Comprising a complete location of 637.4 square miles (one,651 km2), Houston is the eighth-most expansive town in the United States (like consolidated metropolis-counties). It is the biggest metropolis in the United States by overall spot, whose govt is not consolidated with that of a county, parish, or borough. Even though mostly in Harris County, tiny portions of the metropolis prolong into Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, bordering other principal communities of Increased Houston this kind of as Sugar Land and The Woodlands.

The metropolis of Houston was founded by land buyers on August 30, 1836, at the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou (a stage now identified as Allen's Landing) and included as a city on June 5, 1837. The metropolis is named right after former Basic Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and experienced won Texas's independence from Mexico at the Struggle of San Jacinto twenty five miles (40 km) east of Allen's Landing. Right after briefly serving as the capital of the Texas Republic in the late 1830s, Houston grew steadily into a regional investing center for the remainder of the 19th century.

The arrival of the 20th century experienced a convergence of economic factors that fueled speedy expansion in Houston, like a burgeoning port and railroad sector, the drop of Galveston as Texas's major port adhering to a devastating 1900 hurricane, the subsequent development of the Houston Ship Channel, and the Texas oil increase. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston's economic climate diversified, as it became residence to the Texas Healthcare Center—the world's biggest concentration of health care and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Area Middle, in which the Mission Management Center is found.

Houston's financial system given that the late 19th century has a wide industrial foundation in vitality, manufacturing, aeronautics, and transportation. Major in health care sectors and developing oilfield products, Houston has the 2nd-most Fortune 500 headquarters of any U.S. municipality in its city boundaries (following New York Metropolis). The Port of Houston ranks 1st in the United States in international waterborne tonnage managed and 2nd in whole cargo tonnage dealt with.

Since of these strengths, Houston is selected as a world-wide town by the Globalization and Planet Metropolitan areas Examine Group and Community and worldwide management consulting organization A.T. Kearney. The Houston area is the best U.S. industry for exports, surpassing New York Town in 2013, according to information launched by the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. In 2012, the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land location recorded $one hundred ten.three billion in items exports. Petroleum products, chemical substances, and oil and fuel extraction equipment accounted for around two-thirds of the metropolitan area's exports previous 12 months. houston classified ads for exports ended up Mexico, Canada, and Brazil.

The Houston region is a top center for creating oilfield equipment. Significantly of its good results as a petrochemical complex is due to its occupied ship channel, the Port of Houston.[191] In the United States, the port ranks 1st in worldwide commerce and 16th amongst the largest ports in the globe. As opposed to most locations, higher oil and gasoline charges are advantageous for Houston's economic climate, as a lot of of its inhabitants are used in the energy business. Houston is the beginning or finish level of quite a few oil, gasoline, and items pipelines.

The Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metro area's gross domestic solution (GDP) in 2016 was $478 billion, making it the sixth-greatest of any metropolitan spot in the United States and bigger than Iran's, Colombia's, or the United Arab Emirates' GDP. Only houston escort directory around the world other than the United States have a gross domestic merchandise exceeding Houston's regional gross location item (Gap). In 2010, mining (which consists practically fully of exploration and generation of oil and fuel in Houston) accounted for 26.three% of Houston's Gap up sharply in response to high strength charges and a diminished around the world surplus of oil production ability, adopted by engineering providers, wellness solutions, and producing.