Zapata County, Texas
Zapata County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 13,889. Its county seat is Zapata. The county is east of the Mexico–United States border and is named for Colonel José Antonio de Zapata, a rancher in the area who rebelled against Mexico.
Zapata County comprises the Zapata, TX micropolitan statistical area.
The South Texas oil boom included wells drilled in Zapata County in the early 1920s through the work of Laredo industrialist Oliver Winfield Killam, a Missouri native who once served as an Oklahoma state legislator.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which are covered by water. It is located in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, on the shore of Falcon International Reservoir. It was previously linked to Mexico by an international bridge, but this was flooded when the Falcon Dam and reservoir were built. It is now linked to Mexico by the Falcon Dam Port of Entry.Major highways
- 20px U.S. Highway 83
- 20px State Highway 16
Adjacent counties and municipalities
- Webb County
- Jim Hogg County
- Starr County
- Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Mexico
National protected area
- Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, 13,889 people, 4,536 households, and 3,254 families lived in the county. The median age was 32.8 years; 30.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 14.5% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 100.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.0 males age 18 and over.The racial makeup of the county was 39.0% White, 0.1% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 14.7% from some other race, and 45.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 93.6% of the population.
78.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 21.2% lived in rural areas.
Of the 4,536 households in the county, 43.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 49.4% were married-couple households, 17.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 23.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 6,159 housing units, of which 26.4% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 78.8% were owner-occupied and 21.2% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 11.9%.
2000 census
As of the 2000 census, 12,182 people, 3,921 households, and 3,164 families resided in the county. Zapata County is estimated to be the 11th-fastest growing county in Texas since 2000. The population density was. The 6,167 housing units had an average density of. The racial makeup of the county was 84.07% White, 0.41% African American, 0.32% Native American, 0.19% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 12.64% from other races, and 2.33% from two or more races. About 84.78% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race.Of the 3,921 households, 43.2% had children under 18 living with them, 64.2% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.3% were not families. About 17.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 3.10 and the average family size was 3.52.
In the county, the age distribution was 33.0% under 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.8 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 93.7 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $24,635 and for a family was $26,722. Males had a median income of $26,294 versus $14,579 for females. The per capita income for the county was $10,486. About 29.3% of families and 35.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 46.1% of those under 18 and 21.3% of those 65 or over.
Religion
According to the 2020 US Census, Zapata County is 55% Catholic, 5.8% Evangelical Protestant, 2.4% Mormon, 1.5% Jehovah's Witnesses, 0.4% mainline Protestant, and 35.0% other or none.Government and politics
In the majority of U.S. presidential elections, Zapata County supported Democratic Party candidates, but on three occasions, it gave record-setting margins to Republican presidential nominees, when it delivered the highest percentage of the vote of any county in the nation to them. The first time was in 1896, when it gave 96.3% of the vote to William McKinley, though he lost Texas as a whole with 30.8% of the statewide popular vote, but won the national election with 51.0% of the nationwide popular vote. The second time was in 1908, when William Howard Taft won 99.1% of the vote in the county, despite losing the state to Democrat William Jennings Bryan and receiving just 22.4% of the statewide vote, but winning the national election with 51.6% of the nationwide popular vote. The last time was in 1912, when it again gave then-incumbent President Taft 80.9% of the vote, with it being his best county in the nation, but against the state and nation's preference for the Democratic victor Woodrow Wilson; in the popular vote, Taft only received 9.5% statewide and 23.2% nationwide.It voted Republican for President in 1920 and then consistently voted Democratic until 2020, when Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Joe Biden 52% to 47%, about the same as the statewide margin. Zapata was the most Hispanic county to vote for Trump in 2020, as well as the county with the lowest non-Hispanic White population to do so. In 2024, this trend continued, with Trump receiving nearly 61% of the vote in the county. Zapata shifted to the right from 2012 to 2024 by 66%, representing the third-furthest such rightward shift for any county in the country, surpassed only by Starr County and Maverick County's respective shifts of 89 and 77%.