Like all states, Oklahoma has certain places that are going on hard times. These Oklahoma places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.
Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Oklahoma.
To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 74 cities in Oklahoma with more than 5,000 people.
$33,917 median income · 29.9% poverty · #1 lowest income in Oklahoma
Hugo, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Oklahoma thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.
The city of 5,182 people averages the lowest median household income in Oklahoma and the 2nd highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$39,121 median income · 27.9% poverty · #2 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Seminole County, Oklahoma
The second poorest city in Oklahoma is Seminole.
The city ranks as having the 4th highest incidence of poverty and 2nd lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the 10th highest in the Sooner State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$45,259 median income · 30.3% poverty · #9 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Okmulgee County, Oklahoma
Placing as the third poorest city, Henryetta’s median income ranks as the 9th lowest.
And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 30.3% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.
But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the Sooner State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$43,295 median income · 25.1% poverty · #5 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
McCurtain County, Oklahoma
Idabel ranks as the fourth poorest place in Oklahoma.
The town ranks as having the 5th lowest median household income and the 6th highest incidence of poverty in the state.
That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$43,700 median income · 27.4% poverty · #6 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Payne County, Oklahoma
The fifth poorest city in Oklahoma is Stillwater.
The city ranks as having the 6th lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 5th highest in Oklahoma.
Still not the best news for Stillwater.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$43,105 median income · 24.5% poverty · #4 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Caddo County, Oklahoma
Anadarko ranks as the sixth poorest place in the Sooner State.
It ranks as having the 7th highest incidence of poverty and the 23rd highest unemployment rate.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$48,036 median income · 29.5% poverty · #15 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Sequoyah County, Oklahoma
Sallisaw places as the seventh poorest city in Oklahoma.
The city of over 8,605 ranks as having the 3rd highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$46,250 median income · 24.2% poverty · #10 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Hughes County, Oklahoma
Holdenville ranks as the eighth poorest city in Oklahoma.
The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as one of the highest in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$44,136 median income · 22.0% poverty · #7 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Payne County, Oklahoma
Cushing couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Oklahoma; it ranks number 9.
While the median income is the 7th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, Cushing ranks as having the 14th most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Oklahoma.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$41,848 median income · 20.6% poverty · #3 lowest income in Oklahoma
Located in
Okmulgee County, Oklahoma
And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Oklahoma is Okmulgee.
The city of 11,348 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the Sooner State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Oklahoma’s statewide median.
Oklahoma statewide median: $65,039
Oklahoma statewide median: 15.3%
Oklahoma statewide median: 5.0%
On the map
Where poverty hits hardest in Oklahoma
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the poorest places in Oklahoma for 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.
However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
After we collected the data for all 74 places with more than 5,000 people in Oklahoma, we ranked each place from 1 to 74 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Hugo, crowned the “Poorest Place In Oklahoma For 2026”. The median Oklahoma home is 44 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Detailed list of the poorest places to live in Oklahoma
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Poor Score | Population | Median income | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hugo | 1.50 | 5,182 | $33,917 | 29.9% | 4.4% |
