OKLAHOMA CITY- The Oklahoma City Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released its latest issue of the Oklahoma Economist, titled “Oklahoma Tribal Area Economies: Rising Incomes, Falling Poverty.”
This edition analyzes the economic progress made by Native Americans across the state in the past 10 to 15 years.
Oklahoma’s labor force participation rate recently surpassed the national rate for the first time in decades, driven especially by greater workforce participation among Native Americans, according to Chad Wilkerson, senior vice president at the Oklahoma City Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
“Oklahoma’s Native American population as a share of total population is about seven times larger than the nation as a whole and the vast majority of Oklahoma’s Native American population lives in one of the state’s 26 Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Areas,” he said. “These areas include most of the state’s land mass and two-thirds of the overall population.”
Wilkerson said these areas have seen sizable economic improvement in recent decades.
“As incomes and education levels have risen in tribal areas, poverty rates among Native Americans have come down more than the national average in most of these areas,” he said. “Poverty among Native Americans remains higher than average in most Oklahoma tribal areas, but the progress made in recent decades may provide some optimism for continued improvement in decades to come.”
The complete issue is available at www.kansascityfed. org/oklahomacity/oklahomaeconomist.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City serves the Tenth Federal Reserve District, encompassing the western third of Missouri; all of Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wyoming; and the northern half of New Mexico. As part of the nation’s central bank, the Bank participates in setting national monetary policy, supervising and regulating numerous commercial banks and bank holding companies, and providing financial services to depository institutions. More information is available online at www.kansascityfed. org.
