Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Plenty in its favour, and one clear drawback. Its best grade is for incomes: the median household earns $136K. With a B overall, Sugar Land is better than 64% of U.S. towns. That places it 102nd of 640 in Texas. Health is a strength too — it is healthier than 89% of U.S. towns. The trade-off is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $440K, 5.4 years of the Houston metro’s $82K median household income. On the outdoors, just 23 of Texas’ 1,000 towns do better. The biggest place to walk is Cullinan Park, 754 acres with 12.8 miles of trail.
Figures: incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · health, CDC PLACES · home values, Zillow · USGS PAD-US · OpenStreetMap.
Where Sugar Land beats most towns.
78,817 counted in 2010 and 111,026 in 2020; an estimated 107,726 in 2025.
Since 2020 the trend has turned: down 3%, after 40.9% growth 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 Sugar Land is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,285 in 1950, 111,026 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1990 and 4 maps from 1955 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Sugar Land. Close and well known come first.
Big draw15 mi Stadium & arenaReliant Stadium
Big draw20 mi Stadium & arenaDaikin Park
17 mi MuseumRothko Chapel
19 mi Stadium & arenaToyota Center
20 mi Stadium & arenaShell Energy Stadium
19 mi Stadium & arenaTDECU StadiumReliant Stadium: User eschipul on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Daikin Park: Delaywaves, CC BY 3.0 · Rothko Chapel: Unknown, Public domain · Toyota Center: Ed Uthman from Houston, TX, USA, CC BY 2.0 · Shell Energy Stadium: HDFC PR, CC BY-SA 4.0 · TDECU Stadium: Brian Reading, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Sugar Land, 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 Sugar Land.
Sugar Land draws workers from Houston and beyond, fares better on crime within Texas than nationally and has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns.
In Sugar Land, the concentration of trails is 2.2 miles per square mile. Trails run 93 miles in 33 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Cullinan Park | 12.8 mi | 754 |
| 2. Sugar Land Memorial Park | 5.9 mi | 376 |
| 3. Lost Creek Park | 2.5 mi | 91 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Below: Three of its 46 schools, each with why it was picked. Public schools: Fort Bend ISD.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Settlement MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,504 | A+ |
| Clements H SLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,641 | A+ |
| Cornerstone ElTop results in townGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 743 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TX on state tests and graduation
77,621 jobs are based in Sugar Land, 1.6 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. 23.7% of workers work from home, against 14.4% across Texas.
Between 2013 and 2023, jobs in Sugar Land rose by 17,398, to 77,621. Most people who work leave Sugar Land to do it: just 15% work in town. Sugar Land: 24% of workers work from home, above both Texas’ towns (9.6%) and U.S. towns (11%). 5.5% of residents live below the poverty line here.
| Sugar Land | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $136,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 24% | 9.6% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 5.5% | 12% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its widest gap with Texas is no health insurance: 8.5% of those 18–64 have no health insurance, against 19.1% statewide. Its A for health tops all 4 graded neighbors; Missouri City (B+) comes closest.
Among adults in Sugar Land, 16% have been diagnosed with depression. Sugar Land: 15% of adults say their health is fair or poor, below both the Texas town median (24%) and the median of U.S. towns (19%). Of 31 CDC measures, Sugar Land beats the Texas average on 21 and trails it on 1.
| Sugar Land | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 18% | 17% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 25% | 37% | 35% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.8% | 15% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 22% | 23% |
| What stands out | Sugar Land | TX |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 8.5% | 19.1% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 5.3% | 10.7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 6.9% | 6.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Its typical home is the priciest on its borders; Richmond is next at $374K. The median property tax bill is $7,320, against $4,232 across Texas, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Homes sold in Sugar Land spent a median 37 days on the market. The typical home value in the town is about $440,000, about the same as a year ago, 48% above the Texas typical home. Also worth knowing: the midpoint rent for Sugar Land comes to $1,957 a month.
| Sugar Land | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,957 a month | $1,206 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 80% | 69% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
January nights average 43.9°, milder than in 96% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 93.8°.
It almost never snows. Its January low is 44°F.
| Sugar Land | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 44°F | 37°F | 22°F |
| July high | 94°F | 95°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
At 16 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 70% of Texas’s graded towns. Violent crime is rare: 81 reported in 2025, 0.7 per 1,000 residents.
The violent crime rate in Sugar Land is 0.7 per 1,000 residents. The level of property crime in the town is 12.2 per 1,000 residents.
| Sugar Land | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 1.9 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 12.2 per 1,000 residents | 10.7 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
241 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 18 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 52% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, Sugar Land has seen 241 flood insurance claims paid out. Of the losses FEMA expects locally, 44% come from inland flooding and 27% from hurricanes. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Sugar Land after 10 declared disasters, most recently in 2024.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
5 within 15 miles of the center of Sugar Land
About 6 of every 100 Sugar Land residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Texas.
10.1% of the town is conserved land, across 33 parks and preserves.
14 notable people were born in Sugar Land.
City in the United States
Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands metropolitan area. Located about 19 miles (31 km) southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around the junction of Texas State Highway 6 and Interstate 69/U.S. Route 59. Beginning in the 19th century, the present-day Sugar Land area was home to a large sugar plantation situated in the fertile floodplain of the Brazos River. Following the consolidation of local plantations into Imperial Sugar Company in 1908, Sugar Land grew steadily as a company town and incorporated as a city in 1959. Since then, Sugar …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Sugar Land.
It grades higher overall than all 4 graded towns on its borders; Missouri City (B−) comes closest. Stafford next door grades lower for schools (C+ to Sugar Land’s B+) and higher for cost of living (C to D).
| Town | TX rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Land | #102 | B | D | B | B+ | A |
| Stafford | #353 | C− | C | D | C+ | B |
| Missouri City | #197 | B− | D | B | B+ | B+ |
| Richmond | #417 | C− | C | C | A− | C+ |
| Houston | #606 | D− | C− | D− | C− | C+ |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Sugar Land grades B overall, better than 64% of U.S. towns and #102 of 640 in Texas. It grades A for health, B for safety and B+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
14 notable people were born here, including Brittney Karbowski and Rashawn Slater.
