South Padre Island, Texas
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the East Cameron census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78597. The Survey maps it on the Port Isabel quadrangle. 2,066 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSouth Padre Island fell from 2,816 to 2,066 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2,816 | |
| 2020 | 2,066 | -750 (-27%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 14 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1929 USGS Point Isabel quadrangle1:24000
- 1934 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:62500
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1992 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
6 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of South Padre Island between 1999 and 2017, burning about 12 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 August 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | CAT |
| 4 July 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | EDDIE KEEN |
| 7 June 2017 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | EAST LANTANA FIRE |
| 8 May 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8.0 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | BEACH |
| 13 May 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | TRASH FIRE |
| 1 October 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | ANDY BOWIE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of South Padre Island: 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Titanium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Padre Island | Titanium | Unknown |
Storms near this place
1 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Padre Island in 1 storm report in 1995: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | South Padre Island | $5,000 | Power lines were blown down in Port Isabel. Sign damage was reported at Port Isable and South Padre Island. A camper trailer was blown over at South Padre Island. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port Isabel | 3.1 miles | 14 | |
| Laguna Heights | 5.0 miles | 15 | |
| Rutherford-Harding Addition Colonia | 5.1 miles | 15 | |
| Del Mar | 6.4 miles | 14 | |
| Laguna Vista | 6.7 miles | 15 | |
| Holly Beach | 7.1 miles | 14 | |
| Starbase | 7.8 miles | 10 | |
| Carretas Crossing | 8.9 miles | 15 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on South Padre Island | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q982881 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1376223. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.








