Ardmore, Oklahoma

Area Profile

24,877 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ardmore, in Carter County.

49out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 12% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3856th of 3,904 published cities20
Schools2097th of 2,668 published cities29
Growth1491st of 2,973 published cities50
Housing affordabilityTop 36% of 4,223 published cities88
Climate3170th of 4,223 published cities62
Physical resilience2445th of 4,182 published cities49
AccessTop 3% of 4,226 published cities100
Economic stability3546th of 4,226 published cities39
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.1% and the Opportunity signal places Ardmore in the bottom 1%.

In the public schools here, 22% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 18.6 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 10 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
24,877
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$53,900
Bottom 29% nationally
Density
499/sq mi
49.8 sq mi of land
Median age
36.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Carter County
Oklahoma
Metro area
Ardmore, OK
Nearest major airport
ADM
10 mi · Ardmore Muni
Median home value
$170,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.1% is lower than 7% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 4.1% over the past year, to 10,956 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,816$53,900Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,897$31,512Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.4%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.5 minBottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.3%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,956Bottom 4%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.7%Bottom 23%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-4.1%Bottom 3%June 2026
Labor force11,670Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force participation60.6%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.6%Top 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.1%Top 7%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.43.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 6.1% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202454k46k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $53,900 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

22% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
14
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
22.3%
Bottom 28% in Oklahoma
Reading proficiency
24.5%
Bottom 35% in Oklahoma
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
ARDMORE HSARDMORE70718.1
PLAINVIEW HSPLAINVIEW43316.0
LINCOLN ESARDMORE40924.117%15%
PLAINVIEW PRIMARY ESPLAINVIEW40614.0
CHARLES EVANS ESARDMORE39836.217%22%
JEFFERSON ESARDMORE39628.315%8%
PLAINVIEW MSPLAINVIEW36615.332%42%
PLAINVIEW INTERMEDIATE ESPLAINVIEW36313.055%47%
DICKSON HSDICKSON34721.7
WILL ROGERS ESARDMORE32415.4
DICKSON ESDICKSON32324.8
ARDMORE MSARDMORE31217.38%17%

72.1% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Oklahoma’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,006 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,006
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$170,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.15Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate54.5%Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±20811,276Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$40$1,006Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,837$170,000Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.4%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.3%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
50/ 100
Ranks 1491 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 1% since 2020, reaching 25,064 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
53
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.1
Bottom 48% nationally
Year over year
−4%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202425k25k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20202022202320242025557.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+48%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 95°F and January a low of 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 38.0 inches, including 2.7 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 48, in the Good band, and about 14 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ARDMORE, 2.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index74.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation38.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall2.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high95°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100142024 calendar year
Median air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing42°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
48
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
74
90th percentile index
Days above 100
14
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

49 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, hail and strong wind.

HailHigh
TornadoModerate
Ice stormElevated
WildfireModerate
Strong windElevated
DroughtElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Cold waveModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, winter weather, inland flooding, landslide, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Carter County records 4.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 17.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.5 per 100,000 residents in Carter County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
28.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Carter County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Ardmore rather than Ardmore itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 10 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Ardmore MuniADM10 mi9,002 ft
Lawton-Fort Sill RgnlLAW78 mi8,599 ft
Perot Fld/Fort Worth AllianceAFW84 mi11,125 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Ardmore vs North AdamsArdmore vs DuncanArdmore vs OzarkArdmore vs Lawton

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Ardmore

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7340136,833$61,98951