Population Growth for OKC

[BG918]

Might as well have included Enid as well.

Stillwater should have more luck in attracting industry than it does. It has a very reliable water supply not effected by droughts. It's electrical power supply seems quite reliable as well. And there's always new college graduates every year. Maybe Stillwater government and chamber of commerce leaders need to take a close look at what other college towns are doing that are making them grow faster.

Tulsa has a similar list of advantages over many cities and it has pretty tepid growth. Effective leadership is a big part of this, and neither city has it.

[Plutonic Panda]

Might as well have included Enid as well.

Stillwater should have more luck in attracting industry than it does. It has a very reliable water supply not effected by droughts. It's electrical power supply seems quite reliable as well. And there's always new college graduates every year. Maybe Stillwater government and chamber of commerce leaders need to take a close look at what other college towns are doing that are making them grow faster.

You're right. I completely forgot about Enid.

[bchris02]

How is OKC doing recently as far as retaining its college graduates? What I am asking is how many OU, OCU, UCO, etc graduates end up getting jobs in OKC vs how many move elsewhere? 'Brain drain' has been a huge problem for OKC in the past but is it still?

[ljbab728]

How is OKC doing recently as far as retaining its college graduates? What I am asking is how many OU, OCU, UCO, etc graduates end up getting jobs in OKC vs how many move elsewhere? 'Brain drain' has been a huge problem for OKC in the past but is it still?

Obviously that situation has greatly improved but there is really no accurate way to measure that.

[boitoirich]

Obviously that situation has greatly improved but there is really no accurate way to measure that.

That would make an interesting study for one of our universities to undertake, wouldn't it? Find out where each of the city's magnet high school graduates (1998-2008) are living and working now. Also includethe top 10% of each graduating class for all city high schools, and drop any student that did not go on to complete a degree. That would probably be a better measure of brain drain, as many students at OU/OSU come from elsewhere in Oklahoma or from neighboring states.

[Pete]

On this subject, you might find this graphic interesting.

I keep the database for my high school class, Putnam City Class of 1978. This was the last year before PC North opened; we had almost 900 graduate.

You can see that almost half the class (including yours truly) now live out of state. This really accelerated in the late 80's and 90's when the economy went in the tank... I know at our 10-year in 1988 fully 75% still lived in Oklahoma (once again, including yours truly).

The large majority of my class are college educated, as in the 70's PC schools were second to none in Oklahoma. In fact, almost all the people who no longer live in the state have college degrees, many of them advanced. Much more highly educated in general than the half that never left OK.

[Pete]

BTW, while some from my class have left the state and then returned, every five years when we do these reunions I update the database to find a substantial increase in net migration out of Oklahoma.

[Praedura]

On this subject, you might find this graphic interesting.

No love for Iowa? Doesn't anybody want to live in Dubuque?

What I find disturbing about the graphic is that all the missing/deceased are in the Atlantic Ocean (gruesome fate)

[Praedura]

But seriously...

You do have to recognize that young folks will always want to go to other places ("see the world"). That's pretty normal. In fact, the more educated the person, the more likely they are to move about and try to prove themselves in other (and often bigger) markets, IMO. Particularly among certain high paying professions where the resume looks bland unless it has something of the sort (5 years in Chicago, 8 years in L.A., etc.) Dallas kids move off to Chicago, Chicago kids move to New York, New York kids move to Boston, etc.

In other words, some of our cream moves off to experience the big world. But how many of other cities cream moves here for similar reason? The balance between the two is what really matters -- i.e. hopefully you get at least a wash, or better yet, a net gain. And after bouncing around a bit, some will return anyway -- if the economics allow.

That being said, many people do like to nest in their own community. The more graduate retention, the better.

And if those who have wandered away CAN'T come back, because of lack of suitable positions, then yeah... that's bad.

[Pete]

Certainly, there is always the tendency for the more educated to be adventurous and to seek new frontiers, regardless of where they grew up.

But it's pretty clear to me that lots of people my age left during the 90's who had stuck around for at least 10 years or so. I can assure you the bad economy had a lot to do with me leaving in 1989... And while some will always want to go anywhere other than where they grew up, there are also those that would be more likely to stay if 1) there were good job opportunities and 2) fun and interesting things to do. OKC has come a long way on both fronts in the last 20 years.

[Zuplar]

Certainly, there is always the tendency for the more educated to be adventurous and to seek new frontiers, regardless of where they grew up.

