Downtown Demographics

Downtown Austin is a thriving place with a growing residential population in addition to office workers, students, visitors, conventioneers, and a large evening entertainment population.

With more and more people opting for urban living, the residential population of Downtown is increasing annually. More than 5,900 people live Downtown, and more than 363,000 people live in the primary market trade area of downtown. There are 67,000 downtown workers in the central business district and 90,000 employees within a one-mile radius of 6th Street and Congress Avenue, the central hub of Downtown. Additionally 7 million people visit the area annually for conventions, trade shows and tourist attractions. The City of Austin publishes general Austin area demographics on its website.

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Overview

Download a general overview of Downtown Austin information, including demographic and psychographic profiles of downtown and nearby residents. More detailed backup information can be accessed below.

Downtown Austin Development Packet (319 KB PDF)

Emerging Projects

What's under construction or planned in downtown? The City of Austin prepares the Emerging Projects map and database quarterly. They cover both public and private sector projects, in and near downtown, currently under construction or in the planning phase.

Download the map and project descriptions at the City of Austin's Downtown Redevelopment site. Updated 03/20/08

You can also download a poster of projects and selected renderings) in the southwestern part of downtown. Updated 04/28/08

 

Employees

There are 67,000 employees in the core of Downtown and almost 90,000 within a 1-mile ring of 6th Street and Congress Avenue. For site-specific information, contact .

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Residents

With 735,000 residents in 2007, Austin is the 16th largest city in the U.S. and grew 41% in the 1990s. There are no signs of slowing down either. The area is projected to more than double in population in the next twenty years. More than 281,000 people live within 5 miles of the heart of Downtown Austin, 6th Street and Congress Avenue. And about 5,900 residents call Downtown Austin home.

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Tourism

7 million business, leisure, and convention tourists visit downtown Austin each year, and Dowtown's 5,200 hotel rooms host many of them. With hotel occupancy averaging 75% in 2006 and 80% through May of 2007, it is not surprising that more than 1,600 additional hotel rooms will be built in four new projects, including a 1,000-room second Convention Center hotel by Marriott.

Tourism Facts

  • In 2006, 1,200 conventions and conferences were held in Austin.
  • The economic impact of visitor spending in Austin was $2.84 billion in 2006.
  • 2007 Year-to-date hotel occupancy for downtown Austin is 77.7%.
  • The Austin City Limits Music Festival brings in 40,000 out-of-town visitors and has an estimated economic impact of $23.6 million each September.
  • Each of the seven home Universtiy of Texas football games brings 35,000 fans from outside of the Austin area has an estimated economic impact of $23 million.
  • Each March, the South By Southwest Music, Interactive, and Film conference and festival welcomes about 30,000 attendees and has an estimate economic impact of $38 million for the local economy.
  • Statewide UIL girls and boys basketball tournaments bring approximately 146,000 players, coaches, and fans for an estimated economic impact of $8 million.
  • June brings the Republic of Texas Biker Rally to Austin. 40,000 bikers leave behind an approximate $34.5 million economic impact to the community.

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Retail

The current market demand for retail goods and services Downtown is 900,000 sq. ft., the equivalent of a regional shopping mall. Today most of the retail Downtown, approximately 450,000 sq. ft., is servicing the restaurant and entertainment sectors. Growth areas include soft and hard goods retail where Downtown has experienced 14 new stores in the past two years.

As part of a joint Downtown Austin Alliance/City of Austin Retail Development Strategy Study, M. Crane & Associates conducted a survey of residents in and near downtown. The results show the likelihood of residents to shop various types of stores if shopping options were available downtown. Further, the survey results show that none of the following variables is related to whether or how frequent residents would shop downtown:   residential zip code, travel time between residence and downtown, whether a household member works downtown, number of workers in household, or demographic factors (age, gender, income, marital status, education, number of children).

Download Historical Sales and Mixed Beverage tax data for Downtown Austin (Zip Code 78701). Data was compiled by the Downtown Austin Alliance using information from the State of Texas Comptroller's office. Due to privacy issues, the Comptroller does not report sales tax data for Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes if there are fewer than 4 outlets.

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