The Houston spot is a top middle for constructing oilfield products

Comprising a total location of 637.four square miles (1,651 km2), Houston is the eighth-most expansive town in the United States (including consolidated metropolis-counties). It is the largest metropolis in the United States by total area, whose federal government is not consolidated with that of a county, parish, or borough. Although largely in houston escorts , small parts of the metropolis lengthen into Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, bordering other principal communities of Increased Houston this sort of as Sugar Land and The Woodlands.

The metropolis of Houston was started by land buyers on August thirty, 1836, at the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou (a position now known as Allen's Landing) and integrated as a metropolis on June 5, 1837. The town is named right after previous Common Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had received Texas's independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto 25 miles (forty km) east of Allen's Landing. Following briefly serving as the funds of the Texas Republic in the late 1830s, Houston grew steadily into a regional investing middle for the remainder of the 19th century.

The arrival of the 20th century had a convergence of economic aspects that fueled quick expansion in Houston, like a burgeoning port and railroad industry, the decline of Galveston as Texas's primary port following a devastating 1900 hurricane, the subsequent design of the Houston Ship Channel, and the Texas oil growth. In the mid-20th century, Houston's financial system diversified, as it turned home to the Texas Medical Center—the world's biggest concentration of health care and investigation institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Centre, where the Mission Handle Centre is positioned.

Houston's economic climate since the late nineteenth century has a broad industrial foundation in strength, producing, aeronautics, and transportation. Leading in healthcare sectors and developing oilfield gear, Houston has the next-most Fortune 500 headquarters of any U.S. municipality inside its metropolis limits (soon after New York Metropolis). The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in intercontinental waterborne tonnage handled and next in whole cargo tonnage handled.

Simply because of these strengths, Houston is designated as a global town by the Globalization and Entire world Cities Research Team and Network and global management consulting agency A.T. Kearney. The Houston area is the top U.S. industry for exports, surpassing New York Metropolis in 2013, according to info introduced by the U.S. Office of Commerce's Global Trade Administration. In 2012, the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land area recorded $110.3 billion in items exports. Petroleum goods, chemical compounds, and oil and gasoline extraction tools accounted for about two-thirds of the metropolitan area's exports last year. The prime 3 places for exports have been Mexico, Canada, and Brazil.

The Houston location is a top center for developing oilfield products. Considerably of its success as a petrochemical sophisticated is due to its hectic ship channel, the Port of Houston.[191] In the United States, the port ranks 1st in global commerce and 16th amid the biggest ports in the entire world. In contrast to most areas, higher oil and gasoline costs are helpful for Houston's financial system, as a lot of of its people are utilized in the power industry. Houston is the starting or end point of several oil, gasoline, and products pipelines.

The Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metro area's gross domestic merchandise (GDP) in 2016 was $478 billion, making it the sixth-premier of any metropolitan spot in the United States and more substantial than Iran's, Colombia's, or the United Arab Emirates' GDP. Only houston classified ads than the United States have a gross domestic merchandise exceeding Houston's regional gross location solution (Gap). In 2010, mining (which is made up nearly totally of exploration and manufacturing of oil and gasoline in Houston) accounted for 26.3% of Houston's Hole up sharply in response to large power charges and a decreased around the world surplus of oil manufacturing capacity, followed by engineering providers, well being providers, and production.