Factors include lowering costs, removing barriers and keeping the tax man at bay.
If you want to know how Oklahoma achieved a record-setting year for economic development in 2025, it pays to look at the milestones attained along the way to shattering the state’s best numbers in history.
In other words, you don’t land a series of the biggest capital investments in Sooner State annals without first doing the hard work of building a better business climate and a desirable destination for residents.
On those counts, Oklahoma keeps climbing the ranks. Three rankings, in particular, tell a compelling story. As of today, Oklahoma ranks as:
- The No. 8 state for net in-migration.
- The No. 5 state for corporate tax competitiveness, according to the Tax Foundation.
- The No. 1 state for lowest cost of doing business, per CNBC America’s Top States for Business.
The common denominator in each of these rankings is the fact that Oklahoma is working hard to make the Sooner State a highly attractive location for businesses, their employees and the workers’ families.
Statistically, Oklahoma turned a corner during the great domestic migration of 2020. Driven largely by its highly affordable cost of living, the Sooner State began attracting new residents in record numbers during the pandemic. With housing costs that are 42% lower than the U.S. median, and abundant job opportunities, more than 34,000 new residents moved to Oklahoma from other states during 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This made Oklahoma a top 10 state in inbound migration for the third straight year.
These newcomers are arriving from many Western states, including California, as they flee places that have higher costs of living. While the new growth in Oklahoma is clustering in the metro areas of Tulsa and Oklahoma City, some surrounding markets are seeing increases as well. McClain County, for example, is one of them.
The OKANA Resort & Indoor Waterpark is the ultimate family play place in Oklahoma City.
Photo courtesy of Oklahoma City
Why Businesses Love Oklahoma
One reason so many people choose the wide open spaces of Oklahoma is the fact that businesses love the state too. Ranked No. 1 in lowest business costs, Oklahoma boasts the seventh lowest corporate tax rate, with a top marginal corporate income tax rate of just 4%. Oklahoma also ranks third in energy sector competitiveness and sixth in transportation infrastructure, per indices cited on the Oklahoma Department of Commerce website.
As a right-to-work state that offers 82 different incentive programs, Oklahoma stands ready to help growing businesses overcome any obstacle to expansion. Its Quality Jobs Program, detailed in a separate article later in this magazine, is widely regarded by site selectors as one of the most beneficial and attractive state incentive programs in the nation.
Employers in Oklahoma like the fact that they can easily recruit top talent. With an average commute time of just 21.7 minutes, workers spend much less time in their cars than their counterparts in other states; and 36% of all new Oklahomans become homeowners in their first year of residence.
Barbra Coffee, executive director of the EDGE division of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, says that “every state is concerned about affordability, especially as housing prices rise. That is important to attract the workforce you need. Oklahoma is a star in that regard. We have housing at price points that make sense in a variety of communities, both rural and urban. That is coveted by our neighboring states.”
Even Texans are jumping the fence. “We are finally seeing more Texans move to Oklahoma than the other way around,” says Coffee. “The growth of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex makes things harder for people with all the congestion and higher prices. Oklahoma stands to gain from that. We can offer those folks a better quality of life.”
“We are finally seeing more Texans move to Oklahoma than the other way around.”
— Barbra Coffee, Executive Director, EDGE, Oklahoma Department of Commerce
She adds that with a cost of doing business that is 30% lower than the U.S. average, “we are widely known as a business-friendly state,” says Coffee. “When we talk to industry leaders, they talk about how we are less restrictive with our regulations and how we erect fewer barriers than other states. They talk about the California factor. That makes a difference.”
Racing to More Ranking Wins
That is not where the advantages stop. In many economic metrics, Oklahoma stands out as a top performer. For example, Oklahoma ranks:
- No. 8 in economic outlook, per the American Legislative Exchange Council-Laffer State Competitiveness Index.
- No. 4 in Best States to Start a Business, per WalletHub in 2026.
- No. 9 in job creation from 2019 through 2024.
- No. 2 in lowest energy costs. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, energy costs in Oklahoma are 30% below the national average.
In a time of high inflation fueled by surging energy costs, rising food prices and significantly higher transportation costs, Oklahoma stands out as a low-cost leader.
Coffee says that clear advantage is gaining traction in the marketplace; and now Oklahoma is reaping record-level corporate capital investment because of it.
