Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetAR-FIFTY-SIX-AR · Fifty-Six, AR 177 pop · income 39th pct
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 Fifty-Six
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fifty-Six on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Humphrey · lowest
21,406
Humphrey · lowest
21,406 median HH income
22.4% of the leader · rank #1
Fifty-Six · this city
62,583
Fifty-Six · this city
62,583 median HH income
65.5% of the leader · rank #2
Candor · near
62,583
Candor · near
62,583 median HH income
65.5% of the leader · rank #3
Frankfort · near
62,583
Frankfort · near
62,583 median HH income
65.5% of the leader · rank #4
Staunton · near
62,586
Staunton · near
62,586 median HH income
65.5% of the leader · rank #5
Falcon Lake E… · near
62,589
Falcon Lake E… · near
62,589 median HH income
65.5% of the leader · rank #6
Knobel · highest
95,508
Knobel · highest
95,508 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Fifty-Six 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: 177.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Fifty-Six places in the 39th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
39th
percentile, household income
34th
percentile, home value
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: Fifty-Six, AR
Arkansas's Fifty-Six is a small town, with 177 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $62,583 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.8%. Fifty-Six's housing stock carries a median value of $172,200, and the median resident age is 56.2 years. Educational attainment runs 33.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 38.5% 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $944 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Arkansas's average monthly utility costs around $210 (state average). 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 Fifty-Six'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fifty-Six, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Fifty-Six?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 90.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
How far does income reach against housing in Fifty-Six?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fifty-Six?
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.
Within Arkansas, the closest population matches are Knobel (177 residents, $95,508 income); Ravenden Springs (178 residents, $44,773 income); Bee Branch (181 residents, $73,472 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Arctic, AK (177 residents); Midpines, CA (177 residents); White Plains, GA (177 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.
Is Fifty-Six growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +4 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.5% 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.
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.
Below median income · poverty 3.8% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
86.9 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Arkansas average
B-
City profile score · Fifty-Six, AR
66/100
4 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.
Poverty rate B
3.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
33.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$62,583
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fifty-Six profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 86.9 index
Poverty rate: 73/100 (B) · 3.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 64/100 (C+) · 33.8%
Household income: 38/100 (F) · $62,583
How does Fifty-Six compare to other US cities?
Where Fifty-Six sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income39% higher than other cities
Home value34% pricier than other cities
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 Fifty-Six 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 Fifty-Six near the bottom of Arkansas's cities
Among the 524 Arkansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fifty-Six ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fifty-Six only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#124 of 495
75th percentile in Arkansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 524
0th percentile in Arkansas
Median Home Value
#89 of 482
82nd percentile in Arkansas
Poverty Rate
#431 of 524
17th percentile in Arkansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#33 of 524
94th 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
39th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Fifty-Six's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$172,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 66% 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
Fifty-Six's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,316 of 15,516
More affordable than 66% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,634 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Fifty-Six sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,316 of 15,516 and #4,634 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$62,583Fifty-Six, AR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fifty-Six, 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 Fifty-Six, AR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)33.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)38.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
177
Median Income
$62,583
Median Home Value
$172,200
Median Age
56.2
Poverty Rate
3.8%
Labor force participation
38.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
33.8%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Fifty-Six's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
159 residents
2021
160 residents
2022
162 residents
2023
163 residents
2024
163 residents
2025
163 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
90.6%
Carpool
3.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
5.7%
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 Fifty-Six. 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 Fifty-Six 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 Fifty-Six sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fifty-Six 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.