{"id":346388,"date":"2026-06-04T12:06:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/346388\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T12:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:06:24","slug":"more-people-moved-to-okc-than-san-diego-detroit-last-year-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/346388\/","title":{"rendered":"More people moved to OKC than San Diego, Detroit last year. Here’s why."},"content":{"rendered":"

More people chose to move to Oklahoma City<\/a> from 2024 to 2025 than to Detroit, Kansas City, San Diego or Philadelphia, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data.<\/p>\n

There were over 17,000 people<\/a> who uprooted their lives and moved into one of the five cities from July 1, 2024, to the next July 1, according to the latest census data released in May.<\/p>\n

The five cities all have professional sports<\/a>, diverse economies mainly supported by one industry<\/a>, and an overall good quality of life. However, Oklahoma City beats out the rest for potentially one aspect:<\/p>\n

Cost of living.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City’s housing value index<\/a>, which compares housing costs to median household income, is significantly better than each of the five markets, according to data analyzed by U.S. News & World Report.<\/p>\n

Here’s what this means and why Oklahoma City is continuing its climb up the list.<\/p>\n

See the best photos from what’s going on around Oklahoma<\/p>\n

1 of 42<\/p>\n

Jordan M\/. Wells rehearses with cast members for the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma’s production of “Beehive” in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

(BRYAN TERRY\/THE OKLAHOMAN)Oklahoma City ranked one of the fastest-growing cities in nation<\/p>\n

According to data retrieved from the U.S. Census Bureau, Oklahoma City grew by 6,104 people between July 1, 2024, and July 2025.<\/p>\n

While this trails closely behind some other cities in the nation, like Columbus, Ohio (7,696) and Surprise, Arizona (7,702), it still places the Sooner City in the top 9 spots overall.<\/p>\n

The new influx of Oklahomans took the city to a total of 719,849 people, accounting for those who left town.<\/p>\n

It was a total of nearly a 1% increase in population.<\/p>\n

In 2025, U-Haul reported<\/a> that there were several reasons that were pulling people to move to Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are moving to Oklahoma because the cost of living is well below the national average,\u201d said Jim Smith, U-Haul Company of Tulsa president, in a news release. \u201cThey can move here and enjoy a better life and lower cost of living.”<\/p>\n

Smith continued to cite the different sectors of industry as well, such as aerospace, energy and finance.<\/p>\n

Statistician with the Census Bureau’s Population Division Matt Erickson said that mid-sized cities are finding a “goldilocks zone” for growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig-city growth slowed significantly between 2024 and 2025, with some major hubs even seeing small declines,\u201d Erickson said. \u201cIn contrast, midsized cities found a \u2018Goldilocks zone\u2019 where domestic and international migration, paired with new housing, helped prevent the sluggish growth seen in small towns and larger metropolitan centers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthering this, Oklahoma City held its position as the 21st most populated city in the nation, closely behind Nashville, Tennessee, and Denver, Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People fill Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City in June 2025.<\/p>\n

Enid named Oklahoma city with most departures<\/p>\n

In the same study, the census data showed that Enid experienced the largest percentage loss of its population among cities in Oklahoma from 2024 to 2025.<\/p>\n

The city, which was estimated to have a 2025 population of 50,297 people, lost .5% of its population.<\/p>\n

The estimated 232 people who left Enid continue a downward turn of almost 2% population loss since 2020.<\/p>\n

While it did experience a drop in population, Enid still outpaces Oklahoma City in quality of life, as ranked by U.S. News.<\/p>\n

The annual list places the north-central Oklahoma town at the fourth best place to live in the state, just one spot higher than the capital city.<\/p>\n

U.S. News cites the shorter commute, lower median home value and rent as major factors in quality of life.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: US Census data shows OKC outpacing major cities in new residents. Here’s why.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More people chose to move to Oklahoma City from 2024 to 2025 than to Detroit, Kansas City, San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[75090,9512,6664,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-346388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-census-bureau","tag-kansas-city","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}