How Many Texans Have a Will? (Statistics 2026)

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Ask a room of Texans whether they have a will and, if the national numbers hold, only about one in three or fewer will raise a hand. The single most consistent finding across every major survey is that most American adults, and most Texans, have never put their wishes in writing.

This page collects the most reliable, current figures on will ownership in the United States and applies them to Texas, where state-specific survey data is thin. Every figure below is linked to its source at the foot of the page. Updated July 2026.

Contents:

How many adults actually have a will

1. Only about a quarter of Americans currently have a will

Caring.com's 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study found that just 24% of surveyed adults said they have a will, with another 13% holding a living trust.1 Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report put will ownership at 26% and reported that 56% of U.S. adults have no estate planning documents of any kind.2

2. Longer-running polls land closer to a third

Survey wording changes the headline. Gallup, which has tracked the question since 1990, found 46% of U.S. adults reported having a will in 2021, within its long-run range of 44% to 51%.3 Pew Research Center's 2025 study found that about 32% of adults have created a will describing what to do with their assets.4 Taken together, a fair read is that somewhere between a quarter and a third of American adults have a will, and Texas has no reason to be an outlier.

Source (year)Adults with a will
Caring.com (2025)24%
Trust & Will (2026)26%
Pew Research (2025)32%
Gallup (2021)46%

What that means for Texas

3. Texas has roughly 22 to 23 million adults

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Texas's population at 31,290,831 as of July 1, 2024, with about 24.6% under age 18.5 That leaves an adult population in the range of 22 to 23 million, a figure echoed by state estimates from the Texas Demographic Center.15

4. That implies well over 14 million Texas adults with no will

Apply a one-third ownership rate to roughly 22.6 million adults and about 7.5 million Texans have a will, leaving more than 14 million without one. Use the stricter Caring.com quarter, and the number lacking a will climbs past 17 million.1 Either way, the untitled majority is measured in the millions.

5. Texas has about 10.7 million households

The Census Bureau counts roughly 10.7 million households in Texas.5 Census Reporter's profile of the state shows a median household that owns a home and holds real property,14 the exact kind of asset that a will is meant to direct and that intestacy rules will otherwise decide.

The pandemic bump and the decline since

6. Young adults surged during COVID

Caring.com's 2021 study recorded a sharp jump among 18-to-34-year-olds: from 16% with an estate document in 2020 to a rate nine points higher in 2021, a 63% one-year increase.6 Nearly half (45%) of adults aged 18 to 34 said the pandemic made them see a greater need for estate planning.7

7. The bump did not last

Will ownership peaked at 33% in Caring.com's 2022 reading, then slid to 24% by 2025, a nine-point drop.1 Trust & Will likewise recorded will ownership falling from 31% in 2025 to 26% in 2026.2 The urgency of 2020 and 2021 faded faster than the paperwork got finished.

8. The long trend was already downward

Gallup found 44% of Americans reported a will in 2016, down from 51% in 2005 and 48% in 1990.8 The pandemic interrupted a slow decline rather than reversing it.

Who has a will: age, income, education, race

9. Age is the strongest predictor

In Gallup's 2021 data, 76% of adults 65 and older had a will, against just 20% of those aged 18 to 29, with the 30-to-49 group at 36%.3 Pew similarly found roughly two-thirds of adults in their 70s (66%) have a will.4 With about 4.4 million Texans aged 65 and over, older residents make up much of the state's will-holding population.15

10. Income widens the gap

Gallup reported 61% will ownership among households earning $100,000 or more, versus 30% for those under $40,000.3 Trust & Will's demographic breakdown found households above $1 million roughly twice as likely to have a will (66%) as those under $25,000 (33%).9

11. Education and race track the same divide

College graduates were far likelier to have a will (57%) than non-graduates (40%) in Gallup's polling, and White adults (55%) were roughly twice as likely as nonwhite adults (28%) to have one.3 This matters in Texas, which the Census Bureau reports is a majority-minority state, meaning the national racial gap likely leaves a larger share of Texans uncovered.5

12. The youngest generations are the least protected

Trust & Will's 2026 report found Gen X the least protected on documents overall (62% with none), followed by Millennials (58%), Gen Z (54%) and Baby Boomers (48%).2 On wills specifically, LegalZoom's roundup notes only about 15% of Gen Z and 22% of Millennials have one.10

Why people say they don't have one

13. "I haven't gotten around to it" leads the list

Among Trust & Will's 2026 respondents without a plan, 27% said they don't think they have enough assets, 23% simply hadn't gotten around to it, 17% didn't know where to start, and 15% felt it was too expensive.2 AARP's 2024 survey of adults 50 and older found procrastination even more dominant, with 61% citing "haven't gotten around to it" and 21% saying they don't have enough assets.11

14. The "not enough assets" belief is widespread

Caring.com found that roughly 4 in 10 adults without a will believe they do not have enough to make one worthwhile,1 and Pew reported that many who avoid the topic simply do not think it is necessary yet.4 Yet a home, a vehicle and a bank account are already an estate under Texas law.

