Population Growth for OKC

[Naptown12713]

ESTIMATED POPULATION OF METRO AND MICRO AREAS (AS OF SEPT. 1, 2011)

Metro or micro area Estimated population (as of Sept. 1, 2011) Rank Actual population (as of April 1, 2010) Rank
Memphis, TN-MS-AR 1,331,004 41 1,316,100 41
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN 1,301,437 42 1,283,566 42
Oklahoma City, OK 1,280,578 43 1,252,987 44
Richmond, VA 1,279,480 44 1,258,251 43
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT 1,219,920 45 1,212,381 45
Raleigh-Cary, NC 1,182,991 46 1,130,490 48
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 1,156,675 47 1,167,764 46
Salt Lake City, UT 1,149,529 48 1,124,197 50
Birmingham-Hoover, AL 1,137,470 49 1,128,047 49
Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 1,132,931 50 1,135,509 47

Very encouraging data from the latest esitimated census report. It predicts that OKC will increase their population by more than 27K over the past year and half. So hopefully, this type of growth will continue if our unemployment rates stays below the national average and our community continues to embrace positive change.

[SkyWestOKC]

Nice! So that would mean by next year we should break the 1.3mil mark.

[SkyWestOKC]

Also, where is this data found? I'd like to look through it.

[Naptown12713]

See the attached link for this data table: http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjourna...-rankings.html

[Okie Yorker]

Great News! Thanks for sharing!

[Pete]

Looking at those numbers for the 60 largest MSA's, OKC grew faster as a percentage than all but 16 of them.

Also, if that current pace continues OKC will be well over 1.4 million by 2020.

[Spartan]

270,000 on the decade would be nice. Around 23-24% growth.

[dcsooner]

Great projection. With all the changes occuring, OKC is poised to experience very impressive growth. I think if OKC can continue to improve its already goods jobs projections we will pass louisville and gain significantly on Memphis

[BG918]

Also good to see the Tulsa metro nearing 1 million.

I could easily see the OKC metro at or near 1.4 million by 2020.

[ZYX2]

Awesome! It would be great to see these for the actual city limits too.

[ljbab728]

With a gain of 28,000 in 17 months, it's quite possible that we will see 1.5 million here by 2020 unless the growth slows dosn.

[OKCRT]

I know that it seems like the traffic is getting heavier all the time.
But this pop. increase should help the OKC tax collections.

[dmoor82]

I think I read that OKC's city population was estimated to be 560k in 2009,and in the 2010 Census OKC's population was 580k,so is it safe to say that OKC's population may reach between 750k-800k by 2020?What about the Metro,if cities like Edmond and Norman,Mustang,Yukon keep on growing,Who's to say The OKC metro could'nt reach 1.5 Million,what about the CSA-1.6 Million?

[BrendaT]

It's good to see OKC continue to grow. Hopefully this means that there are jobs here and unemployment will start to go down. It looks like Raleigh, NC is growing significantly too. I used to live in Durham near Research Triangle Park which borders Durham, Raleigh and Cary. It's a nice area with a lot of tech and medical jobs.

[soonerguru]

It's good to see OKC continue to grow. Hopefully this means that there are jobs here and unemployment will start to go down. It looks like Raleigh, NC is growing significantly too. I used to live in Durham near Research Triangle Park which borders Durham, Raleigh and Cary. It's a nice area with a lot of tech and medical jobs.

Unemployment has started going down -- but it was low to begin with throughout the recession. Now we're getting new jobs from Boeing, Continental and others, so it will continue to remain low.

[G.Walker]

The most recent US Census Bureau estimates shows as of July 1, 2011, Oklahoma City's population was 591,967, that's 11,968 people in just a little over a year...with growth rate of 2.1%, if we keep this up, we may be hitting 700,000 by 2020...that would put us at around a 20% growth rate for the decade...good deal...

[Spartan]

The even bigger deal is the metro growth.. virtually all of Canadian County is on pace for 30-40% growth this decade, and not just Yukon, Mustang, Piedmont, but even El Reno had an uptick. MWC and and Del City are even growing pretty well now. Norman, Edmond, Moore all had 2% growth putting them on track for a 20% increase on the decade, on par with OKC.

