Population Growth for OKC

[G.Walker]

With the fast growth of the Norman area, do you think the census bureau will eventually have our metro area classified as Okahoma City-Norman MSA, like they have Oklahoma City-Shawnee CSA? I wonder why they don't have this classification, many other cities have this classification, Austin-Round Rock MSA, Omaha-Council Bluffs MSA, etc.

[BoulderSooner]

With the fast growth of the Norman area, do you think the census bureau will eventually have our metro area classified as Okahoma City-Norman MSA, like they have Oklahoma City-Shawnee CSA? I wonder why they don't have this classification, many other cities have this classification, Austin-Round Rock MSA, Omaha-Council Bluffs MSA, etc.

while edmond has 25k or so less people .. it is growing faster than norman ..

[Chicken In The Rough]

I have always wondered if there are naming conventions. Does a secondary city need to reach a certain percentage of population of the primary city before its name is included in the MSA/CSA?

[Snowman]

Since it sometimes seems a bit arbitrary on when they are included. I had wondered if it was based from what in prior years had been separate entities in their stats. Which would make tracing history back easier before computers were common.

[HOT ROD]

The Shawnee name in the Oklahoma City/Shawnee CSA is included because Shawnee has its own micropolitan area and the CSA is a marriage of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Statistical area and the Shawnee Micropolitan area. I don't think Norman can stand on its own despite it having an intact central city, it is a college town that has grown up into a suburb. I honestly don't think Shawnee stands on its own either nor do I think it is an edge city that should have its own mSA, as Shawnee is also a bedroom community for OKC.

Personally, I think all of the OKC/Shawnee CSA as it is currently defined is truly the Oklahoma City metropolitan area (MSA) and that the Greater CSA should include Stillwater micropolitan area, to be the Oklahoma City/Stillwater CSA. Stillwater IS an edge city with its own mSA and stand on its own but at the same time does depend on OKC for most essential functional services including utility, governance, transportation/airport, major employment, and education (and vice versa). I think Stillwater having a slight cultural connection to Tulsa makes it a somewhat more difficult choice, but functionally the area is definitely an extension of Metro OKC (hence edge city or part of the CSA, but not MSA).

Notice that they are including now Muskogee for the Tulsa CSA (and just calling it that I believe) drastically inflating Tulsa CSA to over 1m all of sudden in the process; but one could argue that both Bartlesville and Muskogee functionally stand on their own without Tulsa (particularly Bartlesville IMO) as edge city(ies) but both are culturally connected to Tulsa.

Again, I'd like to see an Oklahoma City/Stillwater CSA to include Oklahoma City MSA (current OKC CSA definition) + Stillwater mSA. The population would be a cool 1.6M in 2012. The new OKC MSA would be 1.46M and rightfully so.

[bchris02]

^^^ Charlotte recently did something similar and have inflated their MSA from 1.7 million to 2.2 million by including Statesville and Salisbury, far out communities that do stand on their own but depend on Charlotte for various services. I think the current definition of the OKC metro area is the most accurate, but being that so many others are doing tricks to inflate their numbers OKC should as well to stay competitive on paper with its peers.

[adaniel]

I'm not so sure its that simple. Cities have far less control over this type of stuff than you would imagine.

Generally speaking, these types of determinations are based on several things, the most cut and dry being commute patterns. I can't say I've ever met people who have commuted between Stillwater and OKC, or even Stillwater and Guthrie (which is in the OKC MSA). I'm sure it exists but their needs to be a certain threshold before Payne County would be added to the CSA, and chamber of commerce types would not have a lot of say.

If anything, I can see Payne County being added to the Tulsa MSA, as there is a pretty sizable commuter populations between the two places. Lots of OSU students and staff driving between the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses. And just going off personal knowledge of when I did an internship in that area, quite a few people from rural Creek and Pawnee Counties (both in Tulsa's MSA) commute to work in Cushing and Stillwater. It would be weird though since Stillwater is in OKC's media market and has a 405 area code.

More likely than both of these is Stillwater is just made into its own MSA.

[HOT ROD]

right, like I said Stillwater does seem to have cultural connection to Tulsa but is clearly functionally aligned to OKC. It is one of those places that due to OSU it is somewhat viewed as Tulsa's territory culturally.

Stillwater is already an mSA of about 74,000 by the way, not an MSA. I think it might depend upon which direction development of Payne County expands (toward OKC or Tulsa) on who might land it in their CSA.

