Racial and ethnic composition 2020 census As of the
2020 census, Enid had a population of 51,308, a median age of 35.2 years, and 26.0% of residents were under the age of 18, while 16.2% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 98.1 males, and for every 100 females 18 and over, there were 96.9 males. The
population density was 693.9 per square mile. 96.2% of residents lived in urban areas, while 3.8% lived in rural areas. There were 19,733 households in Enid, of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 44.7% were married-couple households, 20.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 27.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 30.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. •
English (18.2%) •
German (15.1%) •
Mexican (13.6%) •
Irish (11.1%) •
Marshallese (5.6%) •
African American (2.9%) •
Scottish (2%) •
Cherokee (2%) •
French (1.6%) •
Italian (1.5%)
Political affiliation Enid has been predominantly a Republican stronghold since its days as part of Oklahoma Territory, owing to the influence of settlers from neighboring Kansas. Enid was named one of the top 10 most conservative cities in America in 2021 with over 60% of voters registering as Republicans. Several politicians have called Enid home, including Oklahoma Territory's last governor
Frank Frantz; U.S. Representative
Page Belcher; US Congressman and former Enid mayor,
Milton C. Garber; Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor
Todd Lamb; U.S. Representative
George H. Wilson; and
James Yancy Callahan, the only non-Republican territorial congressional delegate. In 2023 Enid elected a former organizer for
Identity Evropa who was at the 2017 Charlottesville
Unite the Right rally to its city commission, who was recalled and defeated in 2024.
Religious affiliation Of the people in Enid, 61.9% claim affiliation with a religious congregation; 9.4% are Catholic, 39.2% are Protestant, 1.1% are Latter Day Saints and 12.2% are another Christian denomination. Downtown Enid boasted the world's largest fresh cut Christmas tree in 2021 and 2022, which was placed downtown in time for the annual Enid Lights Up the Plains festival. Enid's
Phillips University, formally affiliated with the
Disciples of Christ, was a product of religious collaboration between followers of the Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian Church, and Judaism. Enid has two Catholic congregations: St. Francis Xavier, founded in 1893, and St. Gregory, founded in 1971. St. Francis Xavier's Bishop Theophile Meerschaert was responsible for founding
Calvary Catholic Cemetery in 1898. Enid is home to several Protestant churches. It has four Lutheran congregations: Immanuel, founded in 1899, Trinity, founded in 1901, St. Paul, founded in 1909, and Redeemer, founded in 1934. Enid has several historically Black churches, including St. Stephen African Methodist Episcopal Church, First Missionary Baptist Church, and West Side Church of God in Christ (COGIC). Enid has two churches serving its Korean population, the Enid Korean Church of Grace and Peace United Methodist. Iglesia Cristiana El Shaddai, a Disciples of Christ congregation founded in 2001, serves the area Hispanic community. Enid Faith Ways Church is LGBTQ friendly. Enid also has a small Bahá’í congregation that often meets in congregants' homes and serves some of Enid's Marshallese population. Between 1925 and 1930 Enid was home to a small Jewish congregation called Emanuel, which met at the Loewen Hotel, founded by Al Loewen, a local merchant who served on the committee to create Phillips University. Lacking a synagogue building members of the Jewish community have held services at Convention Hall and local Masonic Temples, or by traveling to synagogues in other cities. The
Enid Cemetery has a Jewish section where many of early Enid's Jewish merchants are interred, including the founders of Kaufman's Style Shop, Herzberg's Department Store, Newman Mercantile, and Meibergen and Godschalk, Enid's first clothing store. During the Oklahoma territorial era, Enid elected Jewish resident Joseph Meibergen in 1897 as mayor. the Enid Jewish Women's Council met in the 1930s and 1940s, and the Enid Jewish Chautauqua held programs as early as 1910. Enid is the home of two Masonic Lodges, the Enid Lodge #80 and the Garfield Lodge #501. The Enid Lodge has many Jewish members.
