Tulsa, OK
Tulsa, OK Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Tulsa, OK Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Tulsa ranks 174th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 202nd for income. A household earns $69,658 a year while median rent runs $1,115/mo, making it moderately affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 11% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is cost of living (45th of 300), while air quality is the soft spot (234th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 98th and home prices 85th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Tulsa, your take-home is worth about $65,282 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 202nd of 300↑20.4%$69,658
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 45th of 30089 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $78,080
- Per-capita income
- $38,584
- Full-time pay
- $42,137
Housing
- Median rent
- 98th of 300↑29.5%$1,115/mo
- Home value
- 85th of 300↑53.8%$247,500
- Property tax
- $1,999/yr · 0.8%
- Sales tax
- 9.01%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 164th of 3004.6%
- Bachelor's+
- 172nd of 30031.9%
- Avg commute
- 95th of 30022.6 min
People
- Population
- 1,060,423
- Population change
- +6.2%
- Median age
- 37.7 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 7.8%
- Broadband
- 93.3%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 234th of 30051
- Natural-hazard loss
- 178th of 300$14/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 193rd of 30019.8%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 11.2%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Cost of living
- + Rent
- + Home prices
- + Commute
Watch-outs
- – Household income
- – Air quality
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — tulsa intl ap.
What jobs pay in Tulsa
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $350,190
- IT managers
- $150,680
- Financial managers
- $141,980
- Pharmacists
- $140,820
- Software developers
- $108,730
- Lawyers
- $108,220
- Civil engineers
- $102,080
- General & operations managers
- $96,150
- Registered nurses
- $84,790
- Accountants & auditors
- $81,320
- Web developers
- $79,130
- Police officers
- $64,190
- Electricians
- $62,280
- Plumbers
- $59,440
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $58,790
- Secondary school teachers
- $48,410
- Elementary school teachers
- $48,220
- Carpenters
- $46,810
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $45,760
- Construction laborers
- $43,200
- Customer service reps
- $38,560
- Janitors
- $32,170
- Retail salespersons
- $29,810
- Cashiers
- $29,180
- Waiters & waitresses
- $18,350
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Tulsa metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Oklahoma are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Texas4,997
- California2,752
- Arkansas1,516
- Missouri1,494
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Tulsa
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Tulsa metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Tulsa metro?
- Median gross rent across the Tulsa, OK Metro Area is $1,115 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Tulsa.
- What is the median household income in the Tulsa metro?
- A typical household in the Tulsa, OK Metro Area earns $69,658 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Tulsa expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Tulsa, OK Metro Area runs about 11% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Tulsa metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $78,080 (versus its face value of $69,658). CityLedger rates the Tulsa, OK Metro Area moderately affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Tulsa metro?
- The median home value across the Tulsa, OK Metro Area is $247,500 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Tulsa metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Tulsa, OK Metro Area is 4.6% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).