Oklahoma City named as a top U.S. capital

Oklahoma City is ranked No. 10 nationally for being the best capital city, according to a recent WalletHub report. 

The site ranked capital cities based on affordability, economic well-being, quality of education/health and quality of life. 

Oklahoma City was ranked as more affordable than every other city on the list due to its relatively low housing costs and overall cost of living. The site’s evaluations came from a metric system, which graded cities on a 100-point scale – 100 representing the best possible score. With each of the four included categories representing 25% of the overall grade, the site then broke each category down into specific qualities. 

Economic well-being was evaluated by studying areas such as population growth, income growth and the growth in the number of businesses. The local K-12 school systems, number of adults with higher education and the quality of the local hospital system were used to determine each city’s quality of education and health ranking. Cities’ overall quality of life scores were determined by looking at factors such as the percentage of new millennial residents, what entertainment activities were available, public transportation access, average weekly work hours and more.  

“Capital cities that have reinvented themselves with vibrant downtowns, new industries and connected in some way to the global economy are doing fine,” said Dick Simpson, professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in response to questions presented by WalletHub to him and other political science and public policy experts. 

Oklahoma City has seen some of the most robust growth nationally in the last few years. Now listed as the 20th-largest city in the United States, OKC boasts downtown developments such as the First National Center and Scissortail Park, forward-driven businesses like technology powerhouse Paycom and an emerging bioscience hub in the Innovation District which connects the centralized city with health care and research institutions around the world. 

You can read the entire WalletHub “Best State Capitals for Safety & More” report, here.