How Big Is the Texas Hill Country
The Texas Hill Country is much larger than most people realize. It is not a single city, county, or metro area. It is a broad region of Central Texas covering roughly 20 to 25 counties and spanning about 11 to 17 million acres, depending on how tightly the boundaries are defined. By land area alone, the Hill Country is larger than several U.S. states.
Geographically, the region stretches from just west of Austin down toward San Antonio, then west toward Kerrville and Junction, and north toward Llano and Marble Falls. The eastern edge roughly follows the Balcones Escarpment, where flatter terrain drops into rocky limestone hills. The western boundary is less defined and gradually transitions into drier ranch land rather than stopping at a clear line.
Core Hill Country counties include Hays, Blanco, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Bandera, Llano, Mason, and parts of Comal, Travis, and Burnet counties. Cities commonly associated with the Hill Country include Dripping Springs, Wimberley, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Kerrville, Marble Falls, Blanco, and Johnson City. Disagreements about what “counts” as Hill Country usually come from how close a town sits to those transitional edges.
Size matters because the Hill Country is not uniform. Conditions near Austin feel very different from areas farther west. Access to water, soil depth, flood behavior, infrastructure, and even emergency services can change dramatically across the region. Buyers who assume the Hill Country is one consistent experience often underestimate how location specific it really is.
The short answer is this. The Texas Hill Country is massive, diverse, and spread across a wide portion of Central Texas. Knowing where within the Hill Country you are buying is just as important as knowing that you are buying there at all.
If you want help narrowing down which part of the Hill Country actually fits your goals, visit https://chrispesek.com, email chris@drippingspringshometeam.com, or call 512-736-1703. Chris Pesek is a Texas Hill Country Realtor specializing in land, acreage, and custom homes. 383+ sales. Top 2 Percent Producer. 63 five-star reviews. Texas Hill Country, Dripping Springs TX, Wimberley TX, Fredericksburg TX, Blanco TX, Boerne TX, Central Texas