The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

I use population figures for communities and need pretty accurate estimates for all kinds of formulas. INCOG has a person who provides these using a variety of input including utility company account information.

The number today for the population in the city limits of Tulsa is 399,308. That compares with 397,011 from this date last year.

Other Tulsa County community info I request:

Bixby   -  19,373
Broken Arrow  -  97.774
Collinsville  -  5,550
Glenpool  -  10,488
Jenks  -  16,051
Owasso  -  28,321
Sand Springs  -  18,358
Unincorporated remainder of Tulsa County  -  35,031

I also got Coweta in Wagoner County  -  8,967
and Claremore in Rogers County  -  18,603

Very glad to hear it. 400,000 is a pretty nice benchmark to reach as a city. I'm curious about how much of that growth is from other states (anecdotally, I've seen a huge increase in cars from New York, Michigan, California, and Florida in the Tulsa area over the last year).

I am glad we are up.  When the population was trending down there for a bit, they would project out from that and say we would still be losing population.  Glad those projection scenarios were wrong.  

That puts Tulsa County at about 630,000.   I would guestimate OKCs populationto be about 560,000 (OKCs area is still larger in size than Tulsa County but I think it makes for a more fair comparison).   

But where they top us is the metro or MSA department. Tulsa MSA guestimate 940,000   OKC MSA 1,300,000   That extra 300,000 or so can make a big difference.  

But I am glad to see Tulsa and Tulsa county still steadily growing.


Some interesting visual maps comparing the two cities, though again I think the more fair comparison would be Tulsa County to OKC, and metros.

http://blog.newsok.com/datawatch/2009/07/01/visualizing-the-latest-city-population-estimates/

What are the figures for Skiatook? Sperry? Do they have a total Tulsa MSA population?

Per William's URL:

Skiatook - 6,800
Sperry - 1,000

both as of 2008

I was asking about the INCOG numbers, since they're more recent. William's link was very cool, by the way! It's nice to be able to visualize the data like that.

You know, on my blog (http://dsjeffries.wordpress.com (http://dsjeffries.wordpress.com)) I had a post about Tulsa and OKC and how their news propaganda team try to discredit Tulsa as a Tier II convention city (which it IS). Steve Lackmeyer (LackLUSTER is more like it) left a comment saying that I was really foolish to try to compare the two cities because Oklahoma City is just "way too big to be compared to Tulsa". Is OKC's population larger? Yes. Is it so much larger that Tulsa isn't a peer? Not at all. In a state of 3.6 million people, The two largest cities have around 550,000 and 400,000 residents each. Combined, the two cities, not counting their suburbs, account for nearly 27% of the state's population. That's not a huge disparity, and the next largest cities all hover around 100,000. It's not like we're comparing the population of Tulsa to the population of Dallas, Chicago or New York.  Am I missing something?

If you include Bartlesville/Washington Co. as part of our CSA and the counties of the Tulsa MSA (Tulsa, Osage, Pawnee, Creek, Okmulgee, Wagoner, Rogers) I imagine we will be over 1,000,000 as confirmed by the 2010 Census.  Getting into the Top 50 largest metro areas would be a nice feat; right now we are 53rd (based on 2008 estimates) right behind Tucson, Rochester (NY), Raleigh, and Salt Lake City.  I am still surprised Tulsa (the city) grew as much as it did over the past several years.

Big overgrown small town, aren't we? :P

I think the "" foolish to try to compare the two cities because Oklahoma City is just "way too big to be compared to Tulsa" "" thing is silly.  Again I go to the notion that OKC is larger only because land wise it encompasses an area larger than Tulsa County. If we said Tulsa County was "Tulsa", then we would be the larger city. There isnt any difference between driving across the river in OKC to another part of OKC than there is driving across the river from Tulsa to Jenks, or down a highway from one part of OKC to another and from Tulsa to Broken Arrow....Other than we likely wouldnt have to go as far lol.


 What really does count in many situations though is Metro population, not just city population.  And there they do have us by a good amount.

Very true, mainly because the OKC metro is all of central Oklahoma and there are more sizable cities all around OKC, including the state's third largest city and its largest university, than there are around Tulsa.  Many don't realize that one of the fastest growing metro's in the nation is only 108 miles to the east: Springdale-Rogers-Fayetteville.

