This story is part of the KXAN Data Hub, where the numbers help tell the whole story.
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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas is consistently one of the fastest growing states in the country. Population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau in December show the state was home to more than 31.2 million people as of July 2024.
As the population grows, the number of registered voters also increases. According to the Texas Secretary of State, more than 18.4 million Texans are registered to vote as of November 2025.
We track voter registration statistics across the state. Follow along with our interactive charts and maps below.
How has voter registration changed over time?
Since 2000, the population of Texas has increased by 49.4%, from about 21 million to about 31.3 million. During the same time frame, the number of registered voters rose from 12.3 million to more than 18.4 million – an increase of 49.5%.
Where has voter registration changed the most?
Over the past four years alone, the state has added 1,492,255 people to the voter rolls, an 8.8% increase. The change was not uniform across Texas. While 198 counties saw an increase in the number of registered voters since November 2021, 56 counties saw a decrease.
Outside of Loving County, the state’s least populated county, the most dramatic increases have occurred primarily in suburban counties, with Kaufman County leading the way. The county just southeast of Dallas saw a 29.2% increase in registered voters. Kaufman is also the fastest-growing county in the state, based on 2024 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
On the other hand, rural Cochran County, west of Lubbock, has lost 15.4% of its registered voters over the past four years, more than any other county.
Use our interactive map below to see changes in voter registration in your county:
Harris County, home to Houston, has added more voters than any other county — an increase of more than 197,000 over the past four years. Bexar, Collin, Montgomery and Tarrant counties each added more than 75,000 people to their voter rolls.
Smith County, home to Tyler, saw the largest drop in registered voters, losing 5,161 voters since November 2021. Gregg, Jefferson, DeWitt, Dawson and Jim Wells counties also lost more than 500 voters each.
Which counties have the largest number of registered voters?
Not surprisingly, the state’s most populous county also has the largest number of registered voters. Harris County has more than 2.6 million registered voters as of November 2025. Dallas, Tarrant, and Bexar Counties have more than 1 million registered voters each.
How many people are registered to vote in Central Texas?
In the 15 counties that make up KXAN’s viewing area, more than 177,000 people registered to vote between November 2021 and November 2025, an increase of 10.9%.
Of those, 59,844 were in Travis County, while 57,615 were in Williamson County. More than 33,000 newly registered voters live in Hays County. Bastrop County added more than 9,000 new voters to its rolls.
Hays County saw the largest increase in voter registration, up 21.6% compared to November 2021. Bastrop and Blanco counties saw increases of more than 15%, while the number of registered voters in Williamson, Burnet, Caldwell and Lampasas counties increased by more than 10%.
Eight local counties saw increases of less than 10%, including San Saba County, which saw a 1.1% increase over the past year — the lowest among the 15 local counties.
How might changes in voter registration affect election results?
Texas, while still a red state, has shifted noticeably left in recent cycles, though that trend has been broken in the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump won the state by about 631,000 votes in 2020, a margin of 5.58 percentage points. This margin rose to more than 1.5 million votes in 2024, or 13.68 points.
Gov. Greg Abbott won the 2018 election by a margin of more than 1.1 million votes, or 13.3%. That drops to less than 900,000 in 2022, or 10.9%. It should be noted that the turnout rate is usually much higher in presidential elections.
So what is the impact of population change? We have divided the country into five political regions:
- Greater Metros (Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Travis Counties)
- Small towns (places like Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, and Tyler)
- Suburban counties (such as Collin, Denton, Fort Bend, Hays, and Williamson counties)
- Border area (including Brownsville, El Paso, and Laredo)
- Rural counties
The major metro area has the largest number of registered voters, with nearly 7.6 million as of November 2025. Suburban and rural counties each account for about half that number. The number of registered voters in suburban counties has now exceeded the number of registered voters in rural counties, thanks to recent population growth.
Here’s how each of these regions has voted in the past several election cycles:
Population growth has contributed to significantly higher vote totals. In 2016, just under 9 million votes were cast statewide in the presidential election. This number will swell to more than 11.3 million in 2024.
Suburban counties in particular are at the forefront of this mission. In the 2024 election, Texans as a whole cast 27% more ballots than in 2016. In suburban counties specifically, that number was 47%.
The same trend is observed when comparing the gubernatorial elections in 2018 and 2022. Turnout was actually higher in 2018, at about 240,000 votes, or 2.9% statewide. But suburban counties cast 5.5% more ballots in 2022 than in 2018, bucking that statewide trend.
There are also interesting changes to the margins of victory within our county categories. In general, big cities are getting bluer while rural areas in Texas are getting redder.
Rural counties got Trump about 982,000 votes in 2016, but more than 1.1 million in 2020 and 1.3 million in 2024. For Democrats, the margin in major metros increased from about 560,000 votes in 2016 to 925,000 votes in 2020, though that fell to about 535,000 votes in 2024.
The 11 suburban counties gave Trump a margin of nearly 360,000 votes in 2016, but that dropped to about 260,000 four years later. In 2024, Trump’s margin in those counties was about 412,000 votes.