Race & Ethnicity

Demographic Summary

Demographics is one of the most important components of a place, for people – how many there are, where they come from, their history – defines the culture, the economy, the built form, and public health of a community. For this profile, the demographic section below uses census data to analyze race and ethnicity, geographic mobility, and population forecasting in Tulsa County, all of which indicate an opportunity for growth of diversity and inclusivity within the study area as climate and political refugee numbers continue to rise.

Race & Ethnicity

Collecting and analyzing data on race and ethnicity is a critical step in planning because it helps reveal where the residents come from and their generational history, how the population is growing, what kinds of services resident need, while also bringing systemic racism and xenophobia to light. As illustrated in Tables 1-3 and Figures 5-7, compared to the reference areas of Tulsa MSA and the state of Oklahoma, Tulsa County is only slightly more racially and ethnically diverse across all categories except for American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, and Puerto Rican. The latter two make up the same percentage of the population across all geographies. Oklahoma and Tulsa County, specifically, have a rich history of residents who are people of color and immigrants, particularly Native American, Latinx, and Black folks. Oklahoma is the immemorial homelands to many tribes and was also the place of forced relocation for many more during the 1800s. More recently, Oklahoma has become a place of immigration for Latinx people, especially Mexican people fleeing poor living conditions. Moreover, Tulsa County, specifically, was home to Black Wall Street, a thriving regional economic center for Black people in the early 20th century. Coincidingly, however, Oklahoma and Tulsa County also have a long history of racial and ethnic discrimination and violence, examples of which include the Tulsa Race Massacre, redlining and segregation, the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples, antiimmigration policies, and racist attitudes from the general public. As a result, Tulsa County and the reference areas are not very racially or ethnically diverse.

Notably, however, Tulsa County is rapidly becoming more diverse, as illustrated by Table 1 and Figures 4 and 5. The dominating group – white people – only decreased by 6.95%, but all minority groups grew by at least 10%. Some populations grew by extraordinary amounts, such as the Asian (56.99% growth) and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (73.46% growth) racial groups and the Puerto Rican (82.57% growth), Cuban (82.30% growth), and other Hispanic or Latinx (61.52% growth) ethnic groups. This massive growth in minority groups are likely due to a variety of reasons, including but not limited to the need for climate and political refuge, access to jobs and education, specialized healthcare needs, greater availability of support services, and desire to live in diverse neighborhoods, In particular, the fact that Tulsa County is home to the second largest city in the state, so as disparities between urban and rural life worsen, more people from rural areas find they must move to the largest cities for opportunities.

As these populations continue to grow within the area, Tulsa County officials need to establish and expand existing programs meant to support these groups, such as:

● installing multi-lingual signage ● hiring bilingual government employees ● funding multilingual school and health programs