City · Comal County, Texas

New Braunfels, Texas

New Braunfels is a city in Comal County, Texas, part of the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metro area. It has 104,643 residents. New Braunfels, Texas has a quality-of-life score of 60 out of 100 (moderate), ranking #6,291 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Texas it ranks #87 of 1,016 cities and towns. It ranks best on child care cost burden (low), new homes permitted (high) and child poverty rate (low). It ranks worst on grocery stores (low), hot days (high) and high ozone days (high).

60Moderate

Quality-of-life score: #6,291 of 15,651 cities and towns
Texas: #87 of 1,016 in TX
Population: 104,643 (2020-2024)
Land area: 45 mi²
Density: 2,319.5 /mi²
FIPS code: 4850820

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 71 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety72#4,432/15,637
Economy76#3,819/15,631
Housing41#8,877/14,977
Health72#4,380/15,609
Healthcare44#8,729/15,650
Environment25#11,601/15,453
Education71#4,560/15,649
Infrastructure68#5,036/15,650
Community43#8,892/15,651
Leisure & amenities44#8,764/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where New Braunfels, Texas ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Comal 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.

Strengths

Child care cost burden · low18.0%
98/100Texas 24.5%United States 27.9%2023 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteComal County value
New homes permitted · high13.5 /1k
92/100Texas 6.3 /1kUnited States 4.2 /1kSep 2025–Aug 2026U.S. Census BureauProvisional data
Child poverty rate · low6.3%
91/100Texas 17.9%United States 15.5%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B17001
Primary care shortage · low0.0
90/100Texas 5.5United States 6.2Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationComal County value
Math scores · high3.40
89/100Texas 3.15United States 3.032019University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteComal County value
Comfortable days · high32.1%
87/100Texas 30.7%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationComal County value

Weaknesses

Grocery stores · low0.7 /10k
4/100Texas 1.1 /10kUnited States 1.7 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsComal County value
Hot days · high117 days
5/100Texas 111 daysUnited States 42 days2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationComal County value
High ozone days · high6 days
13/100Texas 7 daysUnited States 7 days2022Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyComal County value
Drought exposure · high75%
19/100Texas 57%United States 43%Oct 2025–Sep 2026National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), USDA and NOAAComal County value
Distance to an emergency room · high9.0 mi
20/100Texas 5.5 miUnited States 5.5 miJul 2026Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesComal County value
Uninsured residents (under 65) · high12.4%
23/100Texas 19.1%United States 9.8%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B27010

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
79,438 (2015-2019) → 104,643 (2020-2024)
+32%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
New homes permittedWorsening
27.3 /1k (2021) → 13.5 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−50%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Rent-burdened householdsWorsening
44.2% (2015-2019) → 51.8% (2020-2024)
+7.6 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
87.5% (2015-2019) → 95.0% (2020-2024)
+7.5 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
3.1× (2015-2019) → 3.9× (2020-2024)
+28%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×
Child poverty rateImproving
10.9% (2015-2019) → 6.3% (2020-2024)
−4.6 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%

What changed in five years

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.

Over about five years, New Braunfels, Texas improved on 5 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 3. 5 moved within the margin of error and 1 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.

Improved5

Child poverty−4.6 points10.9% → 6.3%
Uninsured−1.8 points14.2% → 12.4%
Bachelor's++3.8 points34.7% → 38.6%
Broadband+7.5 points87.5% → 95.0%
Household income+21%$71,044 → $86,021

Declined3

Price / income+0.9×3.1× → 3.9×
Rent burden+7.6 points44.2% → 51.8%
Rent / income+2.9 points27.7% → 30.6%

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of New Braunfels, Texas between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	25.0 min2015-2019	27.1 min2020-2024	+2.2 min	Within the margin of error	26%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.7%2015-2019	38.6%2020-2024	+3.8 points	Improved	58%
Broadband subscriptions	87.5%2015-2019	95.0%2020-2024	+7.5 points	Improved	46%
Child poverty rate	10.9%2015-2019	6.3%2020-2024	−4.6 points	Improved	67%
Effective property tax rate	1.44%2015-2019	1.18%2020-2024	−0.3 points	Little change	68%
High school diploma or higher	90.9%2015-2019	93.3%2020-2024	+2.4 points	Within the margin of error	63%
Home price to income ratio	3.1×2015-2019	3.9×2020-2024	+0.9×	Declined	28%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4232015-2019	0.4352020-2024	+0.012	Within the margin of error	40%
Median household income	$71,0442015-2019	$86,0212020-2024	+21%	Improved	35%
Poverty rate	8.6%2015-2019	7.4%2020-2024	−1.2 points	Within the margin of error	55%
Rent as share of income	27.7%2015-2019	30.6%2020-2024	+2.9 points	Declined	33%
Rent-burdened households	44.2%2015-2019	51.8%2020-2024	+7.6 points	Declined	30%
Unemployment rate	3.4%2015-2019	4.2%2020-2024	+0.8 points	Within the margin of error	32%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	14.2%2015-2019	12.4%2020-2024	−1.8 points	Improved	67%

“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.

