Downtown Austin Profile

Quantifying the who, what and where. Make informed decisions with the latest demographic data

Downtown is the cultural capital of our fast-growing city, charming residents and visitors with its fiercely authentic sense of place, identity and volume of experiential offerings.

It is also a breeding ground for new tech, with a vibrant startup scene and numerous small to medium sized tech offices. We continue to lead the nation in population and economic growth and are often at the top of “best of” lists for quality of life and a booming business scene.

The information that follows was published in the State of Downtown 2000 report. The Downtown Alliance and our partners are working to analyze the changes that the pandemic has brought on. More information will be made available as part of our Recovery Roadmap.

Residents

In 2000, only 4,000 people lived downtown, compared to more than 10,000 in the 1950s. As this data shows, downtown Austin is once again a thriving residential neighborhood. With our region’s population expected to double by 2040, we expect both demand and density to increase.

Workforce

Downtown Austin is a major employment hub, home to 15% of the city’s jobs. Downtown’s culture of creativity and innovation draws some of the region’s top talent and industry leaders in business, technology, public administration and health and social services.

Connectivity

With 283 acres of green space and close proximity to businesses and services, downtown earned a 9 out of 10 from WalkScore. It is considered the most walkable neighborhood in Austin. As we increase our urban mobility assets downtown and improve mobile infrastructure across the city, we expect that more commuters will access downtown in alternative ways, adding to its vibrancy and sustainability.

Talent Pool

With an active lifestyle, energy and amazing culture, Austin has no problem recruiting talented individuals from across the country. Austin has more jobs available than our local population can fill and an unrivaled support system in the University of Texas, Capital Factory, start-ups and co-working spaces that support our innovation community. We are currently seeing significantly low unemployment numbers, leading to rising wages and growth in high-paying jobs. Accordingly, this has led to many established tech companies opening or growing offices in downtown Austin to gain access to our growing talent pool.