Lifestyle

With 1 in 12 Americans Living in Texas, Just How Powerful Are We?

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Tony Maples Photography

 

More than two years ago now, 125,000 people petitioned the government to allow Texas to secede from America. While this petition wasn’t successful, it raises a few key questions and concepts to consider should the likelihood of such a thing actually take place. Could the state make it on its own as a country? Just how powerful is the Lone Star State?

NowThis took a close look at these questions in a video posted to their YouTube channel in 2015. The 2.5-minute, fact-filled review of our ability to stand on our own two feet is quite the eye-opener. We already knew we had the largest land base in the contiguous U.S., but did you know that with close to 27 million people, that means that 1 in every 12 U.S. citizens lives in Texas? With that size and population, we also generate $1.5 trillion economy-wise annually, which translates into Texas having a nation-size market roughly 13th in the world (between Spain and Australia).

With more farms and ranches than any other U.S. state, as well as massive oil reserve, it’s no wonder our economy is what it is. But there are other factors involved in calculating just how powerful our beloved state truly is. Things like an army (did you know we had 25 bases within Texas as well as the only nuclear weapons assembly plant in America?), median income per worker, poverty levels, and social policies. With a grade “A” on many of the high points, like many other states, we still have some things to work on.