Hidalgo County, TX

The USDA Economic Research Service Food Access Research Atlas flags 183 of Hidalgo County's 218 census tracts as low-access, covering 587,641 residents of a 873K total population. That translates to a county-wide low food access share of 67.3%, which measures how many people live more than one mile from the nearest supermarket in urban settings or more than ten miles in rural settings. Because Texas classifies tracts using the same distance thresholds the USDA applies nationwide, Hidalgo County's figure is directly comparable to peer counties and to the state benchmark.

The food desert signal strengthens when distance is stacked with income. In Hidalgo County, 130,975 residents are flagged as low-income and more than one mile from a supermarket (the urban threshold), while 43,658 meet the low-income, ten-mile rural threshold. Those overlapping conditions are the precise combination the USDA uses to designate a food desert tract. Layered context includes a median household income of $49,371, a poverty rate of 27.7%, and SNAP participation covering 73,481 households — roughly 28.5% of the county — drawn from the Census Bureau American Community Survey five-year estimates.

Transportation is the hidden variable behind most food access gaps. About 5.6% of Hidalgo County households report no vehicle available, meaning any measured distance to a supermarket translates into a real trip on foot, by transit, or by asking for a ride. Group quarters residents — 1.0% of the population — are counted separately because their food access patterns follow an institution rather than a household. With more than 30% of Hidalgo County in a low-access area, the county sits well above the national median and warrants closer review of supermarket siting, SNAP outreach, and transit connections.