The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Sooner State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.
While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.
We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in Oklahoma have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.
A recent study we published found that Oklahoma is the 35th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 99.
But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Oklahoma are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.
#1 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Hughes County, Oklahoma
Holdenville is a city in and county seat of Hughes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 5,771 at the 2010 census, an increase of 22 percent from 4,732 at the 2000 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#2 dumbest in Oklahoma
Hugo is a city and county seat of Choctaw County, Oklahoma, United States. It is located in southeastern Oklahoma about 9 miles north of the Texas state line. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 5,310.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#3 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Okmulgee County, Oklahoma
Henryetta is a city in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 5,510 at the 2010 census, down 9.6 percent from 6,096 at the 2000 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#4 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Texas County, Oklahoma
Guymon is a city in and the county seat of Texas County, Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,442, an increase of 6.5 percent from 10,472 in 2000. The 2012 census estimate grew to 11,930. Cattle feedlots, corporate pork farms, and natural gas dominate its economy, with wind energy production and transmission recently diversifying landowners’ farms.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#5 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Craig County, Oklahoma
Vinita is a city in south-central Craig County, in northeastern Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Craig County. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,743, a decrease of 11.22 percent from 6,469 at the 2000 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#6 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Sequoyah County, Oklahoma
Sallisaw is a city and county seat of Sequoyah County. The population was 8,880 at the 2010 Census, an 11.2 percent increase from 7,891 at the 2000 census. Sallisaw is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#7 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
McClain County, Oklahoma
Purcell is a city in McClain County, Oklahoma, United States, and the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 5,884.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#8 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Garvin County, Oklahoma
Pauls Valley is a city in and the county seat of Garvin County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,187 at the 2010 census, a decline of 1.1 percent from 6,256 at the 2000 census. It was settled by and named for Smith Paul, a North Carolina native who married a Chickasaw woman and became a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation before the Civil War. The town economy is largely based on agriculture and oil production.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#9 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Seminole County, Oklahoma
Seminole is a city in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,899 at the 2000 census. Seminole experienced a large population growth in the 1920s due to an oil boom.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#10 dumbest in Oklahoma
Located in
Wagoner County, Oklahoma
Wagoner is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 8,323 at the 2010 census, compared to 7,669 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Wagoner County. It became the first city incorporated in Indian Territory on January 4, 1896.
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.
On the map
