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Demographics of Temple, TX
Affluence Level in Temple, TX
A middle-class area roughly in line with national averages across income, home values, education, and employment.
People of Temple, TX
The people of Temple, Texas today number roughly 86,000, forming a community that is majority-minority with a distinctive blend of White (50.6%), Hispanic (29.1%), and Black (12.7%) residents. The city’s character is shaped by its roots as a railroad and medical hub, producing a population that is more working-class and family-oriented than nearby Austin, with a lower college attainment rate (29.5%) and a modest foreign-born share (4.6%). Temple’s identity is pragmatic and community-focused, anchored by the massive Baylor Scott & White Medical Center and a strong military veteran presence from nearby Fort Cavazos.
How the city was settled and grew
Temple was founded in 1881 as a railroad town, named after Bernard Moore Temple, a civil engineer for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. The original population was overwhelmingly White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, drawn by jobs in the rail yards and the new cotton and grain trade that the railroad opened. The city’s first major growth wave came in the 1890s, when German and Czech immigrants arrived to farm the surrounding Blackland Prairie, settling in what is now the North Temple area near the original depot. A second wave of African American families came during the Great Migration (1910–1940), seeking work in the rail yards and the growing cotton compresses; they established the East Temple neighborhood around Avenue H and 13th Street, which remains a historically Black district. By 1950, Temple’s population had reached roughly 25,000, with a small but established Hispanic community concentrated in the South Temple area near the old railroad corridor.
Modern era (post-1965)
The post-1965 period brought significant demographic change. The 1965 Hart-Cellar Act opened immigration from Asia and Latin America, but Temple’s inland, non-coastal location meant its foreign-born share remained low (4.6% today). Instead, the city’s modern growth has been driven by domestic in-migration. The expansion of Baylor Scott & White Health into a regional medical powerhouse (now employing over 10,000) drew healthcare professionals from across Texas and the Midwest, many settling in the newer West Temple subdivisions like Lakewood Estates and the Midtown area near the hospital. The Hispanic population grew steadily from the 1980s onward, fueled by migration from South Texas and Mexico, and now forms a substantial community in South Temple and the Village of Belton area along the I-35 corridor. The Black population has remained stable at roughly 12–13% since 1990, concentrated in East Temple but increasingly spreading into West Temple subdivisions. The Asian population (1.1% East/Southeast Asian) and Indian population (1.0%) are small but growing, primarily professionals recruited by the medical center and the nearby Texas A&M Health Science Center. Notably, the White share has declined from roughly 65% in 1990 to 50.6% today, driven by both Hispanic growth and an aging White population.
The future
Temple’s population is projected to reach 100,000 by 2035, driven by continued expansion of the medical sector and spillover growth from the Austin metro (45 miles south). The city is not tribalizing into distinct ethnic enclaves; rather, it is slowly homogenizing as Hispanic and White families increasingly live in the same newer subdivisions like Wildflower Country and Lakewood Estates. The immigrant communities are small and plateauing—foreign-born share has held at 4–5% for a decade—with most growth coming from domestic migration. The Black population is expected to remain stable, while the Hispanic share will likely rise to 35–38% by 2040, driven by higher birth rates and continued in-migration. The East Temple neighborhood is seeing modest gentrification as young professionals buy historic homes, while South Temple remains the most affordable entry point for new Hispanic families.
For someone moving in now, Temple is becoming a more diverse, middle-class city that retains a conservative, family-oriented character. The population is not fragmenting into polarized enclaves but is slowly blending, with the medical center acting as a unifying economic anchor. The city offers a stable, affordable alternative to Austin’s high costs and rapid change, with a population that is increasingly Hispanic but still majority-White and English-dominant in daily life.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-05-16T22:51:33.000Z
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