15. Intent far outruns action

Trust & Will found 73% of adults say estate planning is personally important, while only about a quarter actually have a will.2 That intent-to-action gap, not disagreement about whether a will matters, is the real story.

The Texas stakes if you skip it

16. Without a will, the state's formula decides

When a Texan dies without a valid will, the estate passes by intestate succession under the Texas Estates Code, and a probate court appoints an administrator to distribute property to legal heirs in a fixed order.12 Chapter 201 of the Estates Code sets that order, and community-property rules can split assets in ways many spouses do not expect; with no locatable heirs at all, property can ultimately escheat to the state.13

The takeaway from every dataset here is the same. Most Texas adults have not written a will, the ones who have skew older, wealthier and more educated, and the leading reason for the gap is not disagreement but delay. If you have been meaning to get to it, our guided will builder walks you through it step by step, and you can read more Texas-specific figures in our Texas will statistics roundup.

Sources

  1. 1Caring.com 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study (caring.com)
  2. 2Trust & Will 2026 Estate Planning Report (trustandwill.com)
  3. 3Gallup: How Many Americans Have a Will? (2021) (news.gallup.com)
  4. 4Pew Research Center: Experiences With Estate Planning (2025) (pewresearch.org)
  5. 5U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Texas (census.gov)
  6. 6Caring.com 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study (caring.com)
  7. 7Caring.com press release: Young adults and COVID-19 estate planning (prweb.com)
  8. 8Gallup: Majority in U.S. Do Not Have a Will (2016) (news.gallup.com)
  9. 9Trust & Will 2025 Estate Planning Report: Demographic Breakdown (trustandwill.com)
  10. 10LegalZoom: Estate Planning Statistics (legalzoom.com)
  11. 11AARP: Only Half of Adults 50-Plus Have a Legal Will (aarp.org)
  12. 12Texas State Law Library: Probate When There Is No Will (guides.sll.texas.gov)
  13. 13Texas Estates Code Chapter 201: Descent and Distribution (statutes.capitol.texas.gov)
  14. 14Census Reporter: Texas Profile (censusreporter.org)
  15. 15Texas Demographic Center: Vintage 2024 Population Estimates (demographics.texas.gov)
Max Kuch

About the author

Max Kuch

Max Kuch writes about estate planning, wills and inheritance for Texas Will Template. He gathers the numbers from official Texas and US public data, then explains what they mean for anyone thinking about putting their wishes in writing.

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Frequently asked questions

Yes, provided you finish it the right way. Under Tex. Est. Code Sec. 251.051 and 251.052, a holographic will is valid when it is written wholly in your own handwriting and signed by you. No witnesses are required and no date is required. What we hand you is a clean, correctly structured draft. It becomes a legally valid holographic will the moment you copy the whole thing out by hand on paper and sign it yourself.

Because Texas recognizes two separate paths, and printing points you toward the harder one. A typed or printed will has to be signed in front of two credible witnesses to be valid. A holographic will skips the witnesses entirely, but only if it is written completely in your own handwriting. If you print our draft and sign it alone, it is neither a valid witnessed will nor a valid holographic will. Copying the full text by hand is what makes the witness-free route work, so the handwriting is not a formality, it is the whole point.

Texas gives you unusually wide freedom here. There is no forced heirship and no elective share, so you are not required to leave a fixed portion to your spouse or to your children, and you can disinherit an adult child if you choose. One thing you cannot give away, though, is property that is not fully yours. Texas is a community property state, which means your surviving spouse already owns one half of everything the two of you acquired during the marriage. Your will can only dispose of your own half of the community property plus your separate property, so name what is genuinely yours to give.

Keep the signed original somewhere safe and dry, and make sure the person you named as executor knows exactly where it is, because a copy is far weaker than the original if the will ever has to be probated. If you want extra security, the clerk of the county where you live can hold your will for safekeeping during your lifetime under Tex. Est. Code Sec. 252.001, whether you are in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio or anywhere else in the state. Texas has no statewide will registry, so there is no central database to file it in.

We strongly recommend against a single shared document. A holographic will has to be wholly in one person's handwriting, so two people physically cannot create one valid handwritten will together. Beyond that, joint wills tend to lock the survivor into terms that are painful to change after the first death. The clean solution is two separate mirror wills, one in each spouse's own handwriting, each signed by that spouse. You can make them say almost the same thing while keeping each one independently valid and freely revocable.

Yes, and it is easy. A Texas will has no expiration, but life does not stand still, so revisit it after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death or a move. The safest way to make a change is to handwrite and sign a brand new holographic will that revokes all previous wills, then destroy the old signed original so no stale version can surface later. Avoid scribbling edits in the margins of a finished will, since alterations can raise doubt about what you actually intended.

No, and we do not pretend it does. This service gives you a solid, well-organized draft for a straightforward estate, which covers a great many Texas families perfectly well. But if your situation is complex, for example a blended family, a business, property in more than one state, a beneficiary with special needs or a plan that involves a trust, you should have a Texas estate attorney review it. Think of this as a strong, affordable starting point, not as legal advice.

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