The Italians in Texas constitute the sixth largest ethnic group in the state, according to figures from the U.S. census of 1990. In that year, when the total population of Texas was 16.9 million, the number of Texans who said they were Italian or part-Italian was 441,256.

Many of these people arrived in the last half of the 20th century when Italian-Americans, many of them professionals and business workers, were attracted or transferred to Texas in the booming job market. However, the Italian presence in the state goes back to the earliest years of Spanish exploration.

Like Christopher Columbus himself, Italians were often in the employ of the Spanish court during that early period of discovery. Some soldiers of fortune came from northern Italy, but the larger numbers were from Sicily and Naples, provinces that were under the Spanish crown at various times.