McAllen is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexican border. The city limits extend south to the Rio Grande, across from the Mexican city of Reynosa. As of the 2025 census estimate, McAllen's population was 150,640, making it the most populous city in Hidalgo County, the second most populous city in the Rio Grande Valley, and the 23rd-most populous city in Texas. The city anchors the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metropolitan area, the fifth largest metropolitan area in the state of Texas, with 921,549 residents as of 2025. The binational Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan area counts a population of more than 1.5 million.
From its settlement in 1904, the area around McAllen was largely rural and agricultural in character, but the latter half of the 20th century had steady growth, which has continued in the 21st century in the metropolitan area. The introduction of the maquiladora economy and the North American Free Trade Association led to an increase in cross-border trading with Mexico.
History
In 1904, the Hidalgo and San Miguel Extension (now the Sam Fordyce Branch) of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached the Santa Anita Ranch. John McAllen and his son James had donated land to the railroad to guarantee it would cross this area. On December 5, 1904, the McAllen Townsite Company was formed by Uriah Lott, Leonidas C. Hill Sr., John McAllen (1826-1913), James Ballí McAllen (1862-1916), and John J. Young. The new community, which was named for John McAllen, had the depot nearest the county seat, Hidalgo, to the south.
By 1911, were under cultivation in East McAllen: commodity crops of cotton, alfalfa, broom corn, citrus fruits, grapes, and figs were raised. East McAllen had an estimated population of 1,000 that year, and West McAllen had ceased to exist. In 1911, the town applied for and was issued a charter of incorporation under the name McAllen. In 1916, 20,000 New York state troops were stationed at McAllen to help quell border disturbances related to the Mexican Civil War. The resulting economic boom increased the population from 1,200 in 1916 to 6,000 in 1920.
McAllen adopted a home rule charter in 1927. Canning factories, a winery, tortilla plants, wood-working plants, and some oil exploration increased the population to 9,074 by 1930. In 1936, Hiram Garner opened the Valley Distillery, Incorporated, which produced wines from citrus juices. The town was a petroleum and farm chemurgic center with a population of 11,877 in 1940, by which time it had adopted the nickname "The City of Palms". In 1941, a suspension bridge replaced the old bridge from Hidalgo to Reynosa in Tamaulipas; the new toll bridge was purchased by McAllen and was named the McAllen–Hidalgo–Reynosa International Bridge. Its construction resulted in increased tourist trade, making McAllen a winter resort and port of entry to Mexico.
The discovery of oil in the Reynosa area in 1947 attracted a large migration of people from the Mexican interior to jobs in the region. They both constituted a new tourist market and a cheap labor supply for McAllen. The sister cities were linked as a result of the increased traffic between them. The population of McAllen was 20,005 in 1950 and 32,728 in 1960. In 1954 the McAllen–Hidalgo–Reynosa International Bridge was the number-two port of entry into Mexico.
McAllen was an agricultural, oil, and tourist center in 1970, when the population reached 37,636. By the start of the 1970s, McAllen had a 200-bed hospital and a new air-conditioned high school, the first school in the nation featuring on-site power generated by natural gas-powered turbines. The tourism industry continued to expand as people traveled to the area from both Mexico and the northern United States. The population continued to grow steadily through the 1970s, and reached 66,281 by 1980. During the late 1980s, the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone was an important general-purpose foreign trade zone. At the time, McAllen's main industries were retail, tourism and farming, and each was in trouble. The devaluation of the Mexican peso in the 1980s put a damper on cross-border shopping; local tourism was down because of the recession. In 1983, a freeze took out much of the valley's citrus crop.
In the mid-1980s, fueled by trade and the growth of the maquiladora (in which components are shipped to Mexico from the United States, assembled, and shipped back as finished products), the economy began to improve in Hidalgo County. McAllen sits across the border from Reynosa, a large manufacturing center. After the peso devalued, Mexico was more successful in attracting companies to run their plants in Mexico, with support operations in Texas.
Border crossing is a daily event for many and is a key component in the local economy. The city became a focal point for concerns about the border during the United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019 over the Mexico–United States barrier. President Donald Trump held a briefing with the border agents at the patrol station here in January 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen also visited the Border Patrol station in March 2019. In order to deal with overcrowded facilities in 2019 resulting from the arrival of Central American migrant caravans, immigration authorities were releasing a few hundred asylum seekers daily to private groups that assist them with basic needs and travel arrangements.
The mayor emphasized how safe and secure the city is when U.S military troops were mobilized in the city to help the Border Patrol. Portions of the razor wire coils considered unnecessary by the city were removed after troops had placed it at the border. The troops assisted by using military helicopters to carry border patrol agents to and from locations along the Mexico–United States border and by maintaining vehicles. The Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller expressed concerns about the impact of continuing border support on combat readiness for the troops.
