Garza: 35 to 40 percent of Edinburg’s workforce is involved in healthcare

EDINBURG, Texas – Raudel Garza, Edinburg Economic Development Corporation’s executive director, felt the need to repeat a key statistic to bankers, land developers, and realtors during a recent Edinburg Commercial Tour event.

“Among cities that have a population of at least 100,000, Edinburg is the 12th fast-growing city in the nation,” Garza said, repeating his remark three times so that it sunk in.

“In the nation, we’re number 12. In the nation we’re No. 12. That’s an impressive number, guys.”

The emphasis he gave the statistic had the desired effect. The audience applauded.

The tour was co-hosted by Edinburg EDC and the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. Garza started his 30-minute power point presentation by focusing on his city’s population growth. 

“As the mayor mentioned, we’re slightly over 100,000 people. We’re actually growing at a very, very fast rate. From 2020 to 2024, we were growing at the seventh fastest pace in Texas, at seven and a half percent over those four years,” Garza said. “We’ve experienced some really, really great growth.”

And it is not just Edinburg that is growing. Garza gave some stats about the Valley as a whole.

“The region is growing. I remember when we talked about the region being almost as big as El Paso. We were almost 900,000 people a few years ago. We’re 1.4 almost 1.5 million people now. We’re bigger than El Paso. And if you look at not just our side of the river, but on the Mexican side as well, we’re well over three, three and a half million people.”

Edinburg’s population growth means more homes need constructing, Garza explained. 

“In 2023, we had almost $400 million in construction activity. The year before, we had over $320 million. So, those are huge numbers for a small community. Except for the fact that we’re not small anymore,” Garza reported.

“Right now, we have 5,800 lots that are under development at one point or another. So, there are a lot of subdivisions that are coming up. You start doing the math on that. There’s an average of almost three people per household. So, 5,800 times three. That’s a lot of people coming up in the very near future. And so that’s a big challenge for council, to make sure that they have the infrastructure necessary to accommodate all that growth.”

Garza said Edinburg is still affordable in terms of its median home values.

“Our home ownership is still much higher than a lot of other places. So, we’re continuing to build homes, and we’re continuing to grow. Around $57,000 or so is our median household income. We have over 4,800 businesses that are choosing Edinburg as their home.”

During the day, because of UT-Rio Grande Valley, Hidalgo County Courthouse and the local hospitals, Edinburg’s population doubles, Garza said.

“Those are the demographics that retailers look at and they say, oh, wow, we should be there, and that’s what we’re trying to sell.”

Garza then listed Edinburg’s ten top employers. They are:

DHR Health – 6,423

UT-Rio Grande Valley – 5,257

Edinburg CISD – 4,993

Border Patrol RGV Sector – 3,700

Hidalgo County – 3,579

South Texas Health System, – 3.356

City of Edinburg – 1,590

Maximus – 1,400

Region One Education Service Center – 1,310

Tropical Texas MHMR – 1,049

“They represent over 32,000 employees,” Garza said, proudly.

Healthcare

Garza then focused on the importance of the healthcare industry to his city.

“The thing that drives a lot of our economy here in Edinburg is healthcare. We have probably about 35 to 40 percent of our workforce involved in healthcare. And three of the big players in our healthcare industry are DHR, South Texas Health System, and now Driscoll Children’s Hospital,” Garza said.

“DHR has, like I said, over 6,400 employees. They’re the largest hospital system in the Valley now at over 673 beds, and they continue to grow. And then South Texas Health System has over 3,300 employees. They, too, have done some really, really good work in terms of their recent growth. A couple of years ago, they grew their hospital, built a new wing, spent about $220 million out there. They’ve got almost 300 beds.”

Garza said Driscoll are the new guys in town.

“They’ve been in Corpus for a while, but they saw a need to expand their services into the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas. They have over 1,000 employees. They opened up this past May with almost 120 pediatric beds, and they are obviously going to make a huge impact on our economy.”

Education

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Garza said Edinburg CISD is one of the largest school districts in the Valley with over 34,000 students. He also mentioned South Texas ISD, 

UTRGV, meanwhile, has 34,343 students, as of Fall 2024, Garza said, making it the ninth largest university in Texas.

“Edinburg is a hot bed for education in terms of UT Rio Grande Valley, South Texas ISD, and Edinburg CISD is the largest school district in South Texas. So, a lot of good things happening,” Garza said.

“You guys have heard a lot about UTRGV lately. Washington Monthly continues to crown them as the number one university in Texas.”

Garza also spoke about UTRGV’s focus on business and workforce development 

“They have the old Haggar building, which the mayor had talked about earlier, which is being converted into a workforce, economy, research and community center. It’s going to basically be a one-stop shop for startup companies,” Garza said.

“They’re also going to start an advanced manufacturing incubator in that building. If you have an idea and want to get started and need some help in formulating your business plan, that’s going to be the place to go. That’s going to be the big resource center for a lot of people.”

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