Denton County Case Study

Denton County’s status as a metropolitan city is interesting due it’s socioeconomic patterns. The county is in the state of Texas, where a large percentage of the population is not classified as urban, yet a large proportion of the land area is classified as urban. The opposite, however, is true for Denton County, whose urban population percentage is even higher than that of the United States and while its urban area is significantly lower, than that of Texas, it still exceeds the urban area percentage of the United States as well. This is possibly because while Denton County is a metropolitan city, the metropolitan center is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Those who need to work in this area would settle somewhere nearby and Denton County’s proximity to both these cities makes it a prime location for urban workers, with over 50% of the workers in Denton commuting outside of the county to work.
In addition, the unemployment rate in Denton County is almost half that of Texas and the nation. This is again due in part to the fact that Denton County is located close to Dallas and Fort Worth, well developed urban centers. This proximity would also explain why housing rates in Denton County are much higher than the rest of the state and nation. The closer one gets to the urban center, the more expensive housing becomes and since housing is expensive, only those who make enough money through working in the city can live here. This would explain why the unemployment rate is so low; those who can’t work anyways wouldn’t be able to afford housing, therefore forcing them to live in another more rural