, commuting | 2018-2022 |
| Population Estimates | Change in population since 2020 | 2020 to 2023 |
| County Business Patterns | Employer locations by industry | 2017 and 2022 |
| Gazetteer | City centers and land area | 2023 |
Everything is public and published by the U.S. Census Bureau. No client data is used.
The city list
How the Texas Cities Were Chosen
The list is a selection of Texas cities, towns and four larger unincorporated communities that the Census reports as places, not a complete census of the state. Texas cities that grew very fast show smaller populations in the five-year ACS data than in the latest estimates, so a few places look smaller here than in the news.
Writing starts with local sources such as city and county websites, chambers of commerce, economic development groups and regional news. Neighborhoods, employers and local quirks are logged in a research file, and the page is written from that file and the numbers. Automated checks compare every page with every other page we publish, here and on our other sites, and send back anything that repeats.
Blind spots
Limits to Keep in Mind
- The score counts businesses. It has no search volumes, rankings or traffic in it, and we promise no timeline.
- County numbers describe the county, which can be much larger than the city.
- Survey estimates for small cities are rough, so scores a few points apart are effectively tied.
- The Census caps median household income at $250,001 and median home value at $2,000,001.
- Businesses with no employees are not in County Business Patterns.
Let us know
Question About a Number?
Send it over and we will check it against the Census file it came from. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.