PenitasTX
A town of 6,495, settled in 1909.
Is Penitas a good place to live?
Penitas earns a D, 507th among Texas's 640 graded towns, mostly because of health and incomes. CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 96% of the country. The median household income is $49K, and 24% of residents live below the poverty line. What it does well: crime is low: it reports less per resident than 65% of U.S. towns. Penitas’ January low is 49°F, above both Texas’ towns (37°F) and U.S. towns (22°F). Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 91% of U.S. towns. Penitas's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 100% of U.S. towns.
Penitas has grown 47% since 2010
4,403 counted in 2010 and 6,460 in 2020; an estimated 6,495 in 2025.
Growth has leveled off: within 1% of 2020, after 46.7% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
How Penitas grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Texas), ordered by how far Penitas is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Penitas: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Penitas, 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 Penitas.
Penitas fares better on crime within Texas than nationally, has more 90° days than nearly all U.S. towns and has home values climbing faster than Texas’s.
Penitas has set aside 2.4% of its land for conservation
8.1 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves. Penitas’ trail density is 0.9 miles per square mile.
| Penitas | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.9 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.4% | 1.9% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area - Penitas Unit | 2.7 mi | 112 |
| 2. Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | 0.3 mi | 17 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
On state tests, Penitas’ schools trail 65% of Texas districts
Its public schools are run by La Joya ISD. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| John F Kennedy ElLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 676 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TX on state tests and graduation
Compared with most of Texas and the rest of the country, more of Penitas’ adults worry about having enough food
49% of adults worry about having enough food in Penitas. Penitas beats the Texas average on 1 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 22. 40% of adults say their health is fair or poor in Penitas.
| Penitas | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 24% | 19% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 13% | 12% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 44% | 30% | 25% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 49% | 20% | 14% |
| What stands out | Penitas | TX |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 3.6% | 6.1% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 48.5% | 19.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Homes in Penitas are worth about $159K, by Zillow’s estimate
Home values rose 29% in five years, to about $159K, against 10% across Texas.
The typical Penitas home is worth about $159,000, down 2.5% in a year, 46% below the Texas typical home. 86% of Penitas households own their home.
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Penitas has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs based here grew from 308 in 2013 to 789.
Most working residents leave Penitas for work: only 2% work in town. Since 2013, Penitas has added 481 jobs, to 789 in 2023. The average trip to work in Penitas is 22 minutes.
| Penitas | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $49,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.9% | 8.3% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Mild winters and hot summers in Penitas
The Mcallen weather station, 13 miles away, records that about 170 days a year reach 90°, more than in 99% of U.S. towns. January nights average 49.4°, milder than in 98% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 98.2°.
Penitas has warm winters and hot summers, with very little rain. Snow is almost unheard of.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Penitas’ grade for safety is a B+
At 12.9 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 78% of Texas’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 67 to 48 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Violent crime per 1,000 residents
Property crime per 1,000 residents
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Hurricanes leads a moderate hazard risk in Penitas
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 59% of U.S. communities. Since 2016, 5 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Penitas.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Bert Ogden Arena and 5 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Penitas. Close and well known come first.
17 mi Stadium & arenaBert Ogden Arena19 mi Stadium & arenaRobert and Janet Vackar Stadium
15 mi Stadium & arenaPayne Arena17 mi MuseumMuseum of South Texas History
8 mi TheatreBorder Theater
13 mi GardenMcAllen Botanical GardensPhoto credits
Bert Ogden Arena: Wikidude10000, CC0 · Payne Arena: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0 · Border Theater: Andres Gonzalez, CC BY-SA 4.0 · McAllen Botanical Gardens: Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, United States, CC BY 3.0 us
Everything we know about Penitas
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Penitas
About 4 of every 100 Penitas residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Texas.
98% of working residents leave Penitas for work
Where Penitas’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
About Penitas
City in Texas, United States
Peñitas is a city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,460 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 6,568 in 2024. It is part of the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission and Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan areas.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 2.0 sq mi
- Elevation
- 145 ft
- ZIP code
- 78576
Penitas’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Penitas.
Abram has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Abram reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Penitas with a neighbor →
Questions about Penitas
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Penitas, TX a good place to live?
Penitas grades D overall, better than 9% of U.S. towns and #507 of 640 in Texas. It grades D− for health, B+ for safety and C+ for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Penitas, TX expensive?
That is 2.9 years of the area's median household income ($54,338 across the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX metro 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+.