The entire metro region is performing extremely well on all demographic and economic indicators, especially as personal income growth is still among the strongest in the nation. I suspect that this will not be consistent, and it will depend on what oil and gas does in the coming years - if we keep this economic boom up, I can easily see our growth "growing."

What's amazing is that since OKC has risen, Tulsa's growth has dropped off a cliff. I haven't done the math yet, but I think MWC and Del City may even be growing faster than Owasso, Jenks, Bixby, BA, et al., just from looking at the net gains. That's chuckle-worthy lol..

[adaniel]

The most recent US Census Bureau estimates shows as of July 1, 2011, Oklahoma City's population was 591,967, that's 11,968 people in just a little over a year...with growth rate of 2.1%, if we keep this up, we may be hitting 700,000 by 2020...that would put us at around a 20% growth rate for the decade...good deal...

The estimates are based off population growth from July 1 2010 to July 1 2011. The official census numbers are the number of citizens on April 1 2010. A few months does make a difference. Just wanted to clarify.

With that being said, OKC still saw an annual gain of 9,615, or 1.651%. Still very impressive. Probably won’t make 700K by 2020 but we could easily be in the 650-675K range.

What's amazing is that since OKC has risen, Tulsa's growth has dropped off a cliff. I haven't done the math yet, but I think MWC and Del City may even be growing faster than Owasso, Jenks, Bixby, BA, et al., just from looking at the net gains. That's chuckle-worthy lol..

Funny you mention that. Here is a breakdown of other towns:
Midwest City: +851 or 1.559%
Norman: +1,847 or 1.658%
Edmond: +1,258 or 1.54%
Del City: +333 or 1.555% (Yay Del City!)
Moore: +973 or 1.758%
Tulsa: +3,300 or 0.839%
Owasso: +255 or 0.862%
Jenks: +147 or 0.866%
Broken Arrow: +878 or 0.885% (btw BA has finally broken 100K)

No doubt the Tulsa suburbs have fallen off, but glad to see the city of Tulsa is picking up in growth. Overall I do find it interesting that suburban growth is pretty much in line with the growth of its core cities. This would be in line with what is being witnessed nationally, with suburbs slowing down and cities picking up in growth.

The entire metro region is performing extremely well on all demographic and economic indicators, especially as personal income growth is still among the strongest in the nation. I suspect that this will not be consistent, and it will depend on what oil and gas does in the coming years - if we keep this economic boom up, I can easily see our growth "growing."

Agreed. See the articles I posted here:

http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.ph...576#post551576

[Pete]

I sorted the top 100 MSA's by percentage growth and OKC was #15.

Also, assuming 2% annual growth rate, our MSA would be just over 1.5 million by 2020.


20% growth over a decade would classify us as a legit boom town.

[ou48A]

I know that it seems like the traffic is getting heavier all the time.
But this pop. increase should help the OKC tax collections.

It is noticeably worse just in the last 2 or 3 years and we need to be working on solutions ….now

[dankrutka]

It is noticeably worse just in the last 2 or 3 years and we need to be working on solutions ….now

This is a by product of growth and a car culture. I'm living in DFW this summer, and their construction will never catch up to the population boom. Traffic is insanely terrible. There are legit traffic jams on the highway at 6pm on a Sunday. OKC is still in good shape comparably.

[ou48A]

This is a by product of growth and a car culture. I'm living in DFW this summer, and their construction will never catch up to the population boom. Traffic is insanely terrible. There are legit traffic jams on the highway at 6pm on a Sunday. OKC is still in good shape comparably.

I am aware of the Dallas congestion. It occurs in spite of a decent transit system that is continuing to grow.
Most big US cities are congested regardless of how urbanized they are.

Part of our quality of life in our area has been the relatively low congestion rates, comparatively speaking.
But we still need to stay ahead of the curve on this and not compare our self to others.
It’s part of why I hope we don’t grow too fast.

[Spartan]

Bring on the growth. Traffic congestion is a very small part of QoL. I always say that anywhere worth being has traffic. There are way more good things that could come from growth than bad things, especially if we plan our city accordingly. We NEED to curb sprawl..NEED to focus on more urban shade.

[Plutonic Panda]

Does anybody think that this city might get as big as Dallas is(Today) in the distant future? Say a 100 years or so.

[MDot]

Does anybody think that this city might get as big as Dallas is(Today) in the distant future? Say a 100 years or so.

Dallas itself or DFW?