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Place dossier plate
SheetOK-SULPHUR-OK · Sulphur, OK 4,900 pop · income 31st pct · 5 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Sulphur
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sulphur on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hugo · lowest
31,694
Hugo · lowest
31,694 median HH income
19.9% of the leader · rank #1
Beaumont · near
57,530
Beaumont · near
57,530 median HH income
36.2% of the leader · rank #2
Sulphur · this city
57,531
Sulphur · this city
57,531 median HH income
36.2% of the leader · rank #3
Standing Pine · near
57,532
Standing Pine · near
57,532 median HH income
36.2% of the leader · rank #4
Iowa City · near
57,533
Iowa City · near
57,533 median HH income
36.2% of the leader · rank #5
Gladstone · near
57,534
Gladstone · near
57,534 median HH income
36.2% of the leader · rank #6
Hillandale · highest
159,118
Hillandale · highest
159,118 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Sulphur on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 4,900.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sulphur - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Sulphur places in the 31st percentile for household income and the 42nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
31st
percentile, household income
16th
percentile, home value
14th
percentile, median rent
42nd
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Sulphur, OK
Oklahoma's Sulphur is a small town, with 4,900 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Sulphur report a median income of $57,531 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.1%. Typical homes in Sulphur are valued around $116,300, and the median resident age is 40.5 years. 16.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 50.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 8 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 167% from five years earlier. Sulphur reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1624.5 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Sulphur's yearly average temperature at 61.3°F with 40.7 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Oklahoma run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Oklahoma scores 87.8 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $995 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $205 across Oklahoma, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 55.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sulphur's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from reported crime to within-city variation to population change to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sulphur, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sulphur?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1624.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 29% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -72 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 8 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sulphur?
Within Oklahoma, the closest population matches are Hinton (4,886 residents, $61,622 income); Kingfisher (4,964 residents, $66,000 income); Alva (5,009 residents, $41,728 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hillandale, MD (4,901 residents); University, MS (4,899 residents); Fellsmere, FL (4,902 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Sulphur?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Household income
$57,531
Home value
$116,300
Value / income
2.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Sulphur?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 87.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
2.6%
Drive alone
87.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,846 workers age 16+.
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 16.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
6
Bachelor's degree+
16.7%
Poverty estimate
13.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.3°F, with 40.7 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Oklahoma is 55.5 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
61.3°F
Annual precipitation
40.7 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
55.5
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 13.1% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Oklahoma average
D
City profile score · Sulphur, OK
46/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
87.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime C-
185 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$57,531
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Sulphur profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Violent crime: 50/100 (C-) · 185 /100k
Household income: 31/100 (F) · $57,531
Poverty rate: 27/100 (F) · 13.1%
Bachelor's+ share: 25/100 (F) · 16.7%
Where Sulphur sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sulphur's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Sulphur highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Sulphur, OK (this city): home $116,300, crime 1,625/100k
Fellsmere, FL : home $123,400, crime 656/100k
Hinton, OK : home $173,600, crime 408/100k
Kingfisher, OK : home $219,400, crime 2,215/100k
Alva, OK : home $132,500, crime 845/100k
Lone Grove, OK : home $184,400, crime 1,123/100k
Hugo, OK : home $96,100, crime 2,481/100k
Sayre, OK : home $77,800, crime 772/100k
How does Sulphur compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sulphur stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income31% higher than other cities
Home value16% pricier than other cities
Median rent14% pricier than other cities
Safety42% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Oklahoma and the picture shifts: Sulphur ranks #106 of 203 Oklahoma cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Sulphur against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Oklahoma only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Oklahoma-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Sulphur near the bottom of Oklahoma's cities
Among the 671 Oklahoma cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sulphur ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sulphur only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#243 of 639
62nd percentile in Oklahoma
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 671
0th percentile in Oklahoma
Median Home Value
#255 of 628
59th percentile in Oklahoma
Poverty Rate
#323 of 671
51st percentile in Oklahoma
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#266 of 671
59th percentile in Oklahoma
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Oklahoma only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
31st percentile nationally for median household income · 42nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sulphur's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sulphur's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Sulphur's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$116,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 84% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Sulphur's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,704 of 15,516
More affordable than 89% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,632 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.0×, Sulphur sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,704 of 15,516 and #1,632 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$57,531Sulphur, OK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sulphur, OK median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Sulphur, OK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,900
Median Income
$57,531
Median Home Value
$116,300
Median Age
40.5
Poverty Rate
13.1%
Labor force participation
50.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1624.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
185.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1439.4
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
61.3°F
Annual Precipitation
40.7"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sulphur's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,950 residents
2021
4,891 residents
2022
4,872 residents
2023
4,912 residents
2024
4,897 residents
2025
4,878 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
8
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.5M
2020
4
4
0
$0.6M
2021
8
8
0
$1.2M
2022
19
19
0
$3.2M
2023
4
4
0
$0.3M
2024
8
8
0
$1.3M
Permit volume increased 167% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
87.6%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
2.6%
Other
1.6%
Based on 1,846 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Oklahoma statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $205
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Oklahoma at $205 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Oklahoma statewide averages, not a meter reading for Sulphur. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Oklahoma's BEA cost-of-living index is 87.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Sulphur is $995/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Oklahoma statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 55.5 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Oklahoma statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Sulphur sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sulphur compares to similar-size Oklahoma cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.