Brownsville is the
county seat of
Cameron County, Texas. It is the
sixteenth most populous city in the
state of
Texas, with a population at the
2010 census of 175,023 and an estimated population in 2014 of 183,046. It is located at the southernmost tip of Texas, on the northern bank of the
Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from
Matamoros, Tamaulipas,
Mexico. The 2014 U.S. Census Bureau estimate placed the
Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area population at 420,392, making it the
ninth most populous metropolitan area in the state of Texas. In addition, the international
Matamoros–Brownsville Metropolitan Area was estimated to have a population of 1,136,995. Brownsville has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation, and is frequently cited as having the highest percentage of residents below the
federal poverty level out of all cities in the nation.