DALLAS — In addition to airing every game of the 2024 NBA Finals on our station, WFAA is also hosting a special presentation called "The Pregame" before each and every matchup in the series. Head here for more information.
To ensure victory, a wise man once said to know thy enemy and to know thy self.
Ahead of the Thursday evening tipoff for the NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics, Dallas Business Journal took the wisdom of Sun Tzu to heart. With help from our colleagues at Boston Business Journal, we compiled the below tale of the tape to help settle the debate about which economy reigns supreme.
This is an unscientific survey. We used our best judgment to pick the criteria and, since both metro areas are large, specified to the best of our ability the geographies being compared and the sources being used in each instance.
Business
Fortune 500 headquarters
DFW: 21
Massachusetts: 16
Venture capital investment, 2023
Dallas: $1 billion
Boston: $16.1 billion
Facility expansion projects, 2023
DFW: 452 (No. 2 overall)
Boston-Cambridge: 111 (No. 8 overall)
Airport traffic, 2023
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport total passengers: 81M
Logan International Airport total passengers: 40.9M
Office market vacancy rate, April
Dallas: 21%
Boston: 12.4%
Sources: Fortune, PitchBook/NVCA, Site Selection magazine/Conway, CommercialEdge
Economy
Metro gross domestic product, 2022
DFW: $688.9B
Boston-Cambridge: $571.7B
Unemployment rate, April
Dallas: 3.4%
Boston: 2.9%
Median home value
Dallas: $320,471
Boston: $750,219
Metropolitan exports, 2022
DFW: $50.6B
Boston-Cambridge: $33.1B
Median household income, April
Dallas: $65,400
Boston: $86,331
Wealthiest ZIP
Dallas: Park Cities (75205), $180,698 median household income in 2022
Boston: Boston Seaport (02210), $173,974 median household income in 2022
Percent of people below poverty line
Dallas: 10.3%
Boston: 9.2%
Sources: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zillow, International Trade Administration, U.S. Census Bureau
Demographics
Metro population, mid-2023 estimate
DFW: 8,100,037
Boston-Cambridge: 4,919,179
Education: Tier one research universities
DFW: 3
Boston-Cambridge: 7
Bachelor’s degree or higher
Dallas: 39.4%
Boston: 51.4%
Median travel time to work
Dallas: 27.7 minutes
Boston: 30.1 minutes
Percent foreign-born
Dallas: 18.9%
Boston: 20.1%
Percent speaking a language other than English at home
Dallas: 31.8%
Boston: 26.2%
Percent of people who moved the previous year
Dallas: 14.1%
Boston: 13%
Median age
Dallas: 35.5
Boston: 39.5
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education
