Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You're joking right? Oklahoma's first two largest cities are only bigger than Alabama's first two is because if you want to be successful outside of oil and farming, you only have two maybe 3 options: Tusla or Oklahoma City. In Alabama you have 6, maybe 7 or more options. Also gonna highly doubt that there is more "actual stuff to do" given that Alabama had 7 million more visitors than Oklahoma in 2019. Alabama also has a Gulf instead of "very large lakes" (even tho we do have very large lakes) along with beaches soooooo. Also gonna point out scenery is nothing like Alabama's, most of the land west of Oklahoma city is barren land, you start getting trees east but does not reach the green density of anywhere in Alabama
Alabama is right next to Georgia and Florida and on the way to New Orleans.
Only people going to the gulf coast in alabama are people that live in alabama.
How many pro sports teams are in the state?
Major industries in OK besides oil and natural gas are Aviation, biotechnology, transportation and logistics, government (state and federal with 6 military bases), healthcare, business services and hospitality and entertainment.
Alabama has just over 1 million more people than OK yet the largest urban area is birmingham with 209K people
6 million more tourists is not much especially since alabama has a longer history of being a state. Alabama became a state in 1819 and Oklahoma in 1907.
Passengers that flew into Birmingham in 2019: 3,090,604 (almost exactly the same as Tulsa) vs OKC passengers 2019: 4,419,119 almost 1.5 million more.
I've been through alabama several times and visited birmingham and I was impressed at what I saw and local places to eat in birmingham. Almost all of alabama looks the same whereas oklahoma is one of 4 states that has more than 10 ecoregions
As a state overall Oklahoma has grown slightly better than Alabama.
From 2010 to 2019: Alabama = +5.1%, Oklahoma = +5.5%
Largest city growth 2010 to 2019: Birmingham = -2.49%, OKC = +14.19%
Honestly, none of this even matters people are going to like what they like and for most its all about what is home and Oklahoma is not the state I grew up in that would be the giant state just south of OK.
I would mention college football but bama takes the cake in that category even though the sooners are one of the top 10 programs in the nation.
You're joking right? Oklahoma's first two largest cities are only bigger than Alabama's first two is because if you want to be successful outside of oil and farming, you only have two maybe 3 options: Tusla or Oklahoma City. In Alabama you have 6, maybe 7 or more options. Also gonna highly doubt that there is more "actual stuff to do" given that Alabama had 7 million more visitors than Oklahoma in 2019. Alabama also has a Gulf instead of "very large lakes" (even tho we do have very large lakes) along with beaches soooooo. Also gonna point out scenery is nothing like Alabama's, most of the land west of Oklahoma city is barren land, you start getting trees east but does not reach the green density of anywhere in Alabama
No, not kidding. Oklahoma has 2.5 million people that live in a metro of a million people or more to Alabama's 1.1 million.
The MSA for Alabama's largest city Birmingham is only slightly larger than Oklahoma's second largest metro, Tulsa. Birmingham has 1,091,921 to Tulsa's 1,006,411.
Oklahoma City then has a population of 1,425,375 and Alabama has no other metros even over half a million people. OKC is larger than Huntsville, (481,681) Mobile (428,692) and Montgomery (372,583) combined. And really, Montgomery with a MSA under 400k is really more of a large town than a city.
No, not kidding. Oklahoma has 2.5 million people that live in a metro of a million people or more to Alabama's 1.1 million.
The MSA for Alabama's largest city Birmingham is only slightly larger than Oklahoma's second largest metro, Tulsa. Birmingham has 1,091,921 to Tulsa's 1,006,411.
Oklahoma City then has a population of 1,425,375 and Alabama has no other metros even over half a million people. OKC is larger than Huntsville, (481,681) Mobile (428,692) and Montgomery (372,583) combined. And really, Montgomery with a MSA under 400k is really more of a large town than a city.
Oklahoma is much more urban.
What source are you using for the MSA statistics you cite?
The amount of hyperbole in some of these responses today is silly. Oklahoma is "much more urban" and "has actual things to do"? C'mon now...
It's not like Oklahoma has a Chicago, an Atlanta, or even an Austin. It has OKC and Tulsa, neither of which sits significantly above or below Birmingham in any sort of peer / tier grouping. Beyond that, I'd be willing to bet most people could name more Alabama cities than Oklahoma ones. Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery have already been mentioned and each has a pretty unique and singular history.
