Beyond Magnolia Market at the Silos, the shop and food-truck lot created by Chip and Joanna Gaines, Waco has plenty more to see. About 148,000 people live here on the Brazos River, roughly halfway between Dallas and Austin. Baylor University shapes the feel of town, especially on football Saturdays at McLane Stadium.
A visitor can spend a day at the Dr Pepper Museum, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, the Waco Suspension Bridge and Riverwalk, and Cameron Park, which has good hiking and biking plus the zoo. Waco Mammoth National Monument is a surprise worth the stop. Living here is affordable compared with Austin and Dallas, and the pace is easy. The downsides are a violent crime rate above the national average in some parts of town (car break-ins are the common visitor problem), triple-digit summers, and a spring storm season with hail and tornado risk.
Cities with a similar character, anywhere on the site.
Out of 10. Open any score to see how it’s worked out. “Data-based” scores come from published figures; “Hey! En Route estimate” scores are worked out from what we know about the city; “Hey! En Route rating” scores were set by our editors.
- Known as
- Heart of Texas; Home of Baylor University and Dr Pepper; Magnolia Market at the Silos (Chip and Joanna Gaines); Home of Texas Ranger Hall of Fame
- Founded
- 1849 laid out as a town on the Brazos River; 1856 incorporated as a city (Waco named for the Wichita-affiliated Waco people)
- Languages
- English; Spanish; Vietnamese; Chinese; Arabic
- Airports
- Waco Regional Airport (ACT), about 8 miles northwest (limited commercial service, mainly American to Dallas/Fort Worth); Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW), about 90 miles north; Austin-Bergstrom (AUS), about 100 miles south; Killeen-Fort Hood Regional (GRK), about 55 miles southwest
- Tipping
- Restaurants 18-20%; bars $1-2 per drink or 15-20% of tab; taxis and rideshare 15-20%; hotel housekeeping $3-5 per night; bellhops $2-5 per bag; counter service optional
About this data
Population (147,788), land area, median home value and median gross rent are from Census QuickFacts (population July 1, 2025; value and rent ACS 2020-2024). Metro figure of about 300,000 is an approximate recent estimate for the Waco MSA (McLennan County), not retrieved from a current Census table. Tourism bureau site (destinationwaco.org) appeared in search results; no dedicated tourism calendar URL was seen, so the City of Waco events page was used. Some event names are general and may not be current. Elevation, coordinates, founding, event names and months, hotel ranges, tipping, cost-of-living index, crime figures, airport distances and 1BR rent are approximate or from general knowledge and not verified in this pass; lower confidence. Search snippets only for URLs, which were seen in search results but not load-tested.