Cities and towns like New Braunfels, Texas five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of New Braunfels, 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.

For comparison, New Braunfels, Texas itself moved −5.6 points in standing on average over the same 10 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.

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).

Age and sex

104,643 residents (±84)

Men
Women

80 and over
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

40,991 households (±987)

New Braunfels, Texas
Texas share

Under $25k11%4,544
$25k–50k14%5,592
$50k–75k17%7,148

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

40,991 households (±987)

New Braunfels, Texas
Texas share

Own65%26,765
Rent35%14,226

Biggest shift since 2015–2019: Own (+3.1 points).

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

53,529 workers (±1,256)

New Braunfels, Texas
Texas share

Drive alone72%38,513
Carpool10%5,472
Public transit0.1%†61

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX

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.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Comal County, the county holding most of New Braunfels's residents.

Comal County has 4,951 employer establishments, 255 for every 10,000 residents (1.03× the US rate of 248; 1.17× Texas's), with 65,657 paid employees at an average annual pay of $49,690. The Census Bureau also counts 21,852 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 4,951; 21,852 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 255; US 248 · Texas 218
Paid employees: 65,657
Average annual pay: $49,690; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Comal County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	412	21.3	1.02×About typical	3,495	$67,263	919
Specialty trade contractors	406	20.9	1.35×More than typical	4,689	$60,157	1,576
Restaurants and other eating places	339	17.5	0.95×About typical	8,541	$23,663	69
Lessors of real estate	283	14.6	1.19×About typical	849	$49,405	2,859
Construction of buildings	225	11.6	1.54×More than typical	1,093	$64,467	812
Management, scientific and technical consulting	171	8.8	1.31×More than typical	427	$76,152	1,065
Building equipment contractors	156	8	1.34×More than typical	1,670	$57,099	302
Offices of physicians	151	7.8	1.20×About typical	1,228	$84,393	190
Services to buildings and dwellings	147	7.6	1.12×About typical	1,031	$49,134	1,072
Full-service restaurants	139	7.2	0.93×About typical	4,370	$26,130	26
Limited-service restaurants	136	7	0.87×About typical	3,423	$21,487	27
Offices of other health practitioners	122	6.3	1.04×About typical	773	$53,969	476

Rank places for an industry Open Comal County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 193,849 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.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $7.2M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in New Braunfels, Texas: $69.05 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $7.2M; −2.7% vs FY2025
Per resident: $69.05; US $1,994
Sole-source: 6.4%; US 30%
Single offer: 70%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Department of Veterans Affairs$4.3M59%
Forest Service$1.2M16%
Federal Bureau of Investigation$1.1M16%
Department of the Air Force$474.4K6.6%
Federal Highway Administration$107.5K1.5%
Department of the Army$56K0.8%
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration$31K0.4%
Defense Logistics Agency$22.4K0.3%

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

1.3MFY2017
1.9MFY2018
3.2MFY2019
8MFY2020
5MFY2021
2.8MFY2022
7.3MFY2023
7.7M

Top industries (NAICS)

Outpatient care centers · 6214$4M55%
Computer systems design and related services · 5415$1.5M21%
Nonscheduled air transportation · 4812$1.2M16%
Services to buildings and dwellings · 5617$286K4.0%
Scientific research and development services · 5417$107.5K1.5%

Largest awards whose ZIP code lies mostly in New Braunfels, Texas

DISTRIBUTED ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR BAMC, COTO AND CAMP BULLIS.$8.8M
EAGLE TG, LLC· Comal County, TX· Other equipment & supplies· Sep 29, 2023 – Mar 27, 2026· FA301623C0069
AIRCRAFT AND CREW TO PROVIDE SENSOR ENHANCED FIRE MAPPING - BOISE$7.6M
OWYHEE AIR RESEARCH LLC· Comal County, TX· Facilities & utilities· Jun 14, 2024 – Sep 28, 2026· 1202SA24K9425
NDCAC - IT NETWORK AND DATA SERVICES$7.4M
EAGLE TG, LLC· Comal County, TX· IT & telecom· Jun 26, 2023 – Aug 11, 2026· 15F06723F0001070
OY4 TASK ORDER - NEW BRAUNFELS, TX COMMUNITY BASED OUTPATIENT CLINIC (CBOC) SERVICES

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in New Braunfels, Texas, so they do not add up across cities.

New Braunfels, Texas's figures are part of those of Comal County, TX and Guadalupe County, TX ($37.5M in FY2026), never added to them: 19% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: New Braunfels is mostly in Comal County.

See federal money in Comal County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

New Braunfels, Texas is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX32

Other cities and towns in Comal County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/4850820

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends