Wilbarger County, Texas

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Google

Resi rate Δ (AEP Texas)

n/a

Home price Δ (3y)

n/a

Property tax Δ (3y)

+4.3%

Population (2024 ACS)

13K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$54,102

Key takeaways

Wilbarger County has 12,712 residents and Vernon the seat has 10,078, an 8.4% population loss over the last decade. The Google / AES Vernon campus is the largest single industrial commitment to the county since Tyson Foods built its Wright Brand bacon plant.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003 (Wilbarger County, TX and Vernon) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Vernon, Texas)
Vernon hosts the Waggoner Ranch, the largest spread in Texas under one fence at roughly 510,000 acres. Google's data center is not on Waggoner land but the ranch's existing wind leases set the template for how rural Texas counties absorb new electric load.Source: sources[0] (Wikipedia: Vernon, Texas)
Median household income in Wilbarger County is $51,626 against a median home value of $98,800. Only 17.4% of residents over 25 hold a bachelor's degree, lower than every county in the batch except Mitchell.Source: Census ACS 2023 B19013, B25077, B15003 (FIPS 48487)
Wilbarger property tax assessments rose 4.3% over three years, modest given the 10,000-resident base. AEP Texas does not publish a retail residential rate in EIA Form 861 so the bill-side impact of Google's new load is invisible in the standard data.Source: data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv (FIPS 48487) + data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (no AEP Texas residential row)

Unemployment in Wilbarger County is 9.8%, the highest in this batch and more than triple the national figure. The Google AES Vernon campus is landing in a labor market that already cannot place its existing workforce.Source: Census ACS 2023 B23025 (FIPS 48487)
18.8% of Wilbarger residents live below the poverty line and median gross rent is $862 per month. Manufacturing already employs 12.1% of the workforce, the highest share of any Texas county in this batch, anchored by the Tyson bacon plant.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001, B25064, C24050 (FIPS 48487)
29.9% of Wilbarger residents are Hispanic, the largest Hispanic share of the West Texas counties in this batch. Only 78.0% of households have a home broadband subscription, the lowest broadband share among the Texas counties here.Source: Census ACS 2023 B03003, B28002 (FIPS 48487)
83.3% of Wilbarger residents lived in the same house one year earlier, lower than Shackelford or Mason but high enough that the Google campus will pull most of its construction crew from outside the county.Source: Census ACS 2023 B07001 (FIPS 48487)