Agricultural News
Census Data Shows Rural Oklahoma's Voice Will Be Heard, Says Brent Kislilng, Oklahoma Commerce Department
Tue, 27 Apr 2021 14:28:32 CDT
The U.S. Census Bureau released initial numbers this week and the data shows 3.96 million people now reside in Oklahoma.
Brent Kisling, executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, was interviewed by Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays right after the numbers were released.
This is a 5.5 percent increase since 2010, Kisling said, which gives us a rank of about 26th in the nation in percentage growth.
We grew faster than any of the neighboring states except Texas and Colorado, Kisling said.
Census data is used in part to determine congressional representation.
We did not lose a Congressional seat like New York and California, he said, noting those populations are moving this direction and in the next 10 years we are going to see some massive increases.
Kisling said he and his staff worked hard to get the most accurate census data and added the process actually started three years ago.
We focused a lot on the data, making sure the census bureau had all the addresses in Oklahoma, he said.
I think the team did a spectacular job, he said.
For rural Oklahoma this means your voice will be heard, Kisling said.
Final census numbers won't be available until Aug.16 but Kisling said early indications are encouraging.
From what we are seeing rural Oklahoma really stepped up and made sure they were counted and that is going to show up when we do the redistricting, he said.
Click on the listen bar below to hear more of Ron's interview with Brent Kisling.
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