Houston, TX Elevation & Topographic Map

Elevation

290 ft 90 m220 ft 65 m180 ft 55 m110 ft 35 m36 ft 11 m0 ft 0 m

Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft

USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau

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How to use this mapviews, tools and data

Elevation: Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite: A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D: Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere: The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure: Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
City area: Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Houston sits at about 61 ft (19 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation

61 ft 19 m

most residents: 34–83 ft

Lowest

0 ft 0 m

at sea level on Upper San Jacinto Bay

Highest

290 ft 90 m

on the northeast side

Average

63 ft 19 m

all land inside city limits

Houston spans about 290 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

Figure	Elevation
Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower	61 ft19 m
Highest point Inside city limits, on the northeast side	290 ft90 m
Lowest point Where the land meets Upper San Jacinto Bay	0 ft0 m
Town center USGS map point for Houston	37 ft11 m
Airport (IAH) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways	96 ft29 m
Average of all land	63 ft19 m

Elevation profile, west to east

31 mi west to east through the town center.

Topographic Map

Location: City in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, Texas, United States
Population: 2,390,125 2024 est.
Land area: 640.8 sq mi + 31.2 sq mi water
Density: 3,730 per sq mi
Coordinates: 29.7633° N, 95.3633° W
Time zone: Central UTC−6 / −5
Landform region: Coastal Plain
Drains to: Gulf of America
Airport: George Bush Intcntl/Houston (IAH) 96 ft
ZIP codes 131: 131 ZIP codes
77002 77003 77004 77005 77006 77007 77008 77009 77010 77011 77012 77013 77014 77015 77016 77017 77018 77019 77020 77021 77022 77023 77024 77025 77026 77027 77028 77029 77030 77031 77032 77033 77034 77035 77036 77037 77038 77039 77040 77041 77042 77043 77044 77045 77046 77047 77048 77049 77050 77051 77053 77054 77055 77056 77057 77058 77059 77060 77061 77062 77063 77064 77065 77066 77067 77068 77069 77070 77071 77072 77073 77074 77075 77076 77077 77078 77079 77080 77081 77082 77083 77084 77085 77086 77087 77088 77089 77090 77091 77092 77093 77094 77095 77096 77098 77099 77204 77336 77338 77339 77345 77346 77357 77365 77373 77375 77377 77379 77380 77386 77388 77396 77406 77407 77429 77433 77449 77450 77489 77493 77494 77498 77504 77506 77520 77532 77545 77546 77547 77571 77598

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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

Rankings by typical elevation

Towns in Texas1,632nd highest of 1,861
Towns in Harris County14th highest of 37

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

Hockley Mound240 ft
Wolf Hill, Harris County170 ft
Indian Hills, Harris County150 ft
Huntington Mound110 ft
Mesquite Knoll (historical)22 ft

How we measure

Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −17 ft at 29.8340° N, 95.2357° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones. All public domain.