Doing Good

Generous Houston neighbor named among the most charitable places in Texas

Donations upon donations.

Photo courtesy of Houston Food Bank

One bright spot during this difficult time has been watching people up their charitable contributions, whether that means giving money to causes they support or donating goods that didn't make the cut during a quarantine deep clean.

But even before the pandemic, certain counties in Texas were making a noticeable impact with their generosity. SmartAsset recently released its 2019 ranking of the top 10 most charitable-minded Texas counties, using two equally weighted factors to index the findings.

The financial website looked at how much people donate as a percentage of their net income, and the proportion of people in a given county who made charitable donations.

To find the first number, they calculated the net income of all people in each county (by looking at tax return data and accounting for federal, state, and local taxes paid). They also accounted for deductible entries like mortgage interest, mortgage points, and mortgage insurance payments. Then, they divided each county's total charitable donations by its total net income to see how much county residents are donating relative to their income.

For the second factor, they took the total number of tax returns with charitable contributions and divided them by the number of total tax returns for each county. That produced the proportion of people in each county who make charitable donations.

Claiming the top spot is Kendall County, located just north of San Antonio and home to Boerne. Though technically fourth in the donation index, its residents made up for it with their contributor rate of 67.7, the highest on the list.

Fort Bend County, home to Houston neighbor Sugar Land, had similar results to grab its No. 2 finish, with middling donations being rescued by the second-highest rate of contributors, 66.4

Dallas-Fort Worth takes the next three spots, with Collin (home of Plano), Tarrant (Fort Worth and Arlington), and Denton (where University of North Texas' main campus is located) counties showing wildly varying results.

Tarrant County is pretty evenly split, with 40.6 for donations and 46.4 for contributors, but Collin and Denton deliver lower donation scores. At 25.1, Collin is the fourth-lowest, and Denton's 24.6 is next to last.

At No. 6 overall is Gillespie, where you'll find Fredericksburg, and No. 7 is Montgomery, home of Lake Conroe and The Woodlands. Brazoria County, on The Gulf, has the lowest donation index in the top 10, at 23.7, but its contributor score of 55.1 pulls it up to No. 8.

Coming in at No. 9 is Smith, found east of DFW and the county seat of Tyler. Its 38.6 contributor index is closely matched by 38.9 for donations. Wrapping up the list at No. 10 is Parker County, west of Fort Worth, where Weatherford is located. Its total score clocks in 15 points below the most charitable county on the list, with a donation index of 24.8 and contributor index of 52.7.

H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houston made a big leap back into the top 50, ranking No. 40, after previously plummeting into No. 72 last year.

Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 73 in last year's report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Houston in the top 10 – when explaining the Bayou City's successes. The report praised Houston's vast cultural diversity and placed a great focus on its economic prosperity, even going so far as to suggest Houston residents make more money "and can sock more away."

"...[W]here America’s fourth-largest city truly takes off is in its economic heft and wealth, ranking No. 9 globally for GDP per Capita and No. 14 for Fortune 500 companies in town," the report said. "All that rolls up into an overall Prosperity index ranking of No. 36, which is even more impressive given the No. 14-ranked Price-to Income Ratio [of the city]."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Dallas also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Dallas moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).