Scores by category

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

Safety28#11,229/15,637
Economy43#8,849/15,631
Housing51#7,404/14,977
Health39#9,463/15,609
Healthcare32#10,659/15,650
Environment55#6,933/15,453
Education40#9,317/15,649
Infrastructure43#8,939/15,650
Community20#12,544/15,651
Leisure & amenities19#12,688/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

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

Natural hazard risk · low0.7
100/100Texas 39.62025Federal Emergency Management AgencySmith County value
Child care cost burden · low18.6%
97/100Texas 24.5%United States 27.9%2023 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSmith County value
Drug overdose deaths · low7.3 /100k
92/100Texas 13.4 /100kUnited States 18.4 /100kMar 2025–Feb 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataSmith County value
Average commute time · low20.0 min
86/100Texas 26.7 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013
Median Air Quality Index · low35
86/1002025U.S. Environmental Protection AgencySmith County value
Days with unhealthy air · low0.0%
84/1002025U.S. Environmental Protection AgencySmith County value

Weaknesses

Uninsured residents (under 65) · high21.2%
5/100Texas 19.1%United States 9.8%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B27010
Distance to an airport · high97 mi
11/100Texas 33 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauSmith County value
Traffic deaths · high24.7 /100k
13/100Texas 14.1 /100kUnited States 12.3 /100k2020-2024National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationProvisional dataSmith County value
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) · high9.0 µg/m³
13/100Texas 8.9 µg/m³United States 8.0 µg/m³2022Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Environmental Protection AgencySmith County value
Preventable hospital stays · high3,752 /100k
13/100Texas 2,991 /100kUnited States 2,769 /100k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSmith County value
Public libraries · low0.2 /10k
14/100Texas 0.3 /10kUnited States 0.5 /10k2024Institute of Museum and Library ServicesSmith County value

Trends

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

Broadband subscriptionsImproving
80.5% (2015-2019) → 90.8% (2020-2024)
+10 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
New homes permittedWorsening
5.1 /1k (2021) → 2.8 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−44%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Child poverty rateImproving
24.5% (2015-2019) → 18.0% (2020-2024)
−6.4 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Median household incomeImproving
$52,932 (2015-2019) → $67,486 (2020-2024)
+27%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Poverty rateImproving
17.5% (2015-2019) → 12.5% (2020-2024)
−5 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 12.3% → 12.1%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
3.0× (2015-2019) → 3.5× (2020-2024)
+15%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×

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, Tyler, Texas improved on 5 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 2. 6 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

Poverty−5 points17.5% → 12.5%
Inequality−0.0360.500 → 0.463
Child poverty−6.4 points24.5% → 18.0%
Broadband+10 points80.5% → 90.8%
Household income+27%$52,932 → $67,486

Declined2

Uninsured+2 points19.2% → 21.2%
Price / income+0.5×3.0× → 3.5×

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of Tyler, Texas between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	20.9 min2015-2019	20.0 min2020-2024	−0.9 min	Within the margin of error	58%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.4%2015-2019	31.4%2020-2024	+2 points	Within the margin of error	43%
Broadband subscriptions	80.5%2015-2019	90.8%2020-2024	+10 points	Improved	61%
Child poverty rate	24.5%2015-2019	18.0%2020-2024	−6.4 points	Improved	73%
Effective property tax rate	1.49%2015-2019	1.20%2020-2024	−0.3 points	Little change	73%
High school diploma or higher	85.4%2015-2019	88.0%2020-2024	+2.5 points	Within the margin of error	64%
Home price to income ratio	3.0×2015-2019	3.5×2020-2024	+0.5×	Declined	50%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.5002015-2019	0.4632020-2024	−0.036	Improved	78%
Median household income	$52,9322015-2019	$67,4862020-2024	+27%	Improved	50%
Poverty rate	17.5%2015-2019	12.5%2020-2024	−5 points	Improved	80%
Rent as share of income	29.4%2015-2019	29.5%2020-2024	+0.1 points	Within the margin of error	54%
Rent-burdened households	48.7%2015-2019	49.0%2020-2024	+0.3 points	Within the margin of error	55%
Unemployment rate	5.5%2015-2019	4.5%2020-2024	−1 points	Within the margin of error	69%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	19.2%2015-2019	21.2%2020-2024	+2 points	Declined	26%

“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 Tyler, Texas five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Tyler, 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, Tyler, Texas itself moved +3.1 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

109,215 residents (±56)

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

38,505 households (±945)

Tyler, Texas
Texas share

Under $25k15%5,926
$25k–50k21%8,079
$50k–75k19%7,168

Homes

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

Owners and renters

38,505 households (±945)

Tyler, Texas
Texas share

Own55%21,339
Rent45%17,166

Biggest shift since 2015–2019: Rent (−2.5 points).