I was actually going to mention the Springdale-Rogers-Fayetteville area.  We do get some folk from there visiting, on business, etc.  I have family in the area, my sister went to College there, have several friends who have moved here from there.  On the one hand its a plus, but if they keep up that rapid growth, they could become a relatively local and strong competing force to contend with.  Interesting side on that note.... A friend going to Optometry school said they had their last big event in Tulsa (they stayed at the Crowne Plaza).  This year they had checked out both our downtown and Fayetteville.  They picked Fayetteville.  They said Dixon street blows away what we have at the moment.  I think that situation is just temporary as our downtown will be much better in about 4 years.

I would agree with your assessment of the NW Arkansas MSA.  They are only 100 miles away and many have ties to Tulsa.  I have family in the Rogers area.   

Around Christmas Holiday time I have seen buses from western AR in the big shopping areas like (gasp) Woodland Hills Mall.

I could see it helping us in a way in that if a store like Nordstrom is looking at Tulsa but isn't sold on the 1,000,000+ metro population, overall demographics, and the fact that Saks Fifth Avenue is already here they may look at our close proximity to NWA.  I have no doubt that many people in NWA come to Tulsa for shopping, dining, and events because it is just over a 2 hour drive from Springdale and not much further from Fayetteville, Rogers, and Bentonville.  That metro is projected to be near near 450,000 in 2010 and is still growing fast (from 1990-2000 it was the sixth fastest growing metro in the country).  Marketing Tulsa to NWA, especially Fayetteville, is important because of the large number of college grads coming out of UA that would drive to Tulsa for concerts/events and potentially accept jobs here after college.  And marketing NWA to Tulsa is equally important because it's a beautiful area with hiking, whitewater kayaking/rafting, lakes, and other outdoor activities within a short drive from Tulsa. 

I say screw OKC.  Lets build more connections to NWA, including rail lol.  Come to think of it, I have actually done more mural work in that area than OKC as well.

There are definitely some deep pockets in NWA.  Not that there aren't in OKC as well, but per capita there may be more in Bentonville/Rogers/Springdale. 

Drive through Utica Square on any given Saturday and there are usually a large number of cars with Arkansas plates.  I assume Woodland Hills is the same.

I grew up in Fayetteville, and back in the day Tulsa was a big shopping and entertainment draw.  Of course, this was back in the 80s when NWA was really only a string of sleepy towns up and down Hwy 71.   Since the growth has occurred, though, there's far less reason to come over here now.  Shopping options especially have improved (seen the Pinnacle Hills mall recently?), and there're enough sports (minor league baseball; U of A sports) and music (Dickson St. particularly) to give us a run for our money.  And honestly most folks who live in NWA take their recreation somewhere in Arkansas (higher mountains, rushier rivers, caves, trees, etc). The Walton Arts Center even gets a steady stream of PAC-worthy acts. 

I'm not saying there's no exchange across the Cherokee Turnpike, but I think it's now mostly either business or family related. 

I remember seeing Dan P Holmes (sp?) on the TV complaining about Highway 33.  We finally upgrade the road to western AR and what do they do?  They build their own stuff.  Gee Thanks.
 :D

http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/itemsofinterest/centennial/centennial_storypage.asp?ID=070301_Ne_a10_highway_0 (http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/itemsofinterest/centennial/centennial_storypage.asp?ID=070301_Ne_a10_highway_0)

This is from 2009 but the Tulsa Chamber needs to update its data.  It shows the city population falling to 380,000 by 2013.  That is obviously not the case.

http://ww3.tulsachamber.com/upload/file/Economic%20Development/Tulsa%20Demographics%202009.pdf (http://ww3.tulsachamber.com/upload/file/Economic%20Development/Tulsa%20Demographics%202009.pdf)

The Metro Chamber has a terminally broken calculator, SXSW.

The Census Bureau has a nice, interactive map that lets you trace the return rate for each zip code/census tract. Type in your ZIP code and go! Pretty cool stuff: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/ (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/)

Sad to say that Tulsa's response rate is lagging behind the suburbs and the rest of the nation. If we want to secure our representation, we need to count everyone.

Census numbers for 2009 are showing 389,825 in Tulsa.  Unfortunately Tulsa finishes the decade with a 0.9 decrease in population even though the last few years have seen increases.

Growth in the Tulsa metro
(http://www.tulsaworld.com/articleimages/2010/20100623_A1_a1populationchange06232010.jpg)

I'm willing the bet that there are actually more people living in Tulsa than there were 10 years ago.  To say why I think that would turn this into a political debate, however.

Well if we added 3,870 last year and that brought us to 3,400 shy of our all time high... by now we  may have surpassed that number.

He's implying illegal immigrants.