CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans will face off Saturday in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
Every part of each team will be evaluated this week as both handicappers and fans size up the chances for each. Just one win separated the two teams during the regular season, with the Browns going 11-6 and the Texans 10-7.
But what about the fans, and the home base for each?
Off the field, the Cleveland and Houston metro areas are quite different. Houston is bigger and has higher household incomes. Cleveland is older and more highly educated. There won’t be an official winner or loser on this. But here’s what we can tell you using 2022 census estimates.
Metropolitan area
The Cleveland-Elyria metropolitan area comprises six counties: Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina. The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land consists of nine counties: Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller.
Population
The Cleveland metro area has a population of 2.1 million, with 1,032.2 people per square mile. Meanwhile, the Houston metro area has a population of 7.3 million, yet is less densely populated with 887.7 people per square mile.
Houston is the fourth most populous city in the country, with 2.3 million people, more than the entire Cleveland metropolitan area.
Cleveland trends older with a median age of 41.8 versus Houston with a median age of 35.4.
Race and ethnicity
While the Cleveland metro area is about 67% white, the largest race and ethnicity in Houston is Hispanic, at 39%. Cleveland slightly outpaces Houston on Black and two or more races population, but Houston has a much larger Asian community.
Economics
Cleveland has a slightly larger individual median income of $40,740 than Houston at $39,528. However, Houston’s median household income of $74,863 far outpaces Cleveland’s median household income of $65,198.
Both Cleveland and Houston have poverty rates higher than the national rate. Poverty in the Cleveland metro area is 13.7%, while Houston’s is 14.3%.
Families
Cleveland has 891,430 households, with an average of 2.3 people per household. Meanwhile, Houston has 2.7 million households with an average of 2.7 people per household.
Of the population 15 years and older, 45% of Cleveland is married, while 52% of Houston is married.
For women aged 15-50, 4.4% gave birth to a child in 2022. The rate is 5.5% for Houston. The age group with the highest shares of births in Cleveland was 25-29 (9%), and in Houston, it was age 30-35 (11%).
Housing
There are 972,047 housing units in Cleveland’s metro area, with 92% occupied. Out of occupied units, 67% are owned. In Houston, there are 2.9 million housing units, of which 93% are occupied and 61% owner-occupied.
The median value of owner-occupied housing units in Cleveland is $209,000. In Houston, the value is higher at $284,100.
Miscellaneous
Cleveland’s education level is slightly higher than Houston’s, with 91.9% of Cleveland’s metro area graduating high school or higher and 36.1% receiving a bachelor’s degree or higher. In Houston, 85.1% are high school graduates and 36% have a bachelor’s degree.
Houston far outpaces Cleveland with people who speak a language other than English at home at 40.1% compared to Cleveland’s 10.6%.
In addition, 24% of Houston was born outside of the United States, compared to Cleveland’s 10.6%.
Finally, 6.2% of Cleveland metro area people are veterans, predominately fighting during the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, 4,9% of Houston is a veteran, with the highest share serving during the Gulf War since 2001.
Zachary Smith is the data reporter for cleveland.com. You can reach him at zsmith@cleveland.com.
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