Arkansas Statistics

Information below comes from TalkPoverty.org. Statistics are based on data from 2014. Overall Population: 2,882,856 | Number In Poverty: 543,882

Poverty Rate

  • 18.9% of Arkansans had incomes below the poverty line.* (Ranked 46th)**
  • 26% of children under 18 are in families below the poverty line. (Ranked 45th)
  • 20.4% of working-age women (ages 18-64) have incomes below the poverty line. (Ranked 46th)
  • 33.2% of African Americans are below the poverty line.
  • 16.9% of Asian Americans below the poverty line.
  • 31.3% of Latinos are below the poverty line.
  • 15.7% of Native Americans are below the poverty line.

Employment and Education

  • 14.7% income inequality. The ratio of the share of income going to the top 20 percent of households and the share of income going to the bottom 20 percent of households. (Ranked 25th)
  • 6.1% unemployment (Ranked 26th)
  • 85% of high school students who graduated on time. (Ranked 17th)
  • 19% of disconnected youth (ages 18-24) who were not in school or working. (Ranked 42nd)
  • 30% of young adults (ages 25-34) who had an associate’s degree or higher. (Ranked 50th)
  • 78.1¢ gender wage gap. (Ranked 32nd)

Family and Communities

  • 5 out of every 1,000 children live apart from their parents in foster care. (Ranked 20th)
  • 43.5 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. (Ranked 51st)

Economic Security

  • 19.9% experience difficulty providing food due to a lack of money or resources. (Ranked 50th)
  • 73 apartments were affordable/available for every 100 renter households with very low incomes.***
  • 11.2% of households use high-cost, high-risk forms of credit to make ends meet.**** (Ranked 46th)
  • 29.9% of unemployed workers were helped by unemployment insurance. (Ranked 21st)
  • 20.9% of people under age 65 and below the poverty line who did not have health insurance. (Ranked 24th)

* Poverty line: $23,834 for a family of four.
** Rank compared to national percentages.
*** Very low-income households are those at or below half of median income in the area where they live.
**** High-risk forms of credit include payday loans, automobile title loans, refund anticipation loans, rent-to-own, and pawning.