QoL Rank
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Arkansas

Arkansas has a quality of life score of 36/100 (D, below average) and ranks #43 of 51 states. Its strongest category is cost of living (78) and its weakest is safety (20). Its top-rated larger counties are Benton County, Boone County, Washington County.

  • Safety: 20
  • Cost of living: 78
  • Education: 23
  • Quality of life: 22

Key figures: violent crime 559.2 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $947 a month; median home value $188,000; median household income $58,748; life expectancy 73.7 years.

Counties in Arkansas, best first

  1. Benton County 67
  2. Boone County 59
  3. Washington County 57
  4. Saline County 56
  5. Pope County 51
  6. Franklin County 50
  7. Yell County 49
  8. Faulkner County 49
  9. Lonoke County 49
  10. Crawford County 48
  11. Polk County 47
  12. Baxter County 47
  13. Sevier County 46
  14. Izard County 46
  15. Prairie County 46
  16. Grant County 45
  17. Sebastian County 45
  18. Stone County 44
  19. Sharp County 44
  20. Madison County 44
  21. Pike County 44
  22. Montgomery County 43
  23. Logan County 43
  24. Perry County 43
  25. Independence County 42
  26. Carroll County 42
  27. Craighead County 42
  28. Lincoln County 41
  29. Newton County 41
  30. Cleburne County 41
  31. Searcy County 39
  32. Garland County 39
  33. Fulton County 39
  34. Calhoun County 38
  35. Greene County 38
  36. Marion County 38
  37. Clay County 38
  38. Hempstead County 38
  39. Arkansas County 38
  40. Conway County 38
  41. White County 38
  42. Van Buren County 38
  43. Cross County 37
  44. Lawrence County 37
  45. Jackson County 37
  46. Woodruff County 37
  47. Little River County 37
  48. Hot Spring County 36
  49. Johnson County 36
  50. Ouachita County 36
  51. Clark County 36
  52. Howard County 36
  53. Drew County 36
  54. Columbia County 35
  55. Randolph County 35
  56. Bradley County 35
  57. Dallas County 35
  58. Scott County 34
  59. Cleveland County 34
  60. Poinsett County 33
  61. Pulaski County 33
  62. Union County 33
  63. Ashley County 33
  64. Miller County 30
  65. Crittenden County 30
  66. Chicot County 29
  67. Nevada County 29
  68. Mississippi County 29
  69. Monroe County 29
  70. Desha County 28
  71. Lafayette County 28
  72. St. Francis County 27
  73. Jefferson County 26
  74. Lee County 23
  75. Phillips County 22

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources