Some of you might be asking yourself, at this very moment, is Arkansas a good place?
The answer is unequivocally yes… if you know where to locate the best counties to live in Arkansas.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help you identify the best counties to live in the Natural State based on the most recently available data from the Census. And this isn’t our first rodeo — we’ve been using Saturday Night Science to rank places for years.
The question becomes if you wanted to relocate to the best part of Arkansas, where would you go? To answer that, we looked at crime, cost of living, and demographic data for all 75 counties in the state.
Saline County is the county to be when it comes to living the good life in Arkansas. And you should avoid Chicot County if you can — at least according to the data.
$79,046 median income · 3.9% unemployment
$67,289 median income · 3.4% unemployment
$72,828 median income · 4.4% unemployment
$93,506 median income · 3.1% unemployment
$71,549 median income · 4.5% unemployment
$55,143 median income · 2.5% unemployment
$54,794 median income · 2.2% unemployment
$55,405 median income · 3.7% unemployment
$57,344 median income · 5.1% unemployment
$55,798 median income · 6.4% unemployment
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Arkansas’s statewide median.
Arkansas statewide median: $60,773
Arkansas statewide median: $222,050
Arkansas statewide median: 4.9%
On the map
Where Arkansas’s best counties are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine which Arkansas county is the best?
To give you the best county in Arkansas, we have to look at a handful of metrics that signal the quality of a place. To do that, we made assumptions about what’s in a “best county” and what isn’t. For reference, we are trying to make the kind of argument you’d make at a bar using facts, Saturday Night Science.
With that in mind, we went to two of the best data sources on the internet. Namely, the American Community Survey data and FBI Crime data for the most recent period.
We paid particular attention to:
- Violent Crime Rates
- Property Crime Rates
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Unemployment Rates
- Adult Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We then ranked each county in Arkansas across each of the criteria from one to 75, with one being the best.
Taking the average rank across all criteria, we created a quality of life score with the county posting the lowest overall score being the “Best County To Live In Arkansas.”
The result is some of the safest, quietest, and best counties to raise a family in the Natural State.
We updated this article for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the best counties to live in Arkansas.
Read on to see why Saline County is the best county, while Chicot County is probably in contention for being the worst county in Arkansas.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Best Counties In Arkansas
Click any column to sort. Search by county name.
| Rank | County | Population | Median Income | Median Home Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saline County | 127,479 | $79,046 | $253,064 |
| 2 | Faulkner County | 127,717 | $67,289 | $250,364 |
| 3 | Lonoke County | 75,272 | $72,828 | $229,579 |
| 4 | Benton County | 303,632 | $93,506 | $385,660 |
| 5 | Grant County | 18,242 | $71,549 | $210,727 |
| 6 | Boone County | 38,138 | $55,143 | $226,496 |
| 7 | Cleveland County | 7,453 | $54,794 | $156,930 |
| 8 | Hot Spring County | 33,180 | $55,405 | $161,661 |
| 9 | Pope County | 64,131 | $57,344 | $208,276 |
| 10 | Cleburne County | 25,226 | $55,798 | $254,452 |
| 11 | Prairie County | 8,064 | $51,646 | $150,731 |
| 12 | Washington County | 256,765 | $70,639 | $350,006 |
| 13 | Crawford County | 61,139 | $64,132 | $216,287 |
| 14 | Pulaski County | 399,818 | $62,873 | $207,636 |
| 15 | Calhoun County | 4,704 | $66,809 | $135,955 |
| 16 | Garland County | 100,035 | $57,181 | $244,727 |
| 17 | Logan County | 21,277 | $58,555 | $160,525 |
| 18 | Perry County | 10,101 | $55,764 | $178,832 |
| 19 | Craighead County | 113,249 | $59,548 | $214,721 |
| 20 | Baxter County | 42,407 | $48,452 | $229,075 |
| 21 | Little River County | 11,821 | $53,344 | $150,019 |
| 22 | Newton County | 7,112 | $48,986 | $226,025 |
| 23 | Greene County | 46,432 | $57,839 | $190,017 |
| 24 | Madison County | 17,329 | $56,798 | $271,361 |
| 25 | Franklin County | 17,326 | $55,886 | $174,058 |
| 27 | Fulton County | 12,302 | $42,241 | $187,025 |
| 27 | Conway County | 21,054 | $54,187 | $167,506 |
| 27 | Columbia County | 22,