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Rural Profile of Arkansas

2025 Rural Profile cover
Click the image above to download the latest profile.

The Rural Profile of Arkansas 2025 is now available. Download your free copy today!

Arkansas communities have changed greatly over the past decade.  Many rural areas in the state continue to recover from the Great Recession while others grow and thrive.

To enrich communities, local leaders must be aware of factors of change in the state.

The Rural Profile of Arkansas analyzes the trends of key indicators for communities in Arkansas, which include:

  • Population,
  • Economy,
  • Infrastructure,
  • Social and Economic Stress,
  • Health,
  • Education, and
  • Local Government.

The Rural Profile also compares trends in rural and urban counties and among regions of the state.

 

Rural Profile Infographics

Topics

 Population
Infographic showing an icon for each chapter in the Rural Profile of Arkansas. An outline of two people for population, a money bag icon for economy, a lightbulb icon for infrastructure, a broken link icon for social & economic stress, a bandage icon for health, a book icon for education, and a people hierarchy diagram icon for local government.
Infographic showing the upward trend in urban population and the downward trend in rural population, from 2007 to 2018. Learn about the issues that matter to your community at www.uaex.uada.edu/ruralprofile.

 

Employment

 

Infrastructure
Graph showing the change of employment for the State, Rural and Urban regions between 2007 and 2018. Employment declined for all areas during the Great Recession, but the Rural region employment has remained flat or declined in every year. How has employment in your county changed since the Great Recession? Find out at www.uaex.uada.edu/ruralprofile.
Infographic showing the number of households with access to internet of different download speeds. 92% of the Urban region in Arkansas has adequate broadband, compared to 60% in the Rural Region. Adequare broadband is defined as 25 MPBS download and 3 MBPS upload or faster. Learn about the issues that matter to your community at www.uaex.uada.edu/ruralprofile.

 

Social & Economic Stress

 

Health
Infographic showing rates of poverty in the Rural and Urban regions of Arkansas and the United States. The infographic. Child poverty is higher than total poverty rates for all regions, U.S., State, Rural Arkansas and Urban Arkansas. Rural Arkansas has the highest child poverty and total poverty rates of all of these areas. How is poverty impacting your community? Learn about the issues that matter to your community at www.uaex.uada.edu/ruralprofile
This infographic compares infant mortality rates in the United States and Rural and Urban regions of Arkansas. In the U.S., 5.7 of every 1,000 livebirths end in infant death, compared to 7.5 in Arkansas, 7.34 of 1,000 in the Urban region and 7.74 of 1,000 in the Rural region. Learn about the issues that matter to your community at www.uaex.uada.edu/ruralprofile.

 

Education

 

Local Government
Infographic showing the rate of children in rural and urban Arkansas counties who are enrolled in pre-k. The pre-k enrollment rate is 50% in the Rural region and 48% in the Urban region. Learn about the issues that matter to your community.”Learn about the issues that matter to your community at www.uaex.uada.edu/ruralprofile
Infographic depicting the changing trends in county tax revenue sources. County sales tax revenues increased more than property tax revenues from 2007 to2017. In the Urban region, property tax revenue increased considerably more than sales tax revenue during that time. In the Rural region, sales tax revenue increased considerably more than property tax revenue during that time. Learn about the issues that matter to your community at www.uaex.uada.edu/ruralprofile.

See the Rural Profile Data Map

 

Previous Versions of the Rural Profile of Arkansas

Additional Resources

 

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