Tulsa Map
Tulsa spreads across four counties on the Arkansas River in northeastern Oklahoma, where the plains give out into wooded hills — about 415,000 residents in 2024.
Where is Tulsa?
Tulsa is in the northeastern quarter of Oklahoma, about 105 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, some 60 miles south of the Kansas line and 85 miles west of Arkansas. Wichita is roughly 175 miles northwest and Kansas City some 250 miles northeast. This corner of the state is greener and hillier than the prairie around the capital.
Tulsa at a glance
| State | Oklahoma |
| Counties | Osage, Rogers, Tulsa, and Wagoner counties |
| Population | 415,154 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 48 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Central Time |
| Region | South (West South Central division) |
Tulsa sits at No. 48 in the 2024 estimates, 2,314 people behind Bakersfield and 607 ahead of Tampa. Within Oklahoma it comes second of two, behind Oklahoma City. That is about 10% of Oklahoma's 4.10 million residents inside a single municipal line. It reaches into four counties, of which Tulsa County is much the largest: the city holds about 60% of that county's 693,514 people.
Tulsa in Oklahoma
The city sits mainly in Tulsa County but crosses into Rogers, Wagoner and Osage counties; Osage County is coextensive with the Osage Nation reservation, an arrangement that has no parallel elsewhere on the Oklahoma county map. Tulsa and Oklahoma City are the state's only two cities in the national top 100 and divide Oklahoma between them, the capital taking the center and west. The Oklahoma state page covers the rest.
The Arkansas River and the Ozark edge
The Arkansas River runs through the city, and about 15 miles northeast of downtown, on the Verdigris just above its junction with the Arkansas, the Port of Catoosa marks the head of navigation on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System — barges reach the Mississippi from here, making an inland Oklahoma city a seaport of sorts. East of Tulsa the ground rises into the wooded hills at the western edge of the Ozarks, and northwest the Osage Hills roll out into tallgrass prairie. Oil found at Glenn Pool south of town in 1905 built most of the city's older architecture.
Cities near Tulsa
Nearby cities: Oklahoma City, Wichita, Kansas City, Fort Worth and Dallas. The West South Central division page groups Oklahoma with its neighbors.