North Texas: An Economic Engine

When companies look for a place to build business while providing a good home for their employees, they look no further than the 12-county region that includes Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth and all the cities in between. More than six million people call North Texas home and for many good reasons: There are 24 FORTUNE 500 companies headquartered here, the cost of living ranks below the national average, and DFW International Airport is the third busiest airport in the world. North Texas is more than cowboys and oil wells these days. Our diverse economy provides a healthy workforce for those in healthcare, technology and logistics. As the fourth largest metropolitan region in the U.S. and growing, North Texas is quickly becoming the region of choice.

MAJOR NORTH TEXAS INDUSTRIES

North Texas has a strong, diverse economy:

WORLD CENTER OF AVIATION

  • There are more than 1,200 aviation-related businesses in North Texas - more than any other area of its size in the world.
  • There are more than 68,000 documented aviation-related jobs in the region.

RETAIL CENTER

  • North Texas is the 10th largest retail market in the country. Dallas Market Center, the world’s largest wholesale merchandise mart, hosts approximately 50 markets each year attended by more than 200,000 retail buyers from all 50 states and 84 countries, and conducts more than $8 billion in wholesale sales annually.

FINANCIAL AND BANKING CENTER

  • D/FW is a major financial center and is home to one of 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks.

HEALTHCARE EXCELLENCE

  • North Texas is known for its extensive state-of-the-art healthcare facilities with more than 90 major hospitals and two major medical schools.
  • Healthcare is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the Dallas/Fort Worth region since the early 1990s. There are more than 350,000 healthcare jobs here.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY CENTER

  • North Texas is a national and global leader in the high-tech sector, and 8.3% of the region’s total 2.7 million labor force is employed in high-tech fields, according to the Metroplex Technology Business Council.
  • North Texas’ 225,000 high-tech workers account for 52% of Texas’ total technology workforce, and North Texas boasts 6,215 high-tech firms.
  • Although the high-tech industry employs 8.3% of the North Texas workforce, the high-tech sector accounts for nearly 13% of wages paid to North Texas workers - indicating the relatively high-paying nature of these sophisticated jobs.

LOGISTICS HUB

  • D/FW is a major logistics hub and has the lowest distribution costs to the top 50 U.S. consumer markets of any region.
  • Since the passage of NAFTA, D/FW trade to Mexico and Canada has more than doubled – in large part due to the proximity of Interstate 35 – the NAFTA Superhighway.

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