Bell County, Texas

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Key takeaways

Bell County has 386,897 residents and contains Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood), one of the largest US Army installations in the country. Meta restarted construction on the Temple campus in 2024 with a new AI-optimized design after pausing the project.Source: Census ACS 2024 B01003 + data/sites/data_centers.csv (Temple, Meta) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Bell County)
Median household income is $68,865 and the median home value is $241,000, both at the rural-Texas baseline despite the metro Killeen-Temple-Fort Cavazos labor market. Property tax assessments rose 9.4% over three years.Source: Census ACS 2024 B19013, B25077 + data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv (FIPS 48027)
Home prices are down 0.1% on a 3-year baseline, essentially flat, while neighboring DFW counties saw double-digit declines. The Temple campus sits on Oncor's ERCOT-side grid, where there is no published residential rate delta because of deregulation.Source: data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 48027) + data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (no Oncor residential row)
The 27.2% bachelor's share is the lowest of any major Texas data-center county outside the Panhandle. Meta has not yet disclosed Temple's MW, leaving the regional load impact invisible.Source: Census ACS 2024 B15003 + data/sites/data_centers.csv

19.4% of Bell County adults are veterans, the highest veteran share in batch 4 and roughly four times the Texas average. Fort Cavazos retirees and active-duty separations dominate the post-service civilian labor market around the Meta Temple site.Source: Census ACS 2023 B21001 (FIPS 48027)
Bell County is 52.1% white, 23.3% Black, and 25.8% Hispanic, the most racially balanced batch-4 county. Killeen and Temple have absorbed Army-driven demographic mixing for decades, distinct from rural Texas next door.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001, B03003 (FIPS 48027)
14.6% of Bell residents live in poverty and 6.5% are unemployed, both well above the Texas state baseline. The Meta campus enters a labor market where one in seven residents already qualifies as poor.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001, B23025 (FIPS 48027)
Only 56.2% of Bell households own their home, the second lowest owner-occupied rate in batch 4 after Shelby. Military-rotation rentals depress the ownership baseline that Killeen's home-price decline would normally help.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003 (FIPS 48027)