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Place dossier plate
SheetAR-ARKADELPHIA-AR · Arkadelphia, AR 10,316 pop · income 10th pct · 6 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 Arkadelphia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Arkadelphia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Clarksville · lowest
37,848
Clarksville · lowest
37,848 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #1
Bret Harte · near
42,422
Bret Harte · near
42,422 median HH income
18.5% of the leader · rank #2
Arkadelphia · this city
42,430
Arkadelphia · this city
42,430 median HH income
18.5% of the leader · rank #3
Brethren · near
42,434
Brethren · near
42,434 median HH income
18.5% of the leader · rank #4
Martinsville · near
42,434
Martinsville · near
42,434 median HH income
18.5% of the leader · rank #5
Edgemont · near
42,440
Edgemont · near
42,440 median HH income
18.5% of the leader · rank #6
Loudoun Valle… · highest
229,126
Loudoun Valle… · highest
229,126 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 Arkadelphia 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: 10,316.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Arkadelphia - the verdict
Arkadelphia ranks in the 10th percentile for household income and the 29th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
10th
percentile, household income
35th
percentile, home value
3rd
percentile, median rent
29th
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: Arkadelphia, AR
10,316 people live in Arkadelphia, Arkansas - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Arkadelphia households earn a median of $42,430 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.8%. Arkadelphia's housing stock carries a median value of $176,000, and the median resident age is 23.3 years. 31.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 53.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 12 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Slowing), down 14% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2132.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, near 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 63.2°F with 54.8 inches of precipitation per year and 1.4 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Arkansas run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Arkansas at 86.9 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $944 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Arkansas's average monthly utility costs around $210 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 55.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Arkadelphia'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 schools and households to within-city variation to climate and hazard context to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Arkadelphia, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Arkadelphia?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 31.9% 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.
What can 6 Census tracts reveal inside Arkadelphia?
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.
What physical conditions frame life in Arkadelphia?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 63.2°F, with 54.8 inches of precipitation and 1.4 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Arkadelphia?
Within Arkansas, the closest population matches are Camden (10,427 residents, $51,300 income); Lowell (10,438 residents, $92,986 income); Malvern (10,938 residents, $40,602 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Manhattan, IL (10,315 residents); Wood River, IL (10,315 residents); Francisville, KY (10,313 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Arkadelphia?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.8%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$42,430
Home value
$176,000
Value / income
4.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Arkadelphia growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -445 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 12 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
-4.3%
2025 estimate
9,916
2020 estimate
10,361
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Arkadelphia?
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 70.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.1%
Work from home
5.4%
Drive alone
70.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 4,707 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Arkadelphia?
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 2132.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 6% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1839.2
Violent rate
293.5
Total reported rate
2132.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 C+
31.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
294 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
16.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$42,430
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Arkadelphia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 86.9 index
Bachelor's+ share: 61/100 (C+) · 31.9%
Violent crime: 34/100 (F) · 294 /100k
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 16.8%
Household income: 10/100 (F) · $42,430
Where Arkadelphia sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Arkadelphia'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 - Arkadelphia highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Arkadelphia, AR (this city): home $176,000, crime 2,133/100k
Manhattan, IL : home $314,400, crime 229/100k
Wood River, IL : home $103,200, crime 1,987/100k
Paris, TN : home $142,700, crime 1,853/100k
Camden, AR : home $108,800, crime 5,137/100k
Lowell, AR : home $260,100, crime 897/100k
Malvern, AR : home $95,500, crime 3,057/100k
Magnolia, AR : home $166,500, crime 3,042/100k
Greenwood, AR : home $177,300, crime 545/100k
Clarksville, AR : home $159,700, crime 2,500/100k
How does Arkadelphia compare to other US cities?
Where Arkadelphia sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income10% higher than other cities
Home value35% pricier than other cities
Median rent3% pricier than other cities
Safety29% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Arkansas and the picture shifts: Arkadelphia ranks #97 of 160 Arkansas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Arkadelphia 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 Arkadelphia near the bottom of Arkansas's cities
Among the 524 Arkansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Arkadelphia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Arkadelphia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#314 of 495
37th percentile in Arkansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 524
0th percentile in Arkansas
Median Home Value
#85 of 482
82nd percentile in Arkansas
Poverty Rate
#192 of 524
63rd percentile in Arkansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#39 of 524
93rd 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
10th percentile nationally for median household income · 29th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Arkadelphia's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Arkadelphia'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 Arkadelphia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$176,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 65% 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
Arkadelphia's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,108 of 15,516
More affordable than 28% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,104 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.1×, Arkadelphia sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,108 of 15,516 and #2,104 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$42,430Arkadelphia, AR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Arkadelphia, 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 Arkadelphia, AR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,316
Median Income
$42,430
Median Home Value
$176,000
Median Age
23.3
Poverty Rate
16.8%
Labor force participation
53.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2132.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
293.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1839.2
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
63.2°F
Annual Precipitation
54.8"
Annual Snowfall
1.4"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Arkadelphia's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,361 residents
2021
10,207 residents
2022
10,085 residents
2023
9,871 residents
2024
9,929 residents
2025
9,916 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
12
housing units authorized
Single-Family
12
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
14
12
2
$1.7M
2020
12
12
0
$1.5M
2021
40
4
36
$12.0M
2022
4
4
0
$1.1M
2023
5
5
0
$1.7M
2024
12
12
0
$2.5M
Permit volume decreased 14% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
70.7%
Carpool
13.0%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
9.1%
Work from Home
5.4%
Other
1.7%
Based on 4,707 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 Arkadelphia. 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 Arkadelphia 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 Arkadelphia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Arkadelphia 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.