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Place dossier plate
SheetAR-LITTLE-ROCK-AR · Little Rock, AR 202,739 pop · income 36th pct · 107 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Little Rock
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Little Rock on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jonesboro · lowest
52,559
Jonesboro · lowest
52,559 median HH income
43.7% of the leader · rank #1
Saraland · near
60,577
Saraland · near
60,577 median HH income
50.4% of the leader · rank #2
Augusta · near
60,581
Augusta · near
60,581 median HH income
50.4% of the leader · rank #3
Little Rock · this city
60,583
Little Rock · this city
60,583 median HH income
50.4% of the leader · rank #4
Redfield · near
60,586
Redfield · near
60,586 median HH income
50.4% of the leader · rank #5
Shelton · near
60,589
Shelton · near
60,589 median HH income
50.4% of the leader · rank #6
McKinney · highest
120,273
McKinney · highest
120,273 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Little Rock on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 202,739.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Little Rock - the verdict
Nationally, Little Rock sits in the 36th percentile for household income and the 1st percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
36th
percentile, household income
49th
percentile, home value
3rd
percentile, median rent
1st
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Little Rock, AR
202,739 people live in Little Rock, Arkansas - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $60,583 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.7%. Home values in Little Rock run a median of $221,200, and the median resident age is 36.4 years. Educational attainment runs 44.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 60.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 486 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 52% from five years earlier. Little Rock's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 6886.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 61.8°F with 51.9 inches of precipitation per year and 3.8 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Arkansas run below the national norm: the state registers 86.9 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $944 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $210 across Arkansas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Little Rock report an average commute of 16.3 minutes, with 76.5% driving alone and 10.8% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 55.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Little Rock's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to reported crime to schools and households to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Little Rock, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Little Rock?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
What can 107 Census tracts reveal inside Little Rock?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 107 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Little Rock?
Within Arkansas, the closest population matches are Fayetteville (97,227 residents, $59,074 income); Fort Smith (89,496 residents, $52,692 income); Springdale (87,388 residents, $66,044 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are McKinney, TX (202,314 residents); Salt Lake City, UT (203,888 residents); Augusta-Richmond County, GA (201,504 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What physical conditions frame life in Little Rock?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.8°F, with 51.9 inches of precipitation and 3.8 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Arkansas is 55.5 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Little Rock?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 6886.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 202% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
5214.3
Violent rate
1672.0
Total reported rate
6886.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Little Rock?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 44.0% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
44.0%
Poverty estimate
12.7%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Little Rock growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3,811 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 486 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.9%
2025 estimate
206,427
2020 estimate
202,616
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Little Rock?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.3 minutes.
Public transit
1.0%
Work from home
10.8%
Drive alone
76.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 95,707 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 12.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
86.9 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Arkansas average
D
City profile score · Little Rock, AR
46/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
86.9 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share B+
44.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$60,583
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
1,672 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Little Rock profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 86.9 index
Bachelor's+ share: 79/100 (B+) · 44.0%
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,583
Poverty rate: 29/100 (F) · 12.7%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,672 /100k
Where Little Rock sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Little Rock's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Little Rock highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Little Rock, AR (this city): home $221,200, crime 6,886/100k
McKinney, TX : home $439,500, crime 933/100k
Salt Lake City, UT : home $495,700, crime 6,064/100k
Columbus, GA : home $182,300, crime 2,839/100k
Oxnard, CA : home $617,800, crime 2,474/100k
Amarillo, TX : home $186,800, crime 3,346/100k
Fayetteville, AR : home $322,500, crime 2,795/100k
Fort Smith, AR : home $168,100, crime 4,527/100k
Springdale, AR : home $237,200, crime 2,412/100k
Jonesboro, AR : home $213,400, crime 3,765/100k
Rogers, AR : home $278,000, crime 1,616/100k
Conway, AR : home $234,600, crime 2,571/100k
How does Little Rock compare to other US cities?
Little Rock measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income36% higher than other cities
Home value49% pricier than other cities
Median rent3% pricier than other cities
Safety1% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Arkansas, Little Rock ranks #160 of 160 Arkansas cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Little Rock against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Arkansas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Arkansas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Little Rock near the bottom of Arkansas's cities
Among the 524 Arkansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Little Rock ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Little Rock only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#135 of 495
73rd percentile in Arkansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 524
0th percentile in Arkansas
Median Home Value
#34 of 482
93rd percentile in Arkansas
Poverty Rate
#265 of 524
49th percentile in Arkansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#10 of 524
98th percentile in Arkansas
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Arkansas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
36th percentile nationally for median household income · 1st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Little Rock's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Little Rock's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Little Rock's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$221,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 51% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Little Rock's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,552 of 15,516
More affordable than 38% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#33 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 3.7×, Little Rock sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,552 of 15,516 and #33 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$60,583Little Rock, AR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Little Rock, AR median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Little Rock, AR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)44.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
202,739
Median Income
$60,583
Median Home Value
$221,200
Median Age
36.4
Poverty Rate
12.7%
Labor force participation
60.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
44.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
6886.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1672.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
5214.3
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
61.8°F
Annual Precipitation
51.9"
Annual Snowfall
3.8"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Little Rock's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
202,616 residents
2021
202,253 residents
2022
203,671 residents
2023
204,625 residents
2024
206,014 residents
2025
206,427 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
486
housing units authorized
Single-Family
468
detached homes
Multifamily
18
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1,019
480
539
$175.7M
2020
833
415
418
$165.8M
2021
1,126
666
460
$217.1M
2022
1,021
377
644
$222.5M
2023
933
703
230
$213.7M
2024
486
468
18
$178.6M
Permit volume decreased 52% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.3 minutes
Drive Alone
76.5%
Carpool
8.9%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
10.8%
Other
1.0%
Based on 95,707 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Arkansas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $210
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Arkansas at $210 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Arkansas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Little Rock. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Arkansas's BEA cost-of-living index is 86.9 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Little Rock is $944/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Arkansas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 55.5 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Arkansas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Little Rock sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Little Rock compares to similar-size Arkansas cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.