Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area from 1950 to 2025.

In 2023, the GDP of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area amounted to around 613.38 U.S. dollars, an increase on the previous year. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area The Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area is composed of 12 counties within the U.S. state of Texas. Dallas–Plano–Irving and Fort Worth–Arlington are the two metropolitan divisions of the area. It is the economic and cultural hub of North Texas or North Central Texas, and is commonly referred to as the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area, DFW or The Metroplex by residents. Estimates of the 2022 population of the Metroplex were roughly 7.94 million inhabitants. The Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a well-known sports team from the city of Dallas in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The Dallas Cowboy’s franchise value has risen greatly since 2002. The franchise was valued at 784 million U.S. dollars in 2002. As of 2022, the Dallas Cowboys franchise was valued around nine billion U.S. dollars. The Dallas Cowboys also ranked first on a list in terms of 2022 revenue of national football league teams, being the only team to have generated more than a billion U.S. dollars in revenue that year, about 406 million more U.S. dollars than the second ranked team, the Las Vegas Raiders. In 2022, the average ticket price for Dallas Cowboys games was 108 U.S. dollars.

In this time period, the Hispanic population of North Dakota increased by 414 percent, while the Hispanic population of South Dakota increased by 360 percent, the two highest growths in the United States. In 2023, California, Texas, and Florida registered the largest Hispanic or Latino population in the U.S.

The northern bobwhite Colinus virginianus has experienced range-wide declines over the last several decades, primarily due to habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. As northern bobwhite populations continue to decline, there is a need for studies that address the impact of habitat changes on population persistence at multiple spatial scales. Our goal was to assess changes in habitat and land use related to northern bobwhite declines across multiple spatial scales in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. We determined northern bobwhite trends for 1972-2012 using Breeding Bird Survey data. At the regional scale, we compared northern bobwhite population trends with road density (2000, 2012), human population (1970-2010), and land use (1974-2012). At the county and local scales, we compared class-level landscape metrics between counties with stable and declining northern bobwhite abundances using Student's t-tests. Northern bobwhite populations decreased from 45.95 ± 1.01 birds/route in 1970 to 11.55 ± 0.64 birds/route in 2012. Road density and human population increased by 3,331.32 ± 66.28 m/km2 and 42,873 ± 8,687 people/county, respectively. Percent pasture and rangeland was relatively stable, as was percent woodland. Alternatively, the percentage of other land (houses, roads, wasteland) increased. At the county scale, Texas and Oklahoma counties with declining northern bobwhite populations had higher road densities, larger patches of pasture, smaller patches of woodland, and larger patches of cropland compared to stable populations. At the local scale, Texas and Oklahoma counties with declining northern bobwhite populations had less woody cover in smaller patches, and fewer but larger patches of herbaceous and bare ground, compared to populations with stable abundance. Therefore, while managers can provide woody cover and reduce cropland effects at the local scale to support stable quail populations, the large-scale drivers of northern bobwhite decline, which are human population growth and resulting habitat loss, will be an important aspect of northern bobwhite conservation and management in the future.