| 2 | Seminole | 3.00 | 7,194 | $39,121 | 27.9% | 7.4% |
| 3 | Henryetta | 5.00 | 5,608 | $45,259 | 30.3% | 10.8% |
| 4 | Idabel | 5.50 | 6,987 | $43,295 | 25.1% | 5.4% |
| 5 | Stillwater | 5.50 | 49,269 | $43,700 | 27.4% | 6.4% |
| 6 | Anadarko | 5.50 | 5,572 | $43,105 | 24.5% | 6.2% |
| 7 | Sallisaw | 9.00 | 8,605 | $48,036 | 29.5% | 4.8% |
| 8 | Holdenville | 9.50 | 5,902 | $46,250 | 24.2% | 7.9% |
| 9 | Cushing | 10.50 | 8,367 | $44,136 | 22.0% | 5.6% |
| 10 | Okmulgee | 10.50 | 11,348 | $41,848 | 20.6% | 8.2% |
| 11 | Miami | 11.50 | 12,926 | $46,410 | 22.6% | 3.0% |
| 12 | Del City | 13.00 | 21,494 | $46,925 | 22.6% | 7.7% |
| 13 | Pauls Valley | 13.50 | 6,062 | $50,357 | 24.4% | 5.2% |
| 14 | Pryor Creek | 13.50 | 9,569 | $44,839 | 20.5% | 8.6% |
| 15 | Muskogee | 14.00 | 36,758 | $50,213 | 24.1% | 6.7% |
| 16 | Vinita | 14.50 | 5,300 | $47,025 | 21.8% | 6.8% |
| 17 | Elk City | 16.00 | 11,361 | $51,272 | 22.8% | 8.4% |
| 18 | Durant | 21.00 | 19,746 | $46,812 | 18.7% | 4.8% |
| 19 | Poteau | 21.50 | 8,959 | $50,511 | 19.8% | 6.1% |
| 20 | Lawton | 22.50 | 90,595 | $54,433 | 21.1% | 8.1% |
| 21 | McAlester | 23.00 | 18,111 | $51,930 | 19.7% | 6.9% |
| 22 | Tahlequah | 24.00 | 16,935 | $49,581 | 18.4% | 6.3% |
| 23 | Guthrie | 25.00 | 11,243 | $53,457 | 19.4% | 5.6% |
| 24 | Shawnee | 25.00 | 31,671 | $55,815 | 20.8% | 6.0% |
| 25 | Warr Acres | 25.50 | 10,466 | $53,273 | 19.0% | 3.7% |
| 26 | Weatherford | 26.50 | 12,004 | $54,704 | 20.3% | 6.2% |
| 27 | Bethany | 28.50 | 20,560 | $56,591 | 20.5% | 6.5% |
| 28 | Tecumseh | 29.00 | 6,332 | $48,573 | 16.3% | 3.6% |
| 29 | Duncan | 29.50 | 22,958 | $58,054 | 20.5% | 6.8% |
| 30 | El Reno | 31.00 | 18,557 | $56,219 | 19.3% | 6.1% |
| 31 | Ardmore | 31.00 | 24,877 | $53,900 | 17.4% | 4.5% |
| 32 | Chickasha | 31.00 | 16,539 | $54,111 | 17.5% | 6.9% |
| 33 | Clinton | 33.00 | 8,388 | $58,207 | 19.3% | 2.0% |
| 34 | Ponca City | 33.50 | 24,326 | $55,941 | 17.9% | 6.9% |
| 35 | Altus | 34.00 | 18,646 | $55,295 | 17.4% | 6.5% |
| 36 | Woodward | 34.00 | 11,882 | $54,463 | 17.2% | 7.5% |
| 37 | Blackwell | 35.00 | 6,042 | $53,435 | 14.6% | 4.3% |
| 38 | Ada | 35.00 | 16,575 | $53,507 | 16.1% | 4.3% |
| 39 | Tulsa | 36.50 | 413,794 | $59,838 | 18.7% | 6.1% |
| 40 | Grove | 37.50 | 7,176 | $58,941 | 18.1% | 2.1% |
| 41 | Midwest City | 39.00 | 58,297 | $57,520 | 16.5% | 7.1% |
| 42 | Bartlesville | 39.50 | 37,878 | $58,869 | 17.2% | 4.4% |
| 43 | Wagoner | 40.50 | 8,082 | $57,917 | 16.1% | 6.1% |
| 44 | Kingfisher | 44.00 | 5,026 | $64,271 | 17.1% | 2.1% |
| 45 | Norman | 45.50 | 129,672 | $67,704 | 16.8% | 5.7% |
| 46 | Claremore | 47.50 | 20,166 | $58,685 | 12.1% | 5.9% |
| 47 | Enid | 48.00 | 50,653 | $62,125 | 13.7% | 5.3% |
| 48 | Sapulpa | 48.00 | 22,570 | $63,817 | 14.2% | 3.2% |
| 49 | Purcell | 48.00 | 6,803 | $63,457 | 14.0% | 4.0% |
| 50 | Oklahoma City | 48.50 | 697,125 | $68,656 | 15.1% | 4.7% |
| 51 | Guymon | 48.50 | 12,539 | $60,075 | 13.2% | 3.2% |
| 52 | Lone Grove | 50.50 | 5,125 | $74,265 | 14.4% | 1.9% |
| 53 | Coweta | 50.50 | 10,433 | $67,519 | 13.2% | 4.0% |
| 54 | Catoosa | 53.00 | 7,496 | $72,467 | 12.8% | 5.9% |
| 55 | The Village | 56.00 | 9,447 | $77,108 | 11.6% | 3.2% |
| 56 | Glenpool | 58.00 | 14,151 | $79,525 | 11.0% | 3.3% |
| 57 | Moore | 58.00 | 63,420 | $80,420 | 11.4% | 4.7% |
| 58 | Sand Springs | 58.00 | 20,117 | $75,645 | 10.5% | 5.9% |
| 59 | Yukon | 59.00 | 25,529 | $75,273 | 8.8% | 4.0% |
| 60 | Noble | 59.50 | 7,493 | $81,739 | 10.8% | 1.2% |
| 61 | Harrah | 61.00 | 6,684 | $84,375 | 10.8% | 3.3% |
| 62 | Owasso | 62.50 | 40,151 | $79,036 | 7.3% | 5.4% |
| 63 | Broken Arrow | 63.00 | 118,180 | $86,765 | 8.8% | 4.2% |
| 64 | Collinsville | 63.50 | 8,878 | $90,570 | 9.1% | 4.4% |
| 65 | Mustang | 65.00 | 22,192 | $87,844 | 8.0% | 5.7% |
| 66 | Verdigris | 65.50 | 5,637 | $84,259 | 6.8% | 2.3% |
| 67 | Blanchard | 66.50 | 9,215 | $91,473 | 7.9% | 10.1% |
| 68 | Edmond | 67.00 | 96,825 | $103,183 | 8.1% | 3.3% |
| 69 | Choctaw | 69.50 | 12,303 | $100,574 | 6.3% | 3.1% |
| 70 | Newcastle | 70.50 | 13,001 | $93,398 | 3.8% | 2.8% |
| 71 | Jenks | 71.00 | 27,102 | $111,004 | 6.8% | 2.6% |
| 72 | Bixby | 71.50 | 30,155 | $104,404 | 5.6% | 3.7% |
| 73 | Tuttle | 71.50 | 8,040 | $103,994 | 5.3% | 4.8% |
| 74 | Piedmont | 73.50 | 8,342 | $104,441 | 2.6% | 3.3% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 74 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
The poorest cities in Oklahoma for 2026
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Oklahoma, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Oklahoma.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there. Not sold on Oklahoma? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