[Mississippi Blues]

In this mornings chat Steve mentioned that Oklahoma City's population is growing by 4,000 per month. I'm not doubting Steve, but does anyone know if we're really growing by that much a month?

[bchris02]

In this mornings chat Steve mentioned that Oklahoma City's population is growing by 4,000 per month. I'm not doubting Steve, but does anyone know if we're really growing by that much a month?

That's probably including not only relocations but also births. My guess is the birthrate in OKC is higher than the national average, as people here get married younger and have more kids than the national rate. The metro area as a whole grows by 4,000 people per month.

[catch22]

Last estimate I saw was about 2,000 a month.

[dmoor82]

Un- related, but still somewhat relevant, OKC's GDP rose substantially from 2005 (43B) to 2009 ( 61B), That is damn impressive to jump 18B Dollars in 4 Years! OKC 2013 has got to be pushing 65B now? Compared to some other peer sized metros this is not big, but not many are growing as fast as ours!

[AP]

Last estimate I saw was about 2,000 a month.

That's what I figured it was close to. 4,000 seemed a bit of a stretch.

[Mississippi Blues]

Last estimate I saw was about 2,000 a month.

That's about what I assumed it was & like bchris02 mentioned, Steve may have meant the metro is growing by 4,000 a month.

[dmoor82]

I would guess that net monthly pop. Gain of 2k people is for the entire OKC msa, not just for the city proper.

[G.Walker]

I would say the OKC metroplex is growing about 2,500 a month, which is a pretty good clip. I think its safe to say that the population of Oklahoma City right now is probably around 610,000 and metro area 1.3 million.

[Bunty]

^^^ Charlotte recently did something similar and have inflated their MSA from 1.7 million to 2.2 million by including Statesville and Salisbury, far out communities that do stand on their own but depend on Charlotte for various services. I think the current definition of the OKC metro area is the most accurate, but being that so many others are doing tricks to inflate their numbers OKC should as well to stay competitive on paper with its peers.

I'm afraid you need to find a better example than what Charlotte has done. Because Statesville is 40.2 miles from Charlotte. People who live and work in Statesville amounts to 57.6%. With Salisbury, it's 37.5 miles from Charlotte. In Salisbury, 61.5% of people both live and work there. In the case of Stillwater, it's 51.4 miles from OKC. In Stillwater 82.5% of the people both live and work there.
Source for info: city-data.com.

Stillwater is probably growing fast enough, and Enid, too, so Oklahoma will have the addition of two new metro areas by 2020. OSU, from having $500,000,000 in scholarships to offer will help out student wise, along with new workers needed to staff new buildings.

[HOT ROD]

Aren't Stillwater and Enid already micropolitan areas?

[adaniel]

I would guess that net monthly pop. Gain of 2k people is for the entire OKC msa, not just for the city proper.

Yep. Around 1,800 a month to be exact

Current Estimates Data - U.S Census Bureau

Oklahoma City, OK

2011 Pop: 1,275,821 2012 Pop: 1,296,565

State Chamber and other orgs do their own internal estimates based off of utility connections, housing starts and vacancy, etc. so they could very well be seeing something different. OKC Metro was one of the few in which the census bureau slightly underestimated in population the past decade.

[Bunty]

Aren't Stillwater and Enid already micropolitan areas?

Yes, but metropolitan areas start where the main city is at least 50,000 in population. It is hopeed that big box stores, chain stores and restaurants show even more interest in locating there when that happens.

[G.Walker]

According to latest census bureau statistics, the Oklahoma City metro area was the 9th fastest growing metro area among large metro areas, from 2012 to 2013, good deal!

Oklahoma City - 10 fastest growing cities - CNNMoney

[G.Walker]

Oklahoma City, OK Metro Are 1,297,397 (2012), 1,319,677 (2013)

[bchris02]

Wow..impressive.

[Rover]

I am surprised that Oklahoma County added almost twice as many as Tulsa County (36,600 vs 19,000). Canadian county was the fastest growth % wise. Cleveland County added 13,500. (These are all 2010 to 2013 numbers).

The OKC metro grew by 9.2% in three years. Pretty healthy numbers.

[G.Walker]

Another take away, is that there is now over 1 Million people in just the Oklahoma/Cleveland counties combined.

Oklahoma County (755,245) + Cleveland County (269,340) = 1,024,585