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2024 Census data: Oklahoma ranks as 8th poorest state

By: Dave Hamby
September 11, 2025 // Updated: September 12, 2025
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, released Sept. 11, show that Oklahoma’s poverty rate was 14.9 percent, which means that more than 1 in 7 state residents live in poverty. While the state’s overall poverty rate… Read more More...

Recent Posts

‘Full House’ interim studies look at hot-button issues (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
July 17, 2015 // Updated: July 17, 2015
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

No place to go: Oklahomans with felony convictions face barriers to affordable housing

By: Carly Putnam
July 16, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
This report was funded by a grant from the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation. [See the full issue brief] Oklahoma’s tough-on-crime criminal justice ethos results in one of the highest per-capita incarceration rates in the US. Thousands of these incarcerated… Read more [More...]

Where women are winning political office in Oklahoma

By: Gene Perry
July 14, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In a new report from the Center for American Progress on the Health of State Democracies, Oklahoma was awarded a D+ across the board for ballot accessibility, a representative state government, and average citizens’ influence on the political system. These… Read more [More...]

Overtime update is long overdue

By: David Blatt
July 13, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
An earlier version of this post appeared in the Journal Record For a long time now, hardworking, middle-class Americans have seen their wages stagnate, while the benefits of economic growth go mostly to the wealthiest. One reason for this trend… Read more [More...]

The Weekly Wonk: Court criticism, three-legged stools, and more

By: Carly Putnam
July 12, 2015 // Updated: July 25, 2015
The Weekly Wonk is a summary of Oklahoma Policy Institute’s events, publications, blog posts, and coverage. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.… Read more [More...]

Criticism of court is nothing new (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
July 10, 2015 // Updated: July 10, 2015
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

In The Know: Oklahoma’s No Child Left Behind waiver extended

By: Carly Putnam
// Updated: July 10, 2015
In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail. Today… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s ‘three-legged stool’ of tax incentive reform is incomplete (Guest post: Ryan Gentzler)

By: Ryan Gentzler
July 9, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Ryan Gentzler is an OK Policy Research Fellow and a Research Associate with the Early Childhood Education Institute. He recently completed his Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Oklahoma. After years of stalled reforms on tax incentives… Read more [More...]

In The Know: State PTA considers testing boycott

By: Carly Putnam
// Updated: July 9, 2015
In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail. Today… Read more [More...]

The results of our audience survey

By: Gene Perry
July 8, 2015 // Updated: July 8, 2015
A few months ago, we asked you to give us some feedback about how you use the information that we provide and what you’d like to see us do in the future. Nearly one thousand of you took our survey, … Read more [More...]

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