You might think that the whole hippie movement has faded away, but the truth is, there are plenty of hippies out there in Arkansas.
While they aren’t necessarily in your face all the time with war protests and the next Woodstock isn’t being planned any time soon, we thought it would be fun to look at which cities in the Natural State where the most hippies would live.
And, after crunching the data, you know what? It was pretty spot on, we have to say.
How do you decide where the most hippies live? By the number of yoga studios, organic markets, and most importantly, where the liberals live in droves.
Using that criteria, it’s not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where hippies might live in Arkansas, and then put out a list.
So, put on your tie dye shirt and your sandals as you go through this list with us.
After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list of the 10 best cities for hippies in Arkansas:
- Lowell (Photos)
- Sherwood (Photos)
- Mountain Home (Photos)
- Hot Springs (Photos)
- Maumelle
- North Little Rock (Photos)
- Fayetteville (Photos)
- Harrison (Photos)
- Van Buren (Photos)
- Farmington (Photos)
Read on below to see where your town ranked, young flower child.
And if you already knew these places were hippie heavens, check out the best places to live in Arkansas or the safest places to live in Arkansas.
How do you determine the most beatnik city in Arkansas?
In order to rank the best cities for hippies in Arkansas, we had to determine what criteria defines a hippie.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the Google Places API, the Census’s 2010-2014 American Community Survey, and Voter Registration data, this is the criteria we used:
- Number of yoga studios per capita
- Number of organic markets per capita
- Number of pet adoption centers per capita
- Number of vegan restaurants per capita
- Number of thrift stores per capita
- Each city’s liberal voting population
Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a ~4.5 mile radius of a city’s center. The average city in America is about 18 square miles.
All of these results are listed in a per capita basis, meaning number of stores per person in a city. Additionally, we limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 5,000 people.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 60 in each category, where 1 was the most hippie.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a hippie index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the highest hippie index the “Best City for Hippies In Arkansas.” We’re lookin’ at you, Lowell.
Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in hippie central. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the places in the state from hippiest to most square.
1. Lowell
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.39
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.39
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.64
2. Sherwood
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.1
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.07
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.37
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.3
Sherwood is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 29,523. It is part of the Little RockNorth Little RockConway Metropolitan Statistical Area with 699,757 people according to the 2010 census.
3. Mountain Home
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.08
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.08
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.32
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.16
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.97
4. Hot Springs
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.06
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.17
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.06
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.59
Hot Springs is the eleventh-largest city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Garland County. The city is located in the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands, and is set among several natural hot springs for which the city is named. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 35,193. In 2015 the estimated population was 35,635.
5. Maumelle
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.06
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.06
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.23
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.17
Maumelle is an affluent city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 17,163. The city is located northwest of Little Rock, bordering the opposite shore of the Arkansas River and is part of the Little Rock metropolitan area.
6. North Little Rock
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.12
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.08
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.06
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.05
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.28
North Little Rock is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States, across the Arkansas River from Little Rock in the central part of the state. The population was 62,304 at the 2010 census. North Little Rock, along with Little Rock and Conway, anchors the six-county Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area (2014 population 729,135), which is further included in the Little Rock-North Little Rock Combined Statistical Area with 902,443 residents.
7. Fayetteville
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.25
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.05
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.05
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.14
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.26
Fayetteville is the third-largest city in Arkansas and county seat of Washington County. The city is centrally located within the county and has been home of the University of Arkansas since the institution’s founding in 1871. Fayetteville is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until 1829, the city was named after Fayetteville, Tennessee, from which many of the settlers had come. It was incorporated on November 3, 1836 and was rechartered in 1867. The four-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area is ranked 105th in terms of population in the United States with 463,204 in 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau. The city had a population of 73,580 at the 2010 Census. At 1,400 feet of elevation, it is also one of the highest major US cities between the western Great Plains and the Appalachian Mountains.
8. Harrison
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.08
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.31
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.08
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.08
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.07
Harrison is a city in Boone County, Arkansas, United States. It is the county seat. It named after General Marcus LaRue Harrison, a surveyor that laid out the city along Crooked Creek at Stifler Springs. According to 2012 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,163, up from 12,943 at the 2010 census.
9. Van Buren
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.04
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.09
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.61
Van Buren /væn bjrn/ is the second largest city in the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area and the county seat of Crawford County, Arkansas, United States. The city is located directly northeast of Fort Smith at the Interstate 40 – Interstate 540 junction. The city was incorporated in 1845 and as of the 2010 census had a population of 22,791, ranking it as the state’s 22nd largest city, behind Searcy.
10. Farmington
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.48
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.0
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.32
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.0
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.48
Farmington is a city in Washington County, Arkansas. The community is nestled in a valley among the Boston Mountains, a subset of the Ozark Mountains. Although the first settlers came from the Deep South in 1828, the community did not incorporate until 1946. Located immediately west of Fayetteville in the Northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area, Farmington has been experiencing a population boom in recent years, as indicated by a 66% growth in population between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. It has been characterized as a bedroom community by the University of Arkansas Community Design Center.
There You Have It — The Hippies Of Arkansas
If you’re measuring the locations in Arkansas where there are lots of liberals, and there are many options for vegan food, yoga and thrift stores, this is an accurate list.
If you’re curious, here are the most square places in Arkansas:
- De Queen
- Greenwood
- Hot Springs
For more Arkansas reading , check out:
- These Are The 10 Most Ghetto Cities In Arkansas
- These Are The 10 Snobbiest Places In Arkansas
- These Are The 10 Safest Places In Arkansas
Detailed List Of The Hippiest Cities In Arkansas
City | Rank |
---|---|
Lowell | 1 |
Sherwood | 2 |
Mountain Home | 3 |
Hot Springs | 4 |
Maumelle | 5 |
North Little Rock | 6 |
Fayetteville | 7 |
Harrison | 8 |
Van Buren | 9 |
Farmington | 10 |
Mena | 11 |
Bentonville | 12 |
Clarksville | 13 |
Heber Springs | 14 |
Hope | 15 |
Marion | 16 |
Rogers | 17 |
Centerton | 18 |
Newport | 19 |
Fort Smith | 20 |
Berryville | 21 |
Bryant | 22 |
Russellville | 23 |
Texarkana | 24 |
Arkadelphia | 25 |
Osceola | 26 |
Conway | 27 |
West Memphis | 28 |
Benton | 29 |
Trumann | 30 |
Wynne | 31 |
Jonesboro | 32 |
Little Rock | 33 |
Springdale | 34 |
Jacksonville | 35 |
Searcy | 36 |
Batesville | 37 |
Magnolia | 38 |
El Dorado | 39 |
White Hall | 40 |
Blytheville | 41 |
Paragould | 42 |
Beebe | 43 |
Warren | 44 |
Morrilton | 45 |
Siloam Springs | 46 |
Pine Bluff | 47 |
Cabot | 48 |
Pocahontas | 49 |
Camden | 50 |
Stuttgart | 51 |
Malvern | 52 |
Alma | 53 |
Helena-West Helena | 54 |
Monticello | 55 |
Crossett | 56 |
Bella Vista | 57 |
Hot Springs | 58 |
Greenwood | 59 |
De Queen | 60 |