Oklahoma City is arguably, one of only two cities in the state of Oklahoma; the other being Tulsa. The city known as Oklahoma City is a newer city than others in the country. It’s nowhere near as old as New York City, Detroit or New Orleans, having been settled in the late 1800s, when those cities were booming or beginning to do so.
Oklahoma City was officially opened to the public for settlement on April 22, 1889, and was put under a provisional government, until the Organic Act, which established a territory of the United States, on May 2, 1890. Oklahoma City was officially incorporated as the county seat for the second of the seven Oklahoma counties, with Guthrie Oklahoma as the capital.
On December 4, 1928, oil was discovered in the city. As if overnight, oil wells were constructed all over the city, even on the south lawn on the capitol building. But by 1935, Oklahoma City was feeling the effects of the Great Depression.
World War Two brought growth through industries supporting the recovery of the nation; and the post war period saw Oklahoma City become a major hub in the national Interstate Highway System. Like most of the nation, this city struggled with the civil rights movement and White flight, brought a decline to the already struggling city. This is the same city that saw a rise in White nationalism and the Timothy McVey bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, including 19 children.
The city has 606.41 square miles of land, twice the size of NYC’s and less than a thousand people per square mile on average. Currently, the estimated population is 655,057, with the metropolitan area being 1,379,525. The mayor of the city is Republican, David Holt, the youngest mayor elected to the city since the 1920’s, and the first Native American mayor of the city. He was elected on February 13th, 2018.
Like many American cities, the population has a White majority. Unlike most cities though, it has a significant Native American population, that makes up 2.9 percent of the population, which is significant compared to other American cities.
The second largest racial group however, is the Black population, which is 14.3 percent. Other racial groups include Asians at 4.5 percent, and Mixed and /or Biracial population at 6.3 percent of the population. The Hispanic/Latino population, at nearly 20 percent of the city, sits at 19.7 percent.
Now, some might wonder if a mistake was made, just now. How else could one explain that Black people are the largest minority racial group when the Hispanic population is bigger. I assure the readers that this is a sound and sober report.
‘Hispanic’ is not a race. ‘Latino’ is not a race, they are both ethnicities and this might seem like a totally contradictory thing, but there is a difference between race and ethnicity. Race is what you are, your physical traits, what you look like.
Ethnicity is your culture, whichever one you come from. It’s something you’re raised in while race is something you are born. Black is a race, while Hispanic and Latino are ethnicities. People of many races can be an ethnicity, but that does not make ethnicity a race.
The average age is 34.1, younger than the U.S.’s average age by around three and a half years. The amount of the population that is an adult is 66.5 percent, with 33.5 percent being under 18. 12.4 percent of the overall population of the city is 65 and over according to the Census. That leaves 54.1 percent of the population, roughly 354,300 people, that has to work for a living.
The city has a diverse economy. There’s no one company running the scene like the steel cities in the old days, like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Gary, Youngstown and the like. The biggest employer of the city is the State of Oklahoma, which employs around 47,300 people.
Among the list of large employers are national heavyweights, such as Amazon, Boeing, UPS, and Hertz; and smaller, more local ones, such as the hospital. The current unemployment of the city is 4.8 percent, down nearly 10 percent from last year at the height of the global recession.
On average, the mean or hourly average wage is lower than the average hourly rate for the nation at $23.26 an hour. In all of the major occupations listed(1), the shortest gap is 1 percent in the “Life, physical, and social science” fields. The largest gap is 23 percent less, which is in the entertainment industry. As for having a place to live, the average rent for an apartment is $802(2).
There are many universities, near Oklahoma City, including an HBCU called Langston University, and a branch of the Oklahoma City State University system. The public school system leaves something to be desired, but it is not as bad as the public school systems of Alabama or of Louisiana.
It is called the Oklahoma City Public Schools. The total number of non college schools in the city under this system is 66; and it serves roughly 46,000 students. The city is also open to many private schools, for those who prefer it. Westminster School and Heritage Hall are two such institutions, located in the city itself.
Ultimately, OKC, like others, has its pros and its cons, one being many excellent universities being within an hour’s drive of the city. On the other hand, public education is less than stellar. Ultimately though, the city is what you make of it; and that could be a good thing, if you like a place with a low cost of living.