The Panhandle

The Texas Panhandle derives its name from its proximity to the distinctive handle-shaped section of neighboring Oklahoma. It consists of the northwesternmost 26 counties in Texas: Armstrong, Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Childress, Collingsworth, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Donley, Gray, Hall, Hansford, Hartley, Hemphill, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Moore, Ochiltree, Oldham, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Sherman, Swisher, and Wheeler. These counties make up the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission.

North Texas

Perhaps counterintuitively, the region called North Texas does not include the counties at the most northern latitudes; those are referred to as the Panhandle. Instead, north Texas refers to the area that is north of the central part of the state. It includes, roughly speaking, the metropolitan areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and Wichita Falls and their surrounding counties. North Texas does not include Abilene to the west, Waco to the south, or Tyler to the east.

Our map of the regions of Texas places 29 counties in north Texas. These include:

• The 16 counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area that make up the North Central Texas Council of Governments: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise.
• The 11 counties surrounding Wichita Falls that make up the Nortex Regional Planning Commission: Archer, Baylor, Clay, Cottle, Foard, Hardeman, Jack, Montague, Wichita, Wilbarger, and Young.
• The 3 counties on the Red River that are in the Texoma Council of Governments: Cooke, Fannin, and Grayson.

East Texas

East of the Trinity River, Texas begins to take on a Southern appearance that resembles its neighbors, Arkansas and Louisiana. A dense pine forest known as the Piney Woods covers the entire region. so much that "Piney Woods" and "east Texas" can usually be used interchangeably.

Our map of the regions of Texas places the following 38 counties in east Texas:

• The 9 northeastern counties that belong to the Ark-Tex Council of Governments: Bowie, Cass, Delta, Franklin, Hopkins, Lamar, Morris, Red River, and Titus.
• The 14 counties further south that make up the East Texas Council of Governments: Anderson, Camp, Cherokee, Gregg, Harrison, Henderson, Marion, Panola, Rains, Rusk, Smith, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Wood.
• The next group of 12 counties yet further south that belong to the Deep East Texas Council of Governments: Angelina, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, and Tyler.
• The 3 southeastern counties that make up the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission: Hardin, Jefferson, and Orange.

Upper Gulf Coast

Although Houston and the counties surrounding it are unquestionably in the southern half of the state, their region's climate, geography, and demographic makeup is dissimilar from the region called south Texas. By the same token, although the Houston area is definitely in the eastern part of the state, it is not usually considered part of east Texas. Instead, this area makes up its own region. We call it "Upper Gulf Coast" to distinguish it from the coastal counties of south Texas.

The Upper Gulf Coast region consists of the 13 counties that belong to the Houston-Galveston Area Council: Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, Waller, and Wharton. This same group of 13 counties is referred to as the Gulf Coast region by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

The counties of Walker, Liberty, and Chambers are also commonly considered to be part of east Texas.

South Texas

South Texas consists roughly of the territory from the San Antonio metropolitan area to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico.

Our map of the regions of Texas places the following 47 counties in south Texas:

• The 12 San Antonio-area counties that make up the Alamo Area Council of Governments: Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Frio, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Karnes, Kendall, Kerr, Medina, and Wilson.
• The 7 counties in the Victoria area that belong to the Golden Crescent Regional Planning Commission: Calhoun, DeWitt, Goliad, Gonzales, Jackson, Lavaca, and Victoria.
• The 12 counties in the Coastal Bend Council of Governments, headquartered in Corpus Christi: Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, McMullen, Nueces, Refugio, and San Patricio.
• The 3 counties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council: Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy.
• The 4 counties the make up the South Texas Development Council: Jim Hogg, Starr, Webb, and Zapata.
• The 9 counties belonging to the Middle Rio Grande Development Council: Dimmit, Edwards, Kinney, La Salle, Maverick, Real, Uvalde, Val Verde, and Zavala.

West Texas

There are probably more definitions for west Texas than for any other region of the state. Its eastern boundary has been defined as far west as the Pecos River and as far east as the Brazos River. Our concept of west Texas is based on the five principal metropolitan areas it contains: El Paso, Lubbock, Abilene, Midland/Odessa, and San Angelo.

Our map of the regions of Texas places the following 70 counties in west Texas:

• The 13 counties centered around San Angelo, who are members of the Concho Valley Council of Governments: Coke, Concho, Crockett, Irion, Kimble, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, Reagan, Schleicher, Sterling, Sutton, and Tom Green.
• The 17 counties centered around Midland and Odessa, which comprise the Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission: Andrews, Borden, Crane, Dawson, Ector, Gaines, Glasscock, Howard, Loving, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Reeves, Terrell, Upton, Ward, and Winkler.
• The far western 6 Texas counties belonging to the Rio Grande Council of Governments: Brewster, Culberson, El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and Presidio. These counties were formerly known as the West Texas Council of Governments, until the addition of Dona County, New Mexico.
• The 15 counties in the Lubbock-based South Plains Association of Governments: Bailey, Cochran, Crosby, Dickens, Floyd, Garza, Hale, Hockley, King, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Motley, Terry, and Yoakum.
• The 19 counties centered around Abilene that make up the West Central Texas Council of Governments: Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Eastland, Fisher, Haskell, Jones, Kent, Knox, Mitchell, Nolan, Runnels, Scurry, Shackelford, Stephens, Stonewall, Taylor, and Throckmorton.

Central Texas

The central region of Texas lies in between the state's three largest metropolitan areas - Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio - and along its three largest interior rivers: the Trinity, the Brazos, and the Colorado. The limestone peaks of the Texas Hill Country make up a large part of central Texas, but the region also includes a large amount of flat land.

Our map of the regions of Texas places the following 30 counties in central Texas:

• The 7 counties around Bryan and College Station that are in the Brazos Valley Council of Governments: Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Leon, Madison, Robertson, and Washington.
• The 10 counties in the Capital Area Council of Governments, centered around Austin: Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, Lee, Llano, Travis, and Williamson.
• The 7 member counties of the Central Texas Council of Governments: Bell, Coryell, Hamilton, Lampasas, Milam, Mills, and San Saba.
• The 6 counties that participate in the Heart of Texas Council of Governments, headquartered in Waco: Bosque, Falls, Freestone, Hill, Limestone, and McLennan.

The same four groups of 30 counties are administered collectively as the Central Texas Region by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.