EarlyTX
A town of 3,117.
Is Early a good place to live?
Early grades C overall, 302nd among Texas's 640 graded towns, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. Its public schools beat 86% of Texas towns on state tests and graduation and natural-hazard risk is low. On the other side, the median household income is $67K, and 11% of residents live below the poverty line. Early’s violent crime rate is 6 per 1,000 residents, above both the Texas town median (1.9) and the median of U.S. towns (1.6). The biggest park or preserve is Early City Park, at 22 acres.
What makes Early stand out
Where Early beats most towns.
Early has grown 14% since 2010
2,762 counted in 2010 and 3,087 in 2020; an estimated 3,117 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
How Early grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Texas), ordered by how far Early is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Early: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Early, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Early.
Early carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of Texas (mostly inland flooding) and has more 90° days than nearly all U.S. towns, but it has little public open land.
Early earns an A for schools
Its public schools are run by Early ISD. Three of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Early H S, with 365 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early ElLargest public elementary schoolGrades 3–5 | Grades 3–5 | 241 | B+ |
| Early H SLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 365 | A+ |
| Early MiddleTop results in townGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 230 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TX on state tests and graduation
Early faces a very low natural-hazard risk, led by inland flooding
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 92% of Texas towns; that rating is what its A for hazard risk is built on.
Early’s FEMA risk score is 13 of 100. Since 1988, 10 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Early.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Violent crime per 1,000 residents
Property crime per 1,000 residents
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Mild winters and hot summers in Early
The Brownwood 2ene weather station records that about 116 days a year reach 90°, more than in 98% of U.S. towns. July afternoons average 95.8°, hotter than in 97% of U.S. towns; January nights average 33.4°.
Early has mild winters and hot summers. The July high in Early is 96°F. About 1 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Early | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 96°F | 95°F | 85°F |
| January low | 33°F | 37°F | 22°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
About two in five of Early’s working residents commute to Brownwood
The average commute for its 1,319 working residents takes 17.9 minutes, against 26.7 across Texas.
Most working residents leave Early for work: only 7% work in town. Jobs based in Early grew to 1,114 in 2023, 224 more than in 2013. The top destinations are Brownwood (40%), Austin (4%) and San Antonio (3%).
| Early | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 18 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $67,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Early’s typical home value is about $249K
The typical Early home is worth about $249,000, up 1.2% in a year, 16% below the Texas typical home.
| Early | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 71% | 69% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,227 a month | $1,206 a month | $1,185 a month |
Typical home value
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Early is less healthy than 60% of U.S. towns
Early beats the Texas average on 5 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 5. 14% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Early.
| Early | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 18% | 8.1% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 25% | 22% | 23% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 75% | 74% | 79% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 24% | 19% |
| What stands out | Early | TX |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 13.5% | 19.1% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 13.6% | 16.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 8.7% | 6.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
An age mix much like Texas’s
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Texas average. 27% of Early residents are under 18. Early has grown 2.1% since 2020, to 3,117 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Early | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 27% | 26% | 22% |
| Median age | 36.5 years | 35.8 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 16% | 14% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 28% | 23% | 29% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
48% women, 52% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±4.8 points. Across Texas, 50.1% of residents are women.
| Early | TX | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 14.6% | 13.3% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 12.5% | 11.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.7% | 9.7% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 15.2% | 14.5% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 14.6% | 14.1% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12.9% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 8.4% | 11.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 6.5% | 8.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 9.5% | 5.2% | 7% |
| No diploma | 8.1% | 14% | 10.4% |
| High school | 30.8% | 24.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 26.6% | 20.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 6.3% | 7.7% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 21% | 21.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 7.3% | 12.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 3,100, single groups can be off by several points
Conserved land covers 0.9% of Early
Just 22 of its 2,375 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Early itself; its outdoors grade is D.
0.0 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Early City Park | — | 22 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Early
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Early
About 4 of every 100 Early residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Texas.
About Early
City in Texas, United States
Early is a city located in Brown County in west-central Texas, United States. It is a suburb of Brownwood, and the population was 3,087 at the 2020 census. It is named for Walter U. Early, who donated land for the local schools. It is home to the Early Independent School District and the Heartland Mall.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 3.0 sq mi
- Elevation
- 1,414 ft
- ZIP code
- 76802, 76803
- Area code
- 325
Early’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Early.
Questions about Early
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Early, TX a good place to live?
Early grades C overall, better than 31% of U.S. towns and #302 of 640 in Texas. It grades C+ for health, C for safety and A for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Early, TX expensive?
That is 4.3 years of the area's median household income ($57,470 across the Brownwood, TX area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.