of Eastern Oklahoma
Issue 5
January 2013
Welcome to Data Blast
A Program of...
Data Blast is an e-newsletter prepared and distributed by the Census
Information Center of Eastern Oklahoma, a program of the
Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, and supported by the
Metropolitan Human Services Commission.
Data Blast is intended to inform and educate people in eastern
Oklahoma about population, economic, educational, health and
social trends in our local communities as well as in our state and
nation. Each issue draws on data from government sources to focus
on a particular topic, such as the aging of our population or income
self-sufficiency. Every issue includes data tables, maps, graphs, key
points, and background information to help the reader understanding
the underpinnings of the data.
www.csctulsa.org
We hope you'll find Data Blast an indispensable resource for
information and research. We welcome your feedback, so please
contact us at mpoulter@csctulsa.org with your comments, questions,
and suggestions. Please visit our website www.csctulsa.org for more
valuable data and information on other CSC programs!
In this month's issue...
Selected Social Characteristics, 2011
This issue of Data Blast focuses on selected social characteristics for the City of Tulsa, Tulsa
County, Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), Oklahoma, and the nation. Topics covered
include household type, marital status, school enrollment and educational attainment, veteran
and disability status, language spoken at home, and ancestry among others.
The data are from the 2011 American Community Survey (ACS), which is an ongoing survey
conducted by the US Census Bureau produces new data every year. Because the data are based
on a sample of the population, they are subject to sampling variability. A 90% margin of error
(MOE) is included with the data to represent the degree of uncertainty of an estimate due to this
sampling variability. This means that there is a 90% probability that the actual value lies
somewhere in the range of the estimated value plus and minus the margin of error. Estimates
with large margins of error relative to the estimate should be used with caution.
Comparable data reports are available for all states, MSAs, counties, and places in the United
States, and for many smaller areas, such as zip codes and census tracts through the American
Factfinder link on the Census Bureau website at http://www.census.gov . You may also contact
us at mpoulter@csctulsa.org for reports or other assistance.
City of Tulsa
(for complete table for Tulsa, click here)
 There are an estimated 163,222 households in the City of Tulsa. Of those, 58% are family
households, which means that at least two people in the household are related. Just over
a quarter of the city's households include own children under age 18. Just over half of
family households with own children are married-couple families (62,469); 8% are male
householder families, no wife present (3,304); and 38% are female householder families,
no husband present (15,923).
 Nearly 60,000 persons in Tulsa live alone, accounting for 35% of all households. Of those
living alone, over a quarter are 65 and over (15,923).
 Over 4,000 grandparents are responsible for their minor grandchildren in Tulsa, and
almost a third of them have been taking on this responsibility for at least five years.
 More than 100,000 persons age 3 and over are enrolled in school, from nursery school to
graduate school, including public and private.
 87% of the city's population age 25 and over are high school graduates. 30% have
bachelor's degrees or higher.
 An estimated 38,154 Tulsans are foreign-born. Of that population, 29% are naturalized
U.S. citizens.
 Other than English, Spanish is the most commonly spoken language: more than 40,000
persons age 5 and over speak Spanish at home. Almost half of them speak English less
than "very well."
 German is the most common ancestry named by Tulsans, at 14% of the total population,
followed by Irish at 11.2% and English at 9.1%. American is close behind at 8.7%.
Tulsa County
(for complete table for Tulsa County, click here)
 30% of the county's population age 25 and over have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Another 9% have an associate's degree, and 24% have received some college training
without completion of a degree.
 A quarter of the 161,735 people age 3 and over who are enrolled in school are in college
or graduate school.
 An estimated 240,278 households reside in Tulsa County, of which 64% are family
households. 70,766 households include own children under age 18. Of those families
with children, 62% are married-couple families, 8% are male householder families, no
wife present, and 30% are female householder families, no husband present.
 Close to 72,000 Tulsa County residents live alone, and 30% of them are age 65 and over.
 An estimated 83,125 persons report having a disability - 14% of the total civilian noninstitutionalized population. For those age 65 and over, 37% report a disability.
 Almost 50,000 Tulsa County residents are foreign-born. 63% are from Latin America,
followed by 26% from Asia.
 Over half of residents age 5 and over who speak Spanish at home speak English "very
well" (26,473).
Tulsa MSA
(for complete table for Tulsa MSA, click here)
 Fifteen percent of Tulsa MSA's total civilian non-institutionalized population reports
having some type of disability; that adds up to 141,409 persons with disabilities. Among
the 65 and over population, 39%, or 47,202 individuals, have a disability.
 Of an estimated 366,331 households in the Tulsa MSA, 67% are family households, and
29% include own children. Of those families with own children, 27% are femalehouseholder families, no husband present, 8% are male-householder families, no wife
present, and 65% are married-couple families.
 Almost 35,000 persons age 65 and over live alone in the Tulsa MSA.
 Nearly 10,000 grandparents are responsible for their grandchildren.
 Just under a quarter of a million Tulsa MSA residents age 3 and over are enrolled in
school.
 Of the 621,075 persons age 25 and over, 88% are high school graduates, and just over a
quarter have at least a bachelor's degree.
 There are an estimated 76,944 civilian veterans living in the MSA, representing 11% of
the total civilian population age 18 and over.
Oklahoma
(for complete table for Oklahoma, click here)
 Of the estimated 3,527,312 Oklahomans age five and over, 91% speak only English at
home. Of the 329,017 who speak a language other than English at home, 41% speak
English less than "very well." Two-thirds of the non-English speakers speak Spanish; 15%
speak Asian and Pacific Islander languages.
 A third of the 208,857 foreign-born population in the state are naturalized U.S. citizens.
59% of the foreign-born population were born in Latin America, and 25% were born in
Asia.
 Twenty-nine percent of the estimated 1,442,731 Oklahoma households are family
households with children under age 18. Of those families, two-thirds are married-couple
families, a quarter are female householder families, no husband present, and 9% are
male householder families, no wife present.
 Over 150,000 Oklahomans age 65 and over live alone.
 Nearly 45,000 grandparents are responsible for their grandchildren.
 Just under a million Oklahomans age 3 and over are enrolled in school. 42% of those are
in elementary school.
 Of the nearly 2.5 million persons age 25 and over, 86% are high school graduates, and
24% have a bachelor's degree or higher.
United States
(for complete table for United States, click here)
 Over 2.7 million grandparents in the United States are responsible for their
grandchildren. For 39% of these grandparents, the responsibility has been theirs for 5
years or more. The majority are female and married.
 An estimated 29% of the 114,991,725 U.S. households are families with own children
under 18. Of those family households, two-thirds are married-couple families, 8% are
male householder families, no wife present, and a quarter are female householder
families, no husband present.
 Over 11 million persons age 65 and over live alone in the United States, and a quarter of
all U.S. households include at least one person age 65 and over.
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An estimated 86% of the population age 25 and over are high school graduates, while
29% have at least a bachelor's degree.
There are over 21 million civilian veterans, representing 9% of our civilian population age
18 and over.
Twenty-one percent of the population age 5 and over speak a language other than
English at home, although over half of them also speak English "very well." The majority
of those speaking a language other than English at home speak Spanish.
The county's ancestral history is primarily Western European, with German (15.2%), Irish
(11.1%), English (8.2%), Italian (5.6%) and other Western European ancestries combining
for 52% of the population. American ancestry accounts for 7.7% of the population.
Until next time,
Melanie Poulter
Senior Planner, Demography and Geography
Community Service Council
mpoulter@csctulsa.org
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