Marshallese population In 2014, Enid was the city with the fourth largest
Marshallese population in the United States. A
push factor from the Marshall Islands was
nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll. Missionaries from
Phillips University visited the Marshall Islands, There were others who worked at
Walmart. The
Compact of Free Association allowed Marshallese to begin moving to Enid sometime circa 1987. In 2022 there were 2,800 Marshallese in Enid. Initially Enid's Marshallese were younger. By the 21st century many elderly Marshallese came for medical care, and many of them died at younger ages than other elderly people due to health problems stemming from fallout from the nuclear tests and from poor diets; It is common for Marshallese in Enid to frequently change residences. As many Marshallese have not obtained U.S. citizenship, they lack power in governance. Business ownership and management are not common among Marshallese in Enid. From 2014, the school had a student club where Marshallese students taught the overall student population about their culture. Longfellow Middle School also had such a club.
African-American population The neighborhoods of Southern Heights and East Park are historically Black neighborhoods in Enid. African-Americans have lived in Enid since the time of the September 1893 Land Run. The community came together and rebuilt the church. The area near Government Springs Park became an area of Black settlement, coalescing beside these nearby institutions of community life. Washington school was joined by Douglas elementary from 1918 to 1920 and George Washington Carver elementary in 1949. Phillips University changed its policies after the
Brown v. Board of Education ruling. In 1947 despite having no Black classmates, students at Phillips formed a chapter of the NAACP. The first instance of integration in Enid’s public school system occurred in June 1955 when two Black high school students, Leonard Harrison and Ralph Ballard, attended summer school at Emerson Junior High. Enid High School accepted its first Black students in the fall semester of 1955. Enid's public schools were not fully integrated until 1969 when Enid closed the elementary schools in the Southern Heights neighborhood and children were bussed to other schools. Despite strides forward in integrating local educational institutions, local restaurants and drug store lunch counters refused service to Black citizens. In 1958 the Black community organized sit-ins and held meetings between the Enid Negro Chamber of Commerce and the Enid Restauranteurs Association, but the effort failed. The restaurant owners used laws against loitering as grounds to notify police. Another sit-in occurred in May 1963 prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act which integrated restaurants nationwide. Another historically Black neighborhood nicknamed "Two Street" existed between South Second Street and South Grand Avenue near the Rock Island railroad tracks. On July 31, 1917, Judge John C. Moore ordered that residents be evicted and the buildings condemned. Enid appointed its first Black policeman, Henry Backstrom, in the 1920s. Mr. Backstrom had previously served as principal of the Washington school for 11 years. Backstrom was acquitted after killing Fred Williams, a Black resident of Two Street, in the line of duty. He continued to serve for six years before studying at Langston University, and returning to the education field. Former Deputy Sheriff Lon Crosslin was injured during a gunfight while attempting to prevent a jewelry store robbery. Local police refused to protect Black residents and ordered them to obey the Klan. An estimated 1,000 members of the Klan held a car parade at midnight, and nearly two dozen Black citizens left town. Local Reverend A.G. Smith, Mayor William H. Ryan, former Deputy Sheriff Lon Crosslin, and the
Enid Daily Eagle editorial staff praised the action. The mayor routinely received death threats for his public support of the action. Some Black residents resisted, returning to town only to met by threats from the Klan. By 1922 at least ten former residents of the neighborhood had moved to the neighborhood by Government Springs Park. The Klan held additional parades through downtown Enid in 1922 and 1924. At least two Black men were tarred and feathered in separate incidents by the Klan in Enid in the 1920s, including Ed Warner and Walter O'Banion. There were additional reports of Klan activity in Enid in 1979 and 1985. On September 21, 1979, an 18 year old Black Enid High School student and football player named Mitchell Lee Sanford was hung from a tree. While local police ruled it a suicide, the FBI investigated it as a hate crime due to a recent resurgence in local Klan activity. Enid's chapter of the NAACP was founded in 1941 by local educator Lewis J. Umstead who served as its president until 1952. The group organized a freedom rally in 1963. The NAACP has held multiple Oklahoma state conventions in Enid. Enid has named streets for notable Black citizens, including opera singer Leona Mitchell in 1981 and professional athlete Lydell Carr in 2023. In 1990 Enid named its municipal building for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and in 1991 a monument bearing a quote from his "I have a dream" speech was erected on the property. An annual march is held in Enid honoring Dr. King. In 2023 Ward 1 elected City Commissioner Judson Blevins, a white nationalist organizer with Identity Evropa, who marched at the
Unite the Right rally. Local NAACP leader Lanita Norwood is a founding member of the Enid Social Justice Committee which has actively protested against Blevins, and initiated a recall election for April 2024. Blevins was defeated in the recall, replaced by Cheryl Patterson. ==Economy==