The two images in this feature depict the distribution of local government employment by county in Texas in 2003. The left image shows the distribution of local government employment by county which ranges from zero government employees in the most sparsely populated of west Texas counties to more than 174 thousand employees in Harris county (Houston), the center of the state's most populous metropolitan area. The largest concentrations of local employees live and work in the state's urban centers of which Harris county is one. The right image shows the distribution of local government employment as a percentage of each county's population. As this image shows, local government employment tends to be proportionally more important in rural and especially western counties in the state. School teachers and staff constitute about sixty percent of local government employees. Local law enforcement, public safety, and courts also loom large as local government employers. In less populous rural and western counties school and other local government employment is of relatively greater importance by comparison with densely populated urban counties. The latter benefit to a much greater degree from economies of scale in the performance of the tasks of local government.