Walnut Ridge ranks as one of the safest cities in Arkansas
JONESBORO, Ark. – The company HomeSnacks releases both positive and negative rankings for communities across America each year and NEA enjoyed several honors in the most recent lists, released in November.
Notable achievements in NEA included:
- Walnut Ridge ranking as the 9th safest city in Arkansas
- Searcy ranking as the 9th best city for singles in Arkansas
- Batesville, Blytheville, and Mountain Home ranking as the best places to retire in Arkansas (first, second, and third respectively).
Safest Cities
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bella Vista, AR | 28,798 |
| 2 | Greenwood, AR | 9,454 |
| 3 | Cabot, AR | 26,459 |
| 4 | Lowell, AR | 9,522 |
| 5 | Bentonville, AR | 51,607 |
| 6 | Farmington, AR | 7,032 |
| 7 | Prairie Grove, AR | 5,921 |
| 8 | Maumelle, AR | 18,356 |
| 9 | Walnut Ridge, AR | 5,013 |
| 10 | Centerton, AR | 14,791 |
This list was based off of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report including violent crimes and property crimes. Notably, Walnut Ridge was the only NEA community to make the list of ten safest cities. The threshold for population is 5,000 for this list, which the Lawrence County seat just barely surpassed.
Best Place to Raise a Family
A similar list to the safest cities, HomeSnacks also tallied up the best places to raise a family. This includes crime but also, quality of local schools, distance to a major city without necessarily being in it, percentage of households with children, and family-friendly amenities nearby (museums, libraries, etc).
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bentonville, AR | 46,857 |
| 2 | Siloam Springs, AR | 16,567 |
| 3 | Magnolia, AR | 11,573 |
| 4 | Arkadelphia, AR | 10,611 |
| 5 | Blytheville, AR | 14,298 |
| 6 | Batesville, AR | 10,642 |
| 7 | Van Buren, AR | 23,296 |
| 8 | Rogers, AR | 64,947 |
| 9 | Russellville, AR | 29,244 |
| 10 | Harrison, AR | 13,069 |
Blytheville and Batesville both performed better than other communities in NEA on this list (despite Blytheville not doing so well in other areas).
For Singles
If it’s night life, affordable housing and other things singles care about that you’re interested in, most communities in the top ten were outside of NEA. However, Searcy managed to rank ninth.
| Rank | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Fayetteville, AR |
| 2 | Arkadelphia, AR |
| 3 | Springdale, AR |
| 4 | Rogers, AR |
| 5 | Russellville, AR |
| 6 | Siloam Springs, AR |
| 7 | Conway, AR |
| 8 | Fort Smith, AR |
| 9 | Searcy, AR |
| 10 | Little Rock, AR |
| 25 | Jonesboro, AR |
| 35 | Paragould, AR |
Richest Communities
Most of the richest communities in Arkansas are located in Benton County. No NEA communities made the top ten.
Notably, Jonesboro appears to have lower average wages than Paragould, Trumann, and Batesville.
| Rank | City | RichScore |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lowell | 2.67 |
| 2 | White Hall | 4.33 |
| 3 | Centerton | 5.0 |
| 4 | Bentonville | 5.0 |
| 5 | Bryant | 7.0 |
| 6 | Pea Ridge | 7.67 |
| 7 | Farmington | 10.0 |
| 8 | Maumelle | 10.0 |
| 9 | Prairie Grove | 10.0 |
| 10 | Rogers | 11.33 |
| 20 | Batesville | 22.33 |
| 26 | Paragould | 26.67 |
| 30 | Jonesboro | 31.0 |
| 43 | Walnut Ridge | 40.0 |
| 44 | Cherokee Village | 40.67 |
This list of rankings was compiled using 2014-2018 American Community Survey data on poverty level, median household income, and unemployment rate.
Best Places to Retire
Look no further than Independence County’s own Batesville for the best place to retire in all of Arkansas. It isn’t the first time Batesville has ranked first in this list, either. With median rent at an affordable $606 and low crime, the community is poised to meet two of the most important criteria for ranking on the list.
In addition to using cost of living measured by rent and crime rates, HomeSnacks considers things to do, weather, distance to the closest international airport, and a high median age (for other retirees).
In this list, NEA took the top honors.
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Batesville | 10,642 |
| 2 | Blytheville | 14,298 |
| 3 | Mountain Home | 12,303 |
| 4 | Harrison | 13,069 |
| 5 | Camden | 11,152 |
| 6 | Van Buren | 23,296 |
| 7 | Siloam Springs | 16,567 |
| 8 | Fort Smith | 87,639 |
| 9 | Helena-West Helena | 10,965 |
| 10 | Magnolia | 11,573 |
Unlike some of the other lists and rankings, this one upped the population requirement to 10,000 people from communities that weren’t townships.
While some may debate positives or certainly negatives, at least one of the lists made by HomeSnacks should be mostly without controversy: the biggest cities in Arkansas for 2020. Jonesboro ranks as the fifth biggest.
| Rank | City | Current Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Little Rock | 198,135 |
| 2 | Fort Smith | 87,639 |
| 3 | Fayetteville | 83,736 |
| 4 | Springdale | 78,690 |
| 5 | Jonesboro | 74,710 |
| 6 | North Little Rock | 66,282 |
| 7 | Conway | 65,069 |
| 8 | Rogers | 64,947 |
| 9 | Bentonville | 46,857 |
| 10 | Pine Bluff | 43,840 |
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