Geography McAllen, located in southern Hidalgo County, is bordered to the southwest by Granjeno; to the west by Mission, Palmhurst, and Alton; to the north by Edinburg, the Hidalgo county seat; to the east by Pharr; and to the south by Hidalgo. The McAllen city limits extend to the southwest as far as the Rio Grande, directly north of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in Mexico. The Anzalduas International Bridge crosses the Rio Grande at this point, southwest of downtown McAllen.
McAllen is south of San Antonio, southwest of Corpus Christi, southeast of Laredo, northwest of Brownsville, and northeast of Monterrey.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.62%, is covered by water.
Although McAllen is named the "City of Palms", tropical vegetation is only locally dominant. Many thorny shrubs and deciduous trees occur in the area, such as the Rio Grande ash (Fraxinus berlandieriana), cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia), and honey mesquite (Neltuma glandulosa).
Climate McAllen, like much of South Texas, has a subtropical climate.Rio Grande Valley. Wikivoyage. Under the Köppen climate classification, the city features a hot semi-arid climate (BSh), featuring long, very hot and humid summers, and brief, warm winters. The city has two distinct seasons, a wet season from May to October and a dry season from November to April. The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from in January to in August. The warm season is extremely long, as average high temperatures from May through September are above and average low temperatures are above , with relatively high dew point values, resulting in higher relative humidity and heat index values. Heat indices consistently reach over during these months. Winter temperatures in McAllen and surrounding Rio Grande Valley are some of the warmest in the contiguous United States outside of South Florida, and comparable to the Coachella and Imperial Valleys and Yuma Desert, but with warmer nighttime lows and higher dew points.
Average annual precipitation is . Most precipitation occurs in the warm season, with the least precipitation distinctly occurring in the cooler winter. As September is the peak of the north Atlantic hurricane season and tropical storms and hurricanes occasionally drop copious amounts of rainfall on the region, this month tends by far to be the wettest, averaging of rain. The driest month is February, with only . Since 1941 the wettest month has been October 1958 with ; in contrast only fell from April to July 1998, and only from October 2010 to May 2011. The wettest day on record has been August 10, 1980 when fell, the wettest calendar year 1966 with , and the driest 1989 with only .
Temperatures consistently rise above from June through August, with exceptionally high humidity. The highest temperature ever recorded in McAllen was , set on June 22, 2017 and May 9, 2024. The lowest temperature ever recorded in McAllen was on January 12, 1962.
While usually a hot, humid, but relatively dry climate, McAllen has received unusual weather phenomena. In 2013, McAllen received a large hailstorm that destroyed many vehicles and buildings. The storm came suddenly, and many people were unprepared. Since 1941, it has snowed twice, once when the city received on December 25, 2004,. and once in December 2017 when almost was received. In February 2021, McAllen reached record low temperatures between and and lost power, heat, and water for a week due to Winter Storm Uri. In addition to these fluke weather events, McAllen is prone to tropical storms, hurricanes such as Hurricane Dolly (2008) and Hurricane Hanna (2020), and heatwaves.
Demographics Racial and ethnic composition +McAllen, Texas – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)17,92415,19313,03216.84%11.70%9.16%Black or African American alone (NH)4878338940.46%0.64%0.63%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1121201410.11%0.09%0.10%Asian alone (NH)2,0103,2883,5761.89%2.53%2.51%Pacific Islander alone (NH)1517210.01%0.01%0.01%Some other race alone (NH)42884090.04%0.07%0.29%Mixed race or multiracial (NH)3974288870.37%0.33%0.62%Hispanic or Latino (any race)85,427109,910123,25080.28%84.630%86.67%Total106,414129,877142,210100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, McAllen had a population of 142,210, 48,717 households, and 34,119 families residing in the city.
The median age was 35.4 years, 25.8% of residents were under the age of 18, and 14.3% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 93.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.7 males age 18 and over.
99.4% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.6% lived in rural areas.
Of the 48,717 households in McAllen, 38.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 47.2% were married-couple households, 17.6% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 29.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 22.1% of all households consisted of individuals, and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 53,622 housing units, of which 9.1% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3% and the rental vacancy rate was 8.6%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 48,974 34.4% Black or African American 1,178 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native 1,114 0.8% Asian 3,688 2.6% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 33 0.0% Some other race 25,924 18.2% Two or more races 61,299 43.1% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 123,250 86.7%
2010 census As of the census of 2010, 129,877 people, 41,573 households, and 31,823 families resided in the city. Of the 45,862 housing units, 4,289, or 9.4%, were vacant.