Welcome To Tulsa SAFeDATA

Tulsa (pronounced /`t?ls?/) is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the US. With an estimated populus of 382,872 in 2006, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 897,752 residents projected to reach one 1,000,000 between 2010 and 2012. In 2006, the Tulsa-Bartlesville Combined Statistical Area had a populus of 946,993 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Tulsa County, the most built up county in Oklahoma.

Once heavily dependent on the oil industry, economic slump and subsequent diversification efforts created an economic base in the energy, finance, aviation, telecommunications and technology sectors. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa, at the head of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, is the most inland riverport in the U.S. with access to international waterways. Two institutions of higher education inside the city operate at the NCAA Division I level, Oral Roberts University and the University of Tulsa.

Located near Tornado Alley, the city frequently experiences severe weather. It is situated on the Arkansas River at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Neast Oklahoma, a region of the state known as "Green Country." Considered the cultural and arts center of Oklahoma, Tulsa houses two world-renowned art museums, full-time professional opera and ballet companies, and one of the nation`s largest concentrations of art deco architecture. In 2005, the city was selected as one of "USA`s Most Livable Large Cities." People from Tulsa are described as "Tulsans."

A small town near the banks of the Arkansas River in 1901, Tulsa`s first oil well, named Sue Bland No. 1, was established that year. By 1905, the discovery of the large Glenn Pool nearby (site of the present day town of Glenpool) prompted a rush of entrepreneurs to the area`s growing number of oil fields; Tulsa`s populus swelled to over 140,000 between 1901 and 1930. Known as the "Oil Capital of the World" for most of the twentieth century, the city`s success in the energy industry prompted construction booms in the popular Art Deco style of the time. Profits from the oil industry continued through the Great Depression, helping the city`s economy fare better than most in the US during the 1930s.

In the early twentieth century, Tulsa was home to "Black Wall Street," one of the most prosperous African US communities in the US at the time. Located in the Greenwood neighborhood, it was the site of the Tulsa Race Riot, one of the nation`s costliest acts of racial violence and civil disorder. Sixteen hours of rioting on May 31 and June 1, 1921 resulted in over 800 people admitted to local hospitals with injuries, an estimated 10,000 left homeless, 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences annihilated by fire, and Twenty-three black and 16 white citizens were reported killed, but estimates suggest as many as 300, mostly blacks, died.

A national recession greatly affected the city`s economy in 1982, as areas of Texas and Oklahoma heavily dependent on oil witnessed freefall in gas prices and a mass exodus of oil industries. Tulsa, heavily dependent on the oil industry, was one of the hardest hit cities by the fall of oil prices. By 1992, the state`s economy had fully recovered, but leaders would attempt to enlarge into sectors unrelated to oil and energy.