Table view

Getting to work

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

How people get to work

51,274 workers (±1,255)

Tyler, Texas
Texas share

Drive alone79%40,600
Carpool9.3%4,761
Public transit0.0%†22

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 Tyler, 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 Smith County, the county holding most of Tyler's residents.

Smith County has 6,356 employer establishments, 258 for every 10,000 residents (1.04× the US rate of 248; 1.18× Texas's), with 98,886 paid employees at an average annual pay of $52,912. The Census Bureau also counts 24,701 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 6,356; 24,701 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 258; US 248 · Texas 218
Paid employees: 98,886
Average annual pay: $52,912; US $68,342

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

Ambulatory health care services	529	21.5	1.03×About typical	10,160	$63,296	1,213
Restaurants and other eating places	468	19	1.04×About typical	10,641	$20,828	102
Specialty trade contractors	413	16.8	1.08×About typical	3,927	$58,405	2,183
Lessors of real estate	326	13.3	1.08×About typical	1,024	$55,146	2,106
Limited-service restaurants	231	9.4	1.17×About typical	5,128	$19,355	33
Religious organizations	226	9.2	1.66×More than typical	2,679	$33,448	—
Legal services	212	8.6	1.60×More than typical	934	$93,518	188
Services to buildings and dwellings	182	7.4	1.10×About typical	1,457	$32,021	1,663
Construction of buildings	178	7.2	0.96×About typical	670	$59,660	1,067
Building equipment contractors	162	6.6	1.09×About typical	1,937	$57,704	372
Offices of physicians	156	6.3	0.98×About typical	3,145	$98,106	282
Full-service restaurants	151	6.1	0.80×Fewer than typical	4,689	$22,763	45

Rank places for an industry Open Smith County

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

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 245,945 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 $5.8M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Tyler, Texas: $53.56 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $5.8M; −55% vs FY2025
Per resident: $53.56; US $1,994
Sole-source: 9.5%; US 30%
Single offer: 3.6%; 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

Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons$2.7M47%
Defense Logistics Agency$1.8M31%
Public Buildings Service$556.3K9.5%
U.S. Marshals Service$352.7K6.0%
Department of the Air Force$262.8K4.5%
Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education$52.4K0.9%
Department of the Army$42.2K0.7%
Department of Veterans Affairs$33.1K0.6%

Top recipients

ECLECTIC REENTRY SERVICES, LLC$2.7M47%
EAST TEXAS LIGHTHOUSE FOR THE BLIND$1.8M31%
QUALITY SERVICES INTERNATIONAL, LLC$314.7K5.4%
CENTERRA GROUP, LLC$311.2K5.3%
XENTURIS LLC$262.8K4.5%

Spending by fiscal year

19.2MFY2017
19.7MFY2018
8.9MFY2019
12.3MFY2020
6.7MFY2021
4.2MFY2022
19.9MFY2023
19.6M

Top industries (NAICS)

Other residential care facilities · 6239$2.7M47%
Other textile product mills · 3149$1.2M21%
Other miscellaneous manufacturing · 3399$587.3K10%
Facilities support services · 5612$320.2K5.5%
Investigation and security services · 5616$311.2K5.3%
Ventilation, heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration equipment manufacturing · 3334$262.8K

Largest awards whose ZIP code lies mostly in Tyler, Texas

CIRCUIT 5 D78 - FY 2026 CSO PROGRAM FUNDING$9M
CENTERRA GROUP, LLC· Smith County, TX· Facilities & utilities· Sep 29, 2025 – Aug 25, 2026· 15M10525FD7826CSO
CIRCUIT 5 D78 - FY 2025 CSO PROGRAM FUNDING$8.6M
CENTERRA GROUP, LLC· Smith County, TX· Facilities & utilities· Sep 24, 2024 – Dec 17, 2025· 15M10524FD7825CSO
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT FOR THE UPGRADES TO THE FIRE ALARM SYSTEM AND FIRE SPRINKLER RETROFIT AT THE WILLIAM M STEGER FEDERAL BUILDING 221 W. FERGUSON ST., TYLER, TX 75702.$3.3M
JE SYSTEMS INC· Smith County, TX· Construction & real property· Aug 13, 2024 – Sep 23, 2026· 47PH0524C0009
TO PROVIDE RESIDENTIAL REENTRY CENTER (RRC) AND HOME CONFINEMENT (HC) SERVICES WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF SMITH COUNTY, TEXAS. HC RADIUS IS WITHIN 150 MILES OF THE FACILITY. OPTION YEAR 5 TASK ORDER FOR ECLECTIC REENTRY SERVICES, LLC

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 Tyler, Texas, so they do not add up across cities.

Tyler, Texas's figures are part of those of Smith County, TX ($7.4M in FY2026), never added to them: 80% of that total.

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

See federal money in Smith 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.

Tyler, Texas is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Nathaniel MoranR-TX-1 · 100% of residentsWith party 99%Missed 1.3%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

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

Smith County47100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Tyler, TX39

Other cities and towns in Smith 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/4874144

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends