Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Prairie View gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $212K, 2.6 years of the Houston metro’s $82K median household income. It grades B+ overall, better than 70% of U.S. towns. On the plus side, natural-hazard risk is low. Prairie View is a college campus (most residents are students), so it isn’t ranked among Texas’s towns. 38% of residents live below the poverty line in Prairie View, against 12% in Texas’ towns and 9.6% across U.S. towns. No town among the 642 in Texas we compare has a lower median household income than Prairie View. Prairie View is home to Prairie View A & M University.
Where Prairie View beats most towns.
| Widest gap | Prairie View | TX |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 1.4% | 6.1% |
5,576 counted in 2010 and 8,184 in 2020; an estimated 8,969 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 9.3% since 2020, after 46.8% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Texas), ordered by how far Prairie View is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,326 in 1960, 8,184 in 2020. The archive holds 7 old photos and papers going back to 2010 and 3 maps from 1920 on.
6 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Prairie View, 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.
Ordered by what stands out in Prairie View.
Prairie View trades lower home prices for longer drives to work, is shaped by its college students and carries less natural-hazard risk than most of Texas (mostly tornadoes).
Its public schools are run by Waller ISD. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| H T Jones ElLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 720 | C− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TX on state tests and graduation
2,786 jobs are based in Prairie View, 1.7 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
Most working residents leave Prairie View for work: only 6% work in town. The top destinations are Houston (26%), Austin (5%) and Dallas (3%).
| Prairie View | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 5.5% | 8.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 90% of Texas towns, with expected losses of about $334 per resident a year; that rating is what its A for hazard risk is built on.
Prairie View’s FEMA risk score is 15 of 100. Since 1994, 36 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Prairie View.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Against the 92 U.S. towns with household incomes like Prairie View’s, it is healthier than 99%, so its B+ isn’t only a matter of income.
5.4% of Prairie View adults have diabetes. Only 2 of the 641 Texas towns we compare have a lower share of adults who have high blood pressure than Prairie View. 24% of Prairie View adults have been diagnosed with depression.
| Prairie View | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 5.4% | 13% | 12% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 18% | 17% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 35% | 35% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.3% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Prairie View | TX |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 1.4% | 6.1% |
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 2% | 5.6% |
| More adults without reliable transportation | 21.2% | 10.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Homes are within reach (about $212K for the typical one, A− for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 43 miles. At 2.6 years of the Houston metro’s $82K median household income, the typical home (about $212K) costs less against local pay than in 81% of Texas towns; that ratio is one input to its A− for cost of living.
25% of households own their home in Prairie View. The typical Prairie View home is worth about $212,000, about the same as a year ago, 28% below the Texas typical home. The median rent in Prairie View is $1,002 a month.
| Prairie View | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 25% | 69% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,002 a month | $1,208 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
The Bellville 6nne weather station, 15 miles away, records that about 108 days a year reach 90°, more than in 96% of U.S. towns. January nights average 41.5°, milder than in 95% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 94.4°.
Prairie View has warm winters and hot summers. Snow is almost unheard of.
| Prairie View | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 42°F | 37°F | 22°F |
| July high | 94°F | 95°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
At 13.7 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 77% of Texas’s graded towns. Violent crime is rare: 11 reported in 2025, 1.3 per 1,000 residents.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Just 0 of its 4,729 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Prairie View itself; its outdoors grade is C−.
1.1 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Student Park | — | 4 |
| 2. Holland and Gaines Memorial Student Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Prairie View. Close and well known come first.
20 mi State parkWashington-on-the-Brazos
31 mi TheatreCynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
39 mi LandmarkMemorial Park
30 mi GardenGeorge Bush Park
28 mi GardenBear Creek Pioneers Park
33 mi MuseumNational Museum of Funeral HistoryWashington-on-the-Brazos: WhisperToMe, Public domain · Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion: WhisperToMe, CC0 · Memorial Park: Tartessos75, Public domain · George Bush Park: JuWiki at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Bear Creek Pioneers Park: Pleonic, CC BY-SA 3.0 · National Museum of Funeral History: Jim Evans, CC BY-SA 4.0
1 within 15 miles of the center of Prairie View
College town 66 of every 100 Prairie View residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Texas.
6 places in Prairie View on the National Register of Historic Places.
4 notable people were born in Prairie View.
City in Texas, United States
Prairie View is a city in Waller County, Texas, United States, situated on the northwestern edge of the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. The population was 8,184 at the 2020 census. Prairie View A&M University, the second-oldest public university in Texas, is based in the city.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Prairie View.
| Town | TX rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie View | – | B+ | A− | B | C+ | B+ |
| Waller | #313 | C | B+ | C | C+ | C− |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Prairie View grades B+ overall, better than 70% of U.S. towns. Prairie View is a college campus (most residents are students), so it isn’t ranked among Texas’s towns. It grades B+ for health, B for safety and C+ for schools.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.
4 notable people were born here, including Debra Sapenter and Walter Booker.
