US Map / Cities / Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City Map

Oklahoma City covers more than 600 square miles across four counties — one of the largest municipal footprints in the country — and held about 713,000 people in 2024.

Where is Oklahoma City?

The city occupies the middle of Oklahoma, on rolling prairie where the eastern woodlands thin out into open grassland. Its limits sprawl far past the built-up area, a legacy of aggressive annexation in the 1950s and 1960s. Driving distances put it about 105 miles southwest of Tulsa, roughly 205 miles north of Dallas, and some 160 miles south of Wichita.

Oklahoma City at a glance

Another 16,100 residents would lift Oklahoma City past Denver into No. 21; 10,669 fewer would put it behind Washington at No. 23. Tulsa is the only other Oklahoma city on the list. That is about 17% of Oklahoma's 4.10 million residents inside a single municipal line. It reaches into four counties, of which Oklahoma County is much the largest: the city holds about 87% of that county's 816,490 people.

Oklahoma City in Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the state capital and the seat of Oklahoma County, but the city limits also cross into Cleveland, Canadian and Pottawatomie counties — four of the 77 shown on the Oklahoma county map. Tulsa, in the northeast, is the state's other large city and the two split Oklahoma between them. The Oklahoma state page explains the panhandle, the tribal jurisdictions and the rest, and the capitals map marks the seat of government here.

Rivers, red beds and severe weather

The North Canadian River runs through the city and joins the Canadian, which drains east into the Arkansas River; a dammed stretch downtown is signed as the Oklahoma River. The soil is the red Permian sandstone and shale that colors the water and the roadcuts across central Oklahoma. This is also the heart of the southern Great Plains storm track, where dry air off the high plains meets Gulf moisture — the reason the metro records more violent tornadoes than almost anywhere else.

Cities near Oklahoma City

Related pages: Tulsa, Wichita, Fort Worth, Dallas and Denver. To see how the plains states line up, open the West South Central division page.