Fort Worth’s political and business leaders have touted the city’s economic success for years, but new data is backing up those assertions.
Among large American cities, Cowtown ranks fifth best for economic growth, buoyed largely by strong marks in education and international trade, according to a new study from Coworking Cafe.
In fact, Fort Worth ranked significantly higher than Dallas ― the co-motor of North Texas’ booming regional economy ― which checked in at number 15.
“Fort Worth combines workforce development with trade expansion — a strategic mix for ongoing prosperity,” wrote Nicusor Ciorba, the author of the Coworking Cafe report.
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“Furthermore, universities like Texas A&M and Texas Christian are expanding downtown campuses, adding research and innovation hubs that elevate the city’s human capital.”
Titled “Rising Powerhouses: The Cities Making America’s Economic Future,” the report was published last week. It sought to provide broad economic comparisons of American cities, categorized by population.
To compile its rankings, Coworking Cafe used a point-based system that evaluated each city’s economic climate based on new business applications, area median income, population growth, available housing, infrastructure and several other factors.
The report sourced its data from government sources published between 2019 and 2023, with its analysis measuring each city’s “evolution” by various metrics over that time span.
A ‘very relational town’
Among large cities, which Coworking Cafe counted as those with populations above 500,000, Austin ranked first overall, largely because of its potent surge in technology-related work. The regional gross domestic product of Texas’ capital city has shot up “a remarkable 51%,” the report noted, while median income and new business applications also have surged.
Among large cities, the report ranked Sacramento, Calif.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Mesa, Ariz., a surging Phoenix suburb, in its second, third and fourth spots, respectively, while Gilbert, Ariz., and Goodyear, Ariz. — two more Phoenix suburbs — took the top spots among medium and small cities.
Fort Worth came in just ahead of Fresno, Calif. Of the 34 large cities that made Coworking Cafe’s large cities cut, Tarrant County’s economic powerhouse ranked first for its 9% rise in the percentage of residents with college degrees, narrowly edging Oklahoma City.
It also ranked among the top large cities for its 8% population growth, 12% bump in housing units and 40% increase in the value of its exports. Fort Worth’s overall ranking was hindered, however, by middle-of-the-pack figures on crime and median earnings.
Dallas, meanwhile, ranked a mediocre 15th overall among large cities. The report gave the city a strong score for GDP growth but lower scores for housing growth, educational increases and its overall employment rate.
Out of 47 midsize cities, which the survey counted as those with populations between 250,000 and 500,000, Irving ranked 15th overall, Plano ranked 24th and Arlington ranked 27th. Out of 188 small cities, Lewisville, Denton, McKinney and Frisco all ranked in the top 35.
Fort Worth’s economic success story — driven in part by an influx of corporate headquarters and factories, including for the aerospace company Bell Textron and the multinational tech conglomerate Siemens — has also emerged as a primary theme for the city’s leaders and boosters.
At a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce event held this spring, a host of panelists, including executives from Molson Coors and DFW International Airport, extolled the growing city’s welcoming economic climate and talent pipeline. Business advocates also praised what they characterized as the city’s unique local character.
“We talk about Dallas being more transactional, and it works for them,” Steve Montgomery, the president of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, said at the time.
Yet Fort Worth ”is a very relational town. We’re just cresting a million folks here in Fort Worth, and we still have that authenticity that makes Fort Worth very special,” he said.
At a bill signing the next month, Gov. Greg Abbott called out the city as “a growing linchpin of the magnet that attracts so many of these Fortune 500 companies to locate to this region.”
Coworking Cafe, an online coworking directory, is part of Yardi Matrix, a commercial real estate data company that regularly publishes reports related to real estate and other economic metrics.