Since its launch in 2019, we have been asking how we can improve Understanding Houston — not only the site, but also the overall initiative: How can the site be easier to navigate? How can the site help you quickly find what you are looking for? How can our events be more engaging or useful? …
Author Archives: Understanding Houston
Houston is Generous
Greater Houston has gained a reputation for being generous. Historically, our region has often topped lists in national studies measuring total philanthropic assets, percentage of income given to charity, and overall financial health of nonprofit charity organizations. Our expansive, rich nonprofit sector enriches our communities and our local economy and is one of the largest …
Houston is Engaged
We live in eventful times. The past few years have been replete with once-in-a-lifetime events, including the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, historic natural disasters and a variety of galvanizing political issues in between. While reactions to these events run the gamut, their impacts have been widespread in our digitally connected world, contributing to …
Houston is Big
Houston is big. The region’s size and all it encompasses has become an in-joke among residents — “Houston is an hour away from Houston,” the old saying goes. The city is sprawling, populous, industrial and growing. The reasons for the sprawl, rapid population growth and the breadth of successful industries are many and complex. We …
Is Houston really that affordable?
Over the years, the greater Houston region has gained a reputation for affordability. Historically, Greater Houston is the rare major metro in which the cost of living is low and overall opportunity is high, especially relative to its size as the fifth largest metropolitan area and the fourth largest city in the nation. Our region’s …
Key insights from our Mental Health Data Dive + Workshop
Greater Houston Community Foundation hosted a program on July 20, 2022, to convene experts, researchers and practitioners around the increasingly severe mental health crisis affecting children and adolescents. The program began with a brief data presentation from Understanding Houston, to set the stage for the deeper dives from guest speakers that would follow. The convening …
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Houston is Hot
Residents of the three-county region are no strangers to Houston’s heat We all know that Houston is hot. How quickly is Houston getting hotter and why? And what — aside from making us sweat — are the implications of the region’s excessive heat? The rising heat foreshadows many distressing possibilities as it relates to climate …
Houston is Diverse
Why diversity and inclusion matter and what they truly mean in Greater Houston It’s no secret that Houston is diverse. The region was recognized for its multiculturalism long before it was reported to be the most racially/ethnically diverse place in the nation. We typically measure diversity in terms of race or ethnicity, but it is …
Houston is Resilient
Houston has certainly earned its reputation for resilience. Since 1980 the region has been hit by 26 natural disasters, including five hurricanes, five tropical storms, two wildfires, a dozen rain/flood events and a winter storm, to name a few. Nearly a third of these disasters have occurred since 2015, and yet the population continues to …
Houston is Vibrant
For some time, Greater Houston has been, to those who don’t live here, in the midst of an identity crisis. Even Anthony Bourdain, a man who made a career of ostensibly analyzing and broadcasting to the world the essence of every city into which he wandered, admitted to “entertaining lazy prejudices and assumptions” about the …