Big Lake is a city in Reagan County, Texas. It has 2,990 residents. Big Lake, Texas has a quality-of-life score of 46 out of 100 (moderate), ranking #8,469 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Texas it ranks #159 of 1,016 cities and towns. It ranks best on child care cost burden (low), social associations (high) and drug overdose deaths (low). It ranks worst on dentists (low), traffic deaths (high) and pharmacies (low).
46Moderate
Quality-of-life score
#8,469 of 15,651 cities and towns
Texas
#159 of 1,016 in TX
Population
2,990 (2020-2024)
Land area
2 mi²
Density
1,251.9 /mi²
FIPS code
4808212
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 70 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety58#6,500/15,637
Economy42#9,036/15,631
Housing74#3,852/14,977
Health37#9,873/15,609
Healthcare6#14,719/15,650
Environment58#6,515/15,453
Education41#9,280/15,649
Infrastructure24#11,970/15,650
Community83#2,664/15,651
Leisure & amenities58#6,496/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Big Lake, Texas ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Reagan County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Big Lake, Texas five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Big Lake, Texas in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Local businesses
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Big Lake is mostly in Reagan County.
Over about five years, Big Lake, Texas improved on 1 of 12 measures with a comparison and declined on 2. 9 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved1
Broadband+17 points71.8% → 89.2%
Broadband subscriptions
71.8% → 89.2%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+17 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±10.6 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 20 → 39 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 85% of cities and towns
Declined2
Inequality+0.1210.321 → 0.442
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.321 → 0.4422015-2019 → 2020-2024
+0.121Beyond the margin of error (±0.085)
Standing among cities and towns: 96 → 35 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
Less favourable than 97% of cities and towns
Price / income+1.0×1.3× → 2.2×
Home price to income ratio
1.3× → 2.2×2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+1.0×Beyond the margin of error (±0.8×)
Standing among cities and towns: 99 → 87 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
Less favourable than 76% of cities and towns
All 12 measures
Change of every measure of Big Lake, Texas between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
18.6 min2015-2019
18.9 min2020-2024
+0.4 min
Within the margin of error
43%
Bachelor's degree or higher
10.0%2015-2019
14.1%2020-2024
+4.1 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Broadband subscriptions
71.8%2015-2019
89.2%2020-2024
+17 points
Improved
85%
Child poverty rate
15.6%2015-2019
11.7%2020-2024
−3.9 points
Within the margin of error
65%
Effective property tax rate
1.09%2015-2019
1.06%2020-2024
−0 points
Within the margin of error
20%
High school diploma or higher
81.1%2015-2019
89.3%2020-2024
+8.2 points
Within the margin of error
92%
Home price to income ratio
1.3×2015-2019
2.2×2020-2024
+1.0×
Declined
24%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.3212015-2019
0.4422020-2024
+0.121
Declined
3%
Median household income
$74,8682015-2019
$71,4712020-2024
−4.5%
Within the margin of error
5%
Poverty rate
10.4%2015-2019
12.2%2020-2024
+1.8 points
Within the margin of error
27%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
26.2%2015-2019
20.6%2020-2024
−5.6 points
Within the margin of error
89%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Big Lake, Texas itself moved −7.8 points in standing on average over the same 8 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Household income
850 households (±122)
Big Lake, Texas
Texas share
Under $25k14%†118
Under $25k
14%±7.0 points
118 households±62 (90% margin of error)
15%in Texas
15%in United States
+1.9 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$25k–50k26%†218
$25k–50k
26%±11.9 points
218 households±106 (90% margin of error)
17%in Texas
17%in United States
+7.7 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$50k–75k14%†121
$50k–75k
14%±6.9 points
121 households±61 (90% margin of error)
16%in Texas
16%in United States
−6.0 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$75k–100k10%†87
$75k–100k
10%±5.6 points
87 households±49 (90% margin of error)
13%in Texas
13%in United States
−11.0 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
$100k–150k23%†193
$100k–150k
23%±9.1 points
193 households±82 (90% margin of error)
17%in Texas
18%in United States
−1.0 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$150k–200k6.6%†56
$150k–200k
6.6%±4.2 points
56 households±37 (90% margin of error)
9.5%in Texas
9.6%in United States
+3.1 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$200k or more6.7%†57
$200k or more
6.7%±4.2 points
57 households±37 (90% margin of error)
12%in Texas
13%in United States
+5.2 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
Biggest shift since 2015–2019: $75k–100k (−11.0 points).
† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Reagan County, the county holding most of Big Lake's residents.
Reagan County has 121 employer establishments, 381 for every 10,000 residents (1.53× the US rate of 248; 1.74× Texas's), with 1,437 paid employees at an average annual pay of $79,852. The Census Bureau also counts 367 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
121
367 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
381
US 248 · Texas 218
Paid employees
1,437
Average annual pay
$79,852
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Reagan County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 3,178 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