But it's pretty clear to me that lots of people my age left during the 90's who had stuck around for at least 10 years or so. I can assure you the bad economy had a lot to do with me leaving in 1989... And while some will always want to go anywhere other than where they grew up, there are also those that would be more likely to stay if 1) there were good job opportunities and 2) fun and interesting things to do. OKC has come a long way on both fronts in the last 20 years.

I agree with this. I always thought growing up I'd end up moving to DFW after I graduated college. When I did finally graduate is when everything went down hill and I had better luck finding a job here. Like you said OKC has come a long ways and I know more college grads are staying here, but I guess we will wait to see long term how that ends up.

[Naptown12713]

Great article on population growth for Metros Over 1 Mil. Quick Synopsis, OKC ranked 20th out of 52 metros that have over 1 Mil. Click on link below:

America's Fastest- and Slowest-Growing Cities | Newgeography.com

[dcsooner]

Great news. I think just being in the conversation as a high growth city will cause some who otherwise would not consider Oklahoma City to investigate. I also think as Texas (DFW) in particular continues to explode, some may find OKC to be more to their liking. OKC just needs to continue to increase its variety in key areas important to younger people, shopping, dining, entertaiment, jobs.

[GaryOKC6]

With around 2000 people a month moving into the metro area that shows that companies here are hiring. I recently participated in the Chambers Greater Grads Career Fair. There were over a hundred of employers talking to graduating students and actively recruiting.

[mcca7596]

Great article on population growth for Metros Over 1 Mil. Quick Synopsis, OKC ranked 20th out of 52 metros that have over 1 Mil. Click on link below:

America's Fastest- and Slowest-Growing Cities | Newgeography.com

From that same website, I think this is an interesting read, a take on how these "progressive cities" are just the current version of White Flight:

The White City | Newgeography.com

[G.Walker]

Here is a little tidbit to add, the Oklahoma City metro area is the 11th fastest growing metro area over 1 million people, since the census in 2010!

[bchris02]

From that same website, I think this is an interesting read, a take on how these "progressive cities" are just the current version of White Flight:

The White City | Newgeography.com

Portland and Seattle are championed for their diversity and liberalism. They are also the whitest cities and most people moving to them are white young professionals. Now Portland and Seattle are definitely two of America's jewel cities but one can't help but notice the irony.

[ZYX2]

From that same website, I think this is an interesting read, a take on how these "progressive cities" are just the current version of White Flight:

The White City | Newgeography.com

That was a very fascinating article. I encourage everyone to read it. Thanks for posting.

[G.Walker]

I don't like the article, its basically stating that the most progressive cities are "white" cities, which I find a bit racist. Then they just highlighted these cities in comparison to African-American population, but forgot about the Hispanic/Latino population. They talked about Austin being a "progressive white city", but as of 2010, Austin had a Hispanic/Latino population of 35%, thats a big number. Then add the 8% of African-American population, you are looking at Austin as 40% minority, so how can they say its a White City?

[ZYX2]

Thank you.

Seattle is so far from being American Caucasian its laughable the article was published. And this is what is being implied. Seattle is incredibly diverse.

As you might expect, over-simplifying the data skipped over important aspects. There are large populations of German, Irish, and Dutch mixed in with those "white" numbers. Which wouldn't be included in any type of 'white flight' discussion. If you remove them and other minority classes, you have a fairly standard mix of 50% ish of Caucasian whites.

Sorry, I just can't stand these types of reaching arguments that try really hard to discuss race without really either doing the research or contemplating much deeper causes (like migration patterns)

Dd you read the while article? It did address migration patterns and how the European ideas had helped to influence the more "progressive" decisions.

I think you make valid points, but so does the article.

[ZYX2]

Yes but glazed over those points mostly because it seems they were just tossing them in to keep the article more civilized. To me, it is more central. The whole article felt like an equivocation hemmed with some reasonable data.

This'll be my last post on this subject in this topic, to keep from straying too far off, but what I didn't like is the article saying that people move to Portland, Seattle, Denver, etc. in order to escape blacks. I think that's untrue in most cases. Otherwise the article brings up an interesting, and somewhat ironic occurrence. Not something that I really believe requires any action, but certainly interesting.

[Jake]

The population growth for OKC is more than I thought it was. Impressive! Good for OKC!

[HOT ROD]

now, back to Oklahoma City's growth. Here is another article from the same source. The Rise of the Great Plains: Regional Opportunity in the 21st Century | Newgeography.com

Note the skyline pic.

[HOT ROD]

And

Large Cities Rankings - 2012 Best Cities for Job Growth | Newgeography.com

[Plutonic Panda]

This is a really nice website!