Economy of Oklahoma

The economy of Oklahoma is the 27th largest in the United States.Oklahoma's gross state product (GSP) is approximately $202.5 billion as of December 2015.

The history of Oklahoma's GSP according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in nominal terms, with percentage of total to GPD of the United States:


Cotton, formerly the leading cash crop of Oklahoma, has been succeeded by wheat; income from livestock, however, exceeds that from crops. Many minerals are found in Oklahoma, including coal, but the one that gave the state its wealth is oil. After the first well was drilled in 1888, the petroleum industry grew enormously, until Oklahoma City and Tulsa were among the great natural gas and petroleum centers of the world. Oil and gas have declined somewhat in importance today. Many of Oklahoma's factories process local foods and minerals, but its chief manufactures include nonelectrical machinery and fabricated metal products. Military bases and other government facilities are also important.

Energy losses triggered by persistently low oil prices accounted for more than a 4 percentage point reduction in Oklahoma's gross domestic product, a measure of the output of the state's goods and services, the agency said.

Oklahoma was one of only four states that registered a decline in GDP, and at minus-2.4 percent was the worst performer. It was a major reversal for Oklahoma's economy, which grew a robust 6.5 percent in the first quarter.

Chad Wilkerson, Federal Reserve regional economist in Oklahoma City, said the weak second-quarter GDP figures were not surprising.

"The personal income in the state also was among the weakest in the country in the second quarter, and employment started falling in about February," Wilkerson said. "We're also coming from a period of very strong growth in the last four or five years, so some cooling is not unexpected.

"Now if things continue on this way, that's not very good," he said. 

More recent economic numbers suggest that Oklahoma's economic standing could improve in the third quarter, but Wilkerson said another decline likely could show up when the final numbers are in for the last three months of 2015.

University of Oklahoma Economist Robert Dauffenbach said the GDP numbers wouldn't look as bad if the Bureau of Economic Analysis compared the data to those of a year ago, rather than to the previous strong quarter.

Oklahoma also suffers from comparison to its own previous growth, which was much stronger here than in much of the country in the depths of the Great Recession and the years immediately following, said Dauffenbach, director of OU's Center for Economic and Management Research.