Which Texas counties currently have the highest number of hate groups according to the SPLC hate map?

1. What the SPLC map and reports do say about Texas

The SPLC maintains an interactive Hate Map that identifies locations of active hate and antigovernment groups and offers filters by ideology and geography; the map and the SPLC’s Year in Hate & Extremism reports are the primary sources for locating groups by place ^[2]. Secondary reporting summarized state totals — for example, The Hill cited the SPLC’s state-by-state tallies and reported Texas with 54 hate groups in a past survey — but that is a statewide figure and not a county breakdown ^[1]. A 2017 local roundup noted dozens of groups appearing across Texas cities including Austin, Dallas and Houston, which implies clusters in the counties those cities sit in, but it is not a comprehensive county-level accounting ^[3].

2. Why the available sources can’t produce a definitive county ranking

None of the reporting supplied in this search package includes a published list that aggregates SPLC points into a ranked list of Texas counties by number of hate groups; the SPLC’s live Hate Map and its downloadable dataset are the correct primary tools for that task but those exact county tallies are not reproduced in the documents provided here ^[2]. Academic treatments and maps based on SPLC point data have used spatial analysis methods to aggregate locations, but those works cited in the packet (e.g., a spatial analysis using SPLC data) are methodological and do not deliver an up-to-date county leaderboard for Texas in the material provided ^{[4] [5]}.

3. Where clusters are most likely — cities to counties

Contemporary coverage and the interactive map’s search functions historically show prominent concentrations around large metropolitan areas; local reporting has highlighted Austin, Dallas and Houston as hosts for multiple SPLC-listed organizations, which points to Travis, Dallas and Harris counties as likely among the higher-count counties within Texas ^[3]. National press summaries that list Texas among states with many groups ^[1] and the SPLC’s own emphasis on mapping by city and state support the inference that populous urban counties will generally show higher absolute counts, but that remains an inference not a direct citation of county-count data in these sources ^{[2] [1]}.

4. Caveats, disputes and context

The SPLC’s methodology and labeling have been contested publicly: conservative outlets and some affected organizations argue the list conflates mainstream conservative or religious groups with violent extremist organizations, and legal challenges over the designation have been ongoing, which is relevant when interpreting any map-based count ^{[6] [7]}. The SPLC, for its part, documents its definitions and publishes the map to help communities track and counter hate and extremism, and academic uses of SPLC point data appear in spatial studies of hate-group geography ^{[2] [4]}.

5. How to get a definitive, current county ranking

To produce an authoritative county-by-county ranking for Texas one must query the SPLC’s interactive Hate Map directly or download the SPLC’s dataset and aggregate the mapped points to county boundaries; the interactive map supports filtering by state and group type but the specific county tallies are not reproduced in the secondary sources provided here ^[2]. Given the limitations of the reporting collected for this analysis, the most responsible conclusion is that Harris (Houston), Dallas, and Travis (Austin) counties are the most plausible candidates for having higher numbers of listed groups based on city-level reporting and the SPLC’s mapping approach, but that conclusion should be verified against the live SPLC map/data before being presented as definitive ^{[3] [2] [1]}.