Arlington, TX vs Houston, TX
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Houston spends 18.3% more per capita than Arlington ($2,631/person difference). Both cities share the same Fiscal Health Score.
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $507 | $181 |
| Income Tax | $73 | $39 |
| Intergovernmental | $25,062 | $33 |
| Charges & Fees | $2,949 | $3,475 |
| Other | $3,897 | $3,960 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Fire Protection | $160 | $295 |
| Highways & Roads | $149 | $175 |
| Public Welfare | $826 | $533 |
| Health | $219 | $210 |
| Hospitals | $152 | $511 |
| Parks & Recreation | $1,352 | $361 |
| Housing | $2,981 | $4,288 |
| Sewerage | $141 | $386 |
| Utilities | $1,385 | $1,339 |
| Other | $4,404 | $6,301 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.