Woodward, Oklahoma
Area Profile
11,882 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Woodward, in Woodward County.
Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 3.9% and the Opportunity signal places Woodward in the bottom 12%.
Residential permitting has slowed: 2 units authorized over the past twelve months, 33% below the prior year.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, drought and cold wave.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.
Employment fell 2.3% over the past year, to 9,108 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$5,262 | $54,463 | Bottom 30%of 29,573 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$4,953 | $34,644 | Top 47%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 17.2% | Top 30%of 31,900 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 20.6 min | Bottom 20%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 18.6% | Bottom 45%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 9,108 | Bottom 2%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -5.4% | Bottom 2%of 3,903 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -2.3% | Bottom 14%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 9,480 | Bottom 2%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 66.9% | Top 27%of 31,933 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 0.9% | Top 7%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.9% | Bottom 34%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Woodward County, OK, which contains this city.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated →Median rent of $839 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.9 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 2.90 | Bottom 49%of 28,473 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 64.7% | Bottom 28%of 31,843 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±204 | 5,817 | Top 10%of 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$63 | $839 | Bottom 33%of 23,432 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$8,246 | $157,800 | Bottom 40%of 29,342 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 18.5% | Bottom 49%of 23,201 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 16.0% | Top 32%of 32,001 | 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 →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 fallen 3% since 2020, reaching 11,750 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 0.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
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 22°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 21.4 inches.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 21.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 22°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 95°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 45°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
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.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, drought and cold wave.
Overall hazard risk is lower than 78% of measured US cities.
Low or minimal exposure: tornado, landslide, earthquake, 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.
Safety
How it’s measured →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.
Woodward County records 5.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at 17.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 10.8 per 100,000 residents in Woodward County.
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 Woodward 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 Woodward rather than Woodward 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
- Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Taxes and full cost of living
- No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.
Access
2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 76 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinity One Oklahoma Spaceport | CSM | 76 mi | 13,503 ft |
| Enid Woodring Rgnl | WDG | 90 mi | 8,613 ft |
| OKC Will Rogers Intl | OKC | 124 mi | 9,802 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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Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
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 Woodward
1 published ZIP profiles| ZIP | Population | Median household income | Area Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 73801 | 14,892 | $58,877 | 46 |