And Alabama can more than hold its own against Oklahoma in terms of ecosystem variety (rivers / mountains / beaches), outdoor activities, history, colleges, museums, federal installations, healthcare, food, etc. And yes, even sports, despite not having a major league team (to Oklahoma's ONE).
I think the poll results actually have it about right... these two states are probably more similar than different.
The amount of hyperbole in some of these responses today is silly. Oklahoma is "much more urban" and "has actual things to do"? C'mon now...
It's not like Oklahoma has a Chicago, an Atlanta, or even an Austin. It has OKC and Tulsa, neither of which sits significantly above or below Birmingham in any sort of peer / tier grouping. Beyond that, I'd be willing to bet most people could name more Alabama cities than Oklahoma ones. Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery have already been mentioned and each has a pretty unique and singular history.
And Alabama can more than hold its own against Oklahoma in terms of ecosystem variety (rivers / mountains / beaches), outdoor activities, history, colleges, museums, federal installations, healthcare, food, etc. And yes, even sports, despite not having a major league team (to Oklahoma's ONE).
I think the poll results actually have it about right... these two states are probably more similar than different.
The bad thing about Oklahoma is the scenery is far from the major population centers and there simply isn't much down in the southeastern part of the state where the Ouachita mountains are. I find Oklahoma City to be in one of the ugliest areas of the country in terms of scenery. Tulsa is more scenic by Oklahoma standards but I prefer the scenery around Birmingham over anything in Oklahoma. And as many have said, Oklahoma doesn't have anything like Alabama's Gulf Coast.
A lot of people have been touting Alabama's dense greenery as some kind of selling point but if you took five photos of a random thick patch of trees and told someone to pick the one from Alabama...I'm betting nobody could tell the difference. The heavily forested back roads of 'Bama look no different than the ones in any of its neighbors, so to me that'd be the opposite of a selling point. Oklahoma, on the other hand, has some of the most diverse landscape of any landlocked state in the country (sure it's a bit of a drive from OKC but the only place that's really too far for an easy day trip for the average person is gonna be Black Mesa. A two hour drive in almost any direction along any major freeway from downtown OKC puts you within spitting distance of a number of state borders, if not outright across them).
I went through Birmingham for the first time last autumn and...honestly was not impressed. The hills were nice but the amount of litter, homelessness, run down and dilapidated buildings in the city center was shocking and the roads were in an atrocious state of neglect. If not for the natural backdrop, Birmingham's skyline would be rather bland. Mobile's is nice, though. Hard to say which skyline I'd like more if it were a choice between OKC, Tulsa, Mobile, or the Gulf Shore, but Montgomery and Birmingham were really not that impressive in this regard. Tulsa has the art deco architecture, OKC has the modern glass skyscrapers, but Mobile has the modern decorative towers and colonial architecture so...honestly hard to pick.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, has made repairing every single bridge in the state a priority. Many of the freeways have been or will be resurfaced or otherwise improved, especially in the cities (we also now have stretches of freeway with 80 mph speed limits and every other freeway is supposed to be bumped up to 75 soon if they aren't already). People have pointed out the cost of living here is extremely low relative to almost anywhere else. As a younger person (under 30) working a basic but full time retail job, I am able to (and in fact just did) buy a house within the OKC metro. This is not something I could have done in my previous state of residence (Colorado).
As a hobbyist storm chaser I'd easily go with Oklahoma. Alabama is an extremely dangerous place; it has one of (if not the) highest concentrations of fast moving and historically violent tornadoes ever recorded (just look at 2011's storm season) and you're almost guaranteed to not see any of them coming due to all the trees. Oklahoma has seen fewer and fewer tornadoes, particularly violent ones, over the last decade but at least in most of the state they'd be relatively visible.
Not many other criteria matter to me (though I'd like to point out that OKC sits pretty evenly between the eastern and western US and thus makes getting to either side less of a hassle than somewhere less centrally located) so while Alabama has the benefit of having a really nice coastline along the Gulf (something Oklahoma simply cannot compete with), I still prefer Oklahoma. Much better for diverse scenery, better location nationally, better for a weather enthusiast like me.
Not really Alabama has 4 major cities to Oklahoma’s two, Mobile, Huntsville, Birmingham, and Montgomery
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
