6.9. Downtown Fort Worth: A City Ready to Catch Up Fort Worth ranks 11th among the top 35 metro areas nationally by city population and 22nd by employment, a strong position that reflects decades of sustained growth. But when the lens shifts to the downtown specifically, the picture changes sharply. Downtown Fort Worth ranks 34th nationally by population and 28th by employment among comparable downtowns. By both measures, the downtown significantly underperforms relative to the city it anchors.
6.9.1. Regional Comparison When compared against its immediate DFW neighbors, the gap is equally apparent. Among the region’s major cities, downtown Fort Worth has a smaller resident population than the downtowns of Dallas, McKinney, Irving, and Plano, despite Fort Worth being the second most populous city in the region.
The downtown population density premium, the ratio of downtown population density to citywide average density, stands at just 1.64 times the citywide average, placing Fort Worth third lowest among the top 20 cities by population nationally. Downtown Fort Worth accounts for only 0.45% to 1.0% of the city’s population, compared to a national range of 2% to 8% for peer downtowns. And between 2001 and 2023, downtown Fort Worth’s share of citywide jobs declined by approximately 1.8 percentage points, a pattern common among Sun Belt cities where suburban employment growth has outpaced downtown reinvestment.
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Fort Worth Master Transportation Plan | Multimodal Gap Analysis
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