There’s no doubt that the population in College Station is growing – but who is growing it?
Chief Development Officer for College Station, Michael Ostrowski, sees the huge impact steady population growth has had on College Station. The current population of College Station is 131,942 with growth of two to three per cent yearly. The median age of College Station residents is 23 and the majority are under 45 – driven by employment opportunities, affordable housing, and a high quality of life.
“About 80% of our population is under 45. We see a really high percentage in college-age students, and then we see a dip from 25 to 35-year-olds,” Ostrowski noted.
The city’s goal? Closing the gap and giving individuals more reasons to stay once they graduate from college.
“Even a small percentage of that large population that graduates every single year can have a huge impact for our community, especially from a workforce standpoint,” Ostrowski noted. “People sometimes choose where they want to live from different entertainment options that they have, parks, and recreational options,” Ostrowski said. “Those are the things that we’ll be focusing on moving forward.”
An enormous shift from public sector jobs to private sector jobs may surprise some – but according to Ostrowski, it’s spearheaded by the rapidly growing healthcare sector. In 2014, more than half of the workforce chose a public sector job, but in 2024, private sector jobs increased from 48.6 per cent to 55 per cent.
Public sector businesses include governmental, university, and community employees, while healthcare and most businesses fall under private sector jobs. Healthcare is one of the fastest-growing private sector industries in College Station, seeing growth of a massive 200 per cent since 2000.
Ostrowski explained. “Ultimately, it’s really good to have a mixture of both, so it’s just trying to keep a balance between those two.”
But with the population and local industries booming, where do these newly arrived residents live? The construction of single-family and multi-family units is also booming.
“This year we’ve seen a significant increase in both single-family as well as multi-family [units],” Ostrowski explained. “On average, we see about 600 of each, so 600 single-family, 600 multi-family, 1200 units total. We’ve seen over 700 single-family homes already this year through October, a little over 800 multi-family units, so about 1600 units total this year.”
The holiday season in College Station has attracted thousands of visitors as well. Jeremiah Cook with Visit College Station details how they are preparing College Station for this tide of tourists.
“Christmas is always a time we put a lot of funding and effort into because Santa’s Wonderland is drawing in hundreds of thousands of people each year,” Cook said. ‘We want to make sure those people don’t just stop at Santa’s Wonderland and head back home, but actually come into our community and experience it.”
Visit College Station is hosting Christmas Classics at City Hall, beginning November 29. You’ll find the schedule on the Visit College Station website.
“We’ll have four Christmas movies throughout the season where people can come out, bring their family, and enjoy time viewing the movie, but also the food trucks and the games for the kids, all of those different things.”
It’s not all reindeer games: football season reigns, with home games driving major growth.
“When you have Texas at home [like] last year, LSU at home, I mean, Texas broke every hotel record that we had for our market,” Cook emphasized. “Trying to get to that level, it was really an unattainable goal. So yes, we’ve seen building revenue each time the games are coming, is it going to hit Texas levels? Maybe not, but we are seeing a lot of growth in the market as well.”
