The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

  Here is a neat interactive map of the US showing population and "racial" demographic changes over the last decade.  

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/defining.america/map/index.html

I zoomed in so I could see Tulsa County, Oklahoma County and surrounding counties at the same time.  Tulsa county grew by about 40,000 and Oklahoma County by about 58,000. And that gain wasn't from white folk for the white population in Tulsa county actually shrunk by about 15,000 and by a little over 17,000 in Oklahoma County during the same time period.  

Its also interesting to zoom down to the census tract level and see where the population growth is in Tulsa. Its steady to losing in the mid-town/geographic center of Tulsa, and growing along the very edges and into the suburbs.  But the other interesting thing is that Downtown within the IDL, was this island of red (growth) in a sea of white (decrease) saw a 13% increase in population which I am sure we will eeeasily trounce in this decade.  If the last decades trends are similar to what this one will bring (and I think we could easily double or triple the number of new people living in downtown this decade compared to last) I predict that Downtown will have the highest, square mile, population density in the Tulsa region.  So much for "Who on earth would want to live downtown? and "There is nothing downtown." naysayers.

And you know whats also fascinating?  At the census tract level looking at the white population change, its growing in north Tulsa (directly north of downtown) and for the black population its decreasing in north Tulsa.  I would not have bet on that being the case.

The square miles between Garnett and 129th from Pine all the way to 81st have seen significant Hispanic population increases in the last decade, often around 300% adding over 1,000 per sq mile.  

Cool map.  But one has to be careful with the numbers, especially in central city census tracts such as Tulsa's IDL (Tract 25).  The population numbers include prisoners and others in "group housing" (e.g., homeless shelters, etc.)  To get these details, one has to go to American Fact Finder section of the Census website.

For the purposes of a discussion of development and increasing the residential population, we have to look at the "population in occupied housing units".  That number was 1,211 in 2000 and grew to 1,423 in 2010.  Smaller numbers, but actually a larger percentage growth rate than the total population numbers.  (Growth of 212/17.5%).

More interesting stuff from the 2010 American Fact Finder: 

Number of housing units inside the IDL:  1,299
Number occupied/vacant:                    1,042/257  for an occupancy rate of 80.2%
So, the average number of people living in each occupied housing unit is 1.37

My guess would be that those numbers will more than double by the time of the next census. Thanks for the info Oil Capitol.

Tulsa made it on the list as one of the top five retirement cities and with an aging Boomer population, my guess is more people will be moving in.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/2011-07-21-most-affordable-places-to-retire_n.htm

There are a few sites with this story and I like the one with the video, but can't find it right now.