If you love horses, Oklahoma City is the place for you. In fact, it’s home to more national and international horse competitions than anywhere else in the world, according to the local visitors bureau. Residents of OKC also have easy access to a variety of Americana-themed experiences, including dueling pianos and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
We can’t say how many of the 16,000 new residents of the Oklahoma City metro area are horse lovers, but we’re betting it’s a fair share. Between July 2015 and July 2016, the metro area went from 1,356,965 residents to 1,373,211, a 1.2 percent increase, according to the latest census data.
Oklahoma County, home to Oklahoma City, grew at a slightly slower clip in that time; it went from 775,949 residents to 782,970, a .9 percent increase. (The metro area spans multiple counties, so it has a larger population than Oklahoma County has.)
While some of the growth can be attributed to birth rates and immigration, the big chunk of new residents are movers from within Oklahoma and across the U.S.
So where are all those people coming from?
Another census study, conducted over five years from 2011-2015, gives us a pretty good answer.
Oklahoma County attracted 47,014 domestic movers from 2011 to 2015. The majority, 53 percent, came from within Oklahoma, while the other 47 percent came from out of state.
Below are rankings for the top five counties of origin for movers to Oklahoma County:
Movers outside of Oklahoma:
- Dallas County, TX
- Denton County, TX (northwest of Dallas)
- Tarrant County, TX (Fort Worth)
- Maricopa County, AZ (Phoenix)
- Tie: Los Angeles County, CA and Sedgwick County, KS (Wichita)
Movers from Oklahoma:
- Cleveland County
- Canadian County
- Tulsa County
- Logan County
- Comanche County
Above are the top places inside Oklahoma that people moved to Oklahoma County from over the five-year period 2011-2015. Numbers represent the number of movers from that place during the period.
Sources: Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau, https://www.visitokc.com/things-to-do/horse-shows/ and https://www.visitokc.com/things-to-do/
U.S. Census Bureau