Where Oklahoma’s dumbest cities are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Sooner State
We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.
So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.
In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in Oklahoma:
- % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
- % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)
We got the data from the U.S. Census 2020-2024 American Community Survey.
Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in Oklahoma from dumbest to brightest.
For this ranking, we used every Oklahoma city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2026, and it’s our eleventh time ranking the dumbest cities in Oklahoma.
The full plate
Dumbest Cities In Oklahoma For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | % Adult High School Dropout | % Highly Educated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Holdenville | 5,902 | 21.0% | 11.0% |
| 2 | Hugo | 5,182 | 18.0% | 11.0% |
| 3 | Henryetta | 5,608 | 19.0% | 13.0% |
| 4 | Guymon | 12,539 | 29.0% | 15.0% |
| 5 | Vinita | 5,300 | 18.0% | 13.0% |
| 6 | Sallisaw | 8,605 | 18.0% | 14.0% |
| 7 | Purcell | 6,803 | 23.0% | 17.0% |
| 8 | Pauls Valley | 6,062 | 21.0% | 17.0% |
| 9 | Seminole | 7,194 | 16.0% | 15.0% |
| 10 | Wagoner | 8,082 | 15.0% | 14.0% |
| 11 | Poteau | 8,959 | 19.0% | 17.0% |
| 12 | Tecumseh | 6,332 | 15.0% | 15.0% |
| 13 | El Reno | 18,557 | 16.0% | 16.0% |
| 14 | Idabel | 6,987 | 16.0% | 17.0% |
| 15 | Clinton | 8,388 | 17.0% | 21.0% |
| 16 | Warr Acres | 10,466 | 20.0% | 23.0% |
| 17 | Lone Grove | 5,125 | 12.0% | 16.0% |
| 18 | Anadarko | 5,572 | 10.0% | 12.0% |
| 19 | Cushing | 8,367 | 12.0% | 16.0% |
| 20 | Okmulgee | 11,348 | 11.0% | 14.0% |
| 21 | Woodward | 11,882 | 13.0% | 19.0% |
| 22 | Miami | 12,926 | 12.0% | 16.0% |
| 23 | McAlester | 18,111 | 14.0% | 22.0% |
| 24 | Ardmore | 24,877 | 13.0% | 22.0% |
| 25 | Duncan | 22,958 | 12.0% | 21.0% |
| 26 | Altus | 18,646 | 15.0% | 24.0% |
| 27 | Muskogee | 36,758 | 12.0% | 19.0% |
| 28 | Blackwell | 6,042 | 8.0% | 12.0% |
| 29 | Enid | 50,653 | 13.0% | 23.0% |
| 30 | Pryor Creek | 9,569 | 10.0% | 18.0% |
| 31 | Catoosa | 7,496 | 11.0% | 21.0% |
| 32 | Chickasha | 16,539 | 10.0% | 21.0% |
| 33 | Sapulpa | 22,570 | 9.0% | 20.0% |
| 34 | Kingfisher | 5,026 | 12.0% | 27.0% |
| 35 | Bethany | 20,560 | 12.0% | 25.0% |
| 36 | Lawton | 90,595 | 10.0% | 23.0% |
| 37 | Noble | 7,493 | 12.0% | 28.0% |
| 38 | Shawnee | 31,671 | 10.0% | 24.0% |
| 39 | Ada | 16,575 | 12.0% | 30.0% |
| 40 | Tulsa | 413,794 | 13.0% | 33.0% |
| 41 | Durant | 19,746 | 12.0% | 29.0% |
| 42 | Claremore | 20,166 | 7.0% | 23.0% |
| 43 | Coweta | 10,433 | 8.0% | 24.0% |
| 44 | Guthrie | 11,243 | 9.0% | 27.0% |
| 45 | Choctaw | 12,303 | 9.0% | 28.0% |
| 46 | Glenpool | 14,151 | 8.0% | 27.0% |
| 47 | Sand Springs | 20,117 | 8.0% | 27.0% |
| 48 | Moore | 63,420 | 9.0% | 29.0% |
| 49 | Mustang | 22,192 | 7.0% | 27.0% |
| 50 | Collinsville | 8,878 | 6.0% | 24.0% |
| 51 | Tahlequah | 16,935 | 10.0% | 35.0% |
| 52 | Weatherford | 12,004 | 9.0% | 41.0% |
| 53 | Yukon | 25,529 | 6.0% | 30.0% |
| 54 | Bartlesville | 37,878 | 8.0% | 33.0% |
| 55 | Piedmont | 8,342 | 9.0% | 40.0% |
| 56 | Tuttle | 8,040 | 6.0% | 30.0% |
| 57 | Verdigris | 5,637 | 6.0% | 31.0% |
| 58 | Harrah | 6,684 | 5.0% | 30.0% |
| 59 | Newcastle | 13,001 | 6.0% | 35.0% |
| 60 | Broken Arrow | 118,180 | 6.0% | 35.0% |
| 61 | Jenks | 27,102 | 8.0% | 50.0% |
| 62 | Grove | 7,176 | 4.0% | 31.0% |
| 63 | Owasso | 40,151 | 5.0% | 35.0% |
| 64 | Blanchard | 9,215 | 4.0% | 34.0% |
| 65 | Norman | 129,672 | 5.0% | 46.0% |
| 66 | Bixby | 30,155 | 4.0% | 49.0% |
| 67 | Stillwater | 49,269 | 4.0% | 50.0% |
| 68 | Edmond | 96,825 | 3.0% | 57.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 68 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep
If you’re measuring the locations in Oklahoma where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.
The dumbest cities in Oklahoma are Holdenville, Hugo, Henryetta, Guymon, Vinita, Sallisaw, Purcell, Pauls Valley, Seminole, and Wagoner. Not sold on Oklahoma? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
