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Fact check: Which counties in Oklahoma grew fastest between 2010 and 2020?
Executive Summary
The available analyses converge on Canadian County as the fastest-growing county in Oklahoma during the 2010s and identify a small group of suburban and exurban counties around the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas as the primary growth engines; however, the definitive 2010–2020 rankings require the U.S. Census Bureau’s official intercensal totals to compute exact percent changes. Multiple summaries and local reports (dated 2024–2025) cite Canadian, McClain, Cleveland, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wagoner, and Logan Counties repeatedly, while the government’s intercensal dataset is flagged as the authoritative source for calculating precise 2010–2020 growth rates [1] [2].
1. Why Canadian County repeats at the top — a consistent growth story
Multiple analyses identify Canadian County as the stand-out fast grower for the 2010s, with one article explicitly listing it as leading with roughly 27.9% growth in the 2010–2019 window and naming it first in broader 2010–2019 rollups [1]. That consistency across independent write-ups in 2024–2025 indicates a robust pattern rather than a one-off statistical artifact; both local reporting and census-summary style lists point to suburbanization and spillover from Oklahoma City as the proximate explanations in those pieces. At the same time, these sources note that the data frames differ — some use 2010–2019 to summarize the decade and others point readers back to intercensal totals for the full 2010–2020 percent change — so the impression that Canadian County led the decade is strong but should be validated against the official 2010–2020 totals [1] [2].
2. The supporting cast: McClain, Cleveland, Wagoner and others driving metro-area expansion
Beyond Canadian County, analyses repeatedly place McClain, Cleveland, Wagoner, Logan, Tulsa County, and Oklahoma County among the fastest-growing, with Cleveland and Tulsa also appearing in a top-five list that ranges from about 9.6% up to Canadian’s near-28% figure for the 2010–2019 window [1]. These sources draw a coherent geographic pattern: growth concentrated in counties adjacent to Oklahoma City and Tulsa, consistent with suburban and commuter-belt expansion noted in multiple 2024–2025 write-ups. One specific local demographic summary reports Oklahoma County itself increasing by about 11.3% between 2010 and 2020, illustrating that growth was not limited to outer-ring counties but included central metro counties as well [3] [1].
3. The authoritative data exists — intercensal totals but they’re not always used
Government intercensal population totals for 2010–2020 are repeatedly referenced as the authoritative source to compute exact percent changes, and several entries in the packet explicitly point readers to the U.S. Census Bureau’s intercensal tables for county-level totals [2]. Multiple secondary articles relied on truncated spans (2010–2019) or on annualized/partial-period calculations to produce rankings, which explains small discrepancies among published lists. For a conclusive ranking of fastest-growing Oklahoma counties for 2010–2020, analysts should compute percent change directly from the intercensal counts rather than rely on derivative lists; the analyses provided acknowledge this and either point to the intercensal dataset or stop short of presenting definitive 2010–2020 rankings [2].
4. Where the analyses diverge — time windows, methodology, and emphasis
Discrepancies among sources stem from different time windows (2010–2019 vs. 2010–2020 or 2020–2025), different aggregation choices, and different emphases — some pieces emphasize rank order while others highlight percent-change magnitudes or metro-area dynamics [1] [4]. For example, a 2025 summary of 2020–2025 growth highlights Canadian, McClain, and Wagoner as top performers in that more recent window, which overlaps with but is not the same as the 2010–2020 decade [4]. The practical implication is that lists can look similar but are not interchangeable: a county that grew fastest in 2010–2019 could be overtaken in 2020–2025, and percent-change magnitudes differ depending on the exact start and end counts used [1] [4].
5. Clear next step to resolve any remaining uncertainty
To settle the question precisely, compute county percent change using the U.S. Census Bureau’s official intercensal population totals for 2010 and 2020; multiple entries explicitly recommend this dataset as the authoritative basis and note that it will produce an unambiguous ranking for the decade [2]. Until that calculation is performed, the best-supported summary from the provided analyses is that Canadian County led Oklahoma’s decade growth and that a cluster of adjacent counties — McClain, Cleveland, Wagoner, Logan, Tulsa, and Oklahoma Counties — comprise the fastest-growing group, with Oklahoma County specifically cited as up about 11.3% over the decade in one analysis [1] [3].