October 14, 2014
By PolicyLink and USC PERE
Please note: reports dated earlier than June 2020 were published under our previous names: the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) or the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).
![report image featuring two photos of Houston-Galveston skyline and geography](https://dornsife.usc.edu/eri/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2023/02/Houston_6June2013_FINAL-Cover-e1686679437203-900x600.png)
Communities of color are driving Houston-Galveston’s population growth and are essential to the region’s economic success now and into the future.
Houston-Galveston is characterized by overall economic strength and resilience, but wide racial gaps in income, health, and opportunity coupled with declining wages, a shrinking middle class, and rising inequality place the region’s economic success and future at risk.
Our analysis showed the region already stands to gain a great deal from addressing racial inequities. If racial gaps in income had been closed in 2012, the regional economy would have been $243.3 billion stronger: a 54 percent increase.
Learn more and download the Houston-Galveston regional equity profile, summary, and addendum with the GDP analysis below.