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Place dossier plate
SheetAR-BLACK-SPRINGS-AR · Black Springs, AR 138 pop
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Black Springs on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 138.
Black Springs has 138 residents in Arkansas. Source: Census ACS.
3rd
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Black Springs, AR
Arkansas's Black Springs is a small town, with 138 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The median resident age is 26.9 years. 12.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 47.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $944 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $210 across Arkansas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Black Springs'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 work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Black Springs, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Black Springs?
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 45.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Black Springs growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population was unchanged by +0 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.0% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Black Springs?
Within Arkansas, the closest population matches are Winchester (138 residents, $43,462 income); Hunter (139 residents, $88,750 income); St. Joe (139 residents, $44,167 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are East Nicolaus, CA (138 residents); Hypericum, CA (138 residents); Las Flores CDP (Tehama County), CA (138 residents). 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.
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.
Poverty rate B-
4.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Black Springs profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 86.9 index
Poverty rate: 66/100 (B-) · 4.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 14/100 (F) · 12.7%
How does Black Springs compare to other US cities?
Black Springs measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Median rent3% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Black Springs 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 Black Springs near the bottom of Arkansas's cities
Among the 524 Arkansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Black Springs ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Black Springs only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 524
0th percentile in Arkansas
Poverty Rate
#412 of 524
21st percentile in Arkansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#281 of 524
46th 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.
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Black Springs in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
138
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
26.9
Poverty Rate
4.9%
Labor force participation
47.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.7%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Black Springs's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
91 residents
2021
92 residents
2022
91 residents
2023
92 residents
2024
91 residents
2025
91 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
45.3%
Carpool
50.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.8%
Based on 53 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 Black Springs. 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 Black Springs 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 Black Springs sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Black Springs 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, 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.