The best Arkansas city to retire in is Batesville, says HomeSnacks

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).

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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.

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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	Amenities Score
1	Bentonville, AR	46,857	61
2	Siloam Springs, AR	16,567	37
3	Magnolia, AR	11,573	43
4	Arkadelphia, AR	10,611	50
5	Blytheville, AR	14,298	72
6	Batesville, AR	10,642	58
7	Van Buren, AR	23,296	48
8	Rogers, AR	64,947	51
9	Russellville, AR	29,244	48
10	Harrison, AR	13,069	69

Blytheville and Batesville both performed better than other communities in NEA on this list (despite Blytheville not doing so well in other areas).

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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	Population	Median Age
1	Fayetteville, AR	83,736	27.2
2	Arkadelphia, AR	10,611	23.5
3	Springdale, AR	78,690	31.3
4	Rogers, AR	64,947	33.4
5	Russellville, AR	29,244	27.8
6	Siloam Springs, AR	16,567	28.4
7	Conway, AR	65,069	28.7
8	Fort Smith, AR	87,639	36.2
9	Searcy, AR	23,853	28.7
10	Little Rock, AR	198,135	36.3

25

Jonesboro, AR

74,710

32.6

35

Paragould, AR

28,296

35.8

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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	Median Income
1	Lowell	2.67	$66,994
2	White Hall	4.33	$67,148
3	Centerton	5.0	$73,015
4	Bentonville	5.0	$81,934
5	Bryant	7.0	$65,364
6	Pea Ridge	7.67	$61,224
7	Farmington	10.0	$56,179
8	Maumelle	10.0	$87,295
9	Prairie Grove	10.0	$64,914
10	Rogers	11.33	$57,079

20

Batesville

22.33

$44,916

26

Paragould

26.67

$45,315

30

Jonesboro

31.0

$44,780

43	Walnut Ridge	40.0	$38,917
44	Cherokee Village	40.67	$38,132

This list of rankings was compiled using 2014-2018 American Community Survey data on poverty level, median household income, and unemployment rate.

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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	Median Rent
1	Batesville	10,642	$606
2	Blytheville	14,298	$641
3	Mountain Home	12,303	$672
4	Harrison	13,069	$617
5	Camden	11,152	$514
6	Van Buren	23,296	$722
7	Siloam Springs	16,567	$714
8	Fort Smith	87,639	$666
9	Helena-West Helena	10,965	$573
10	Magnolia	11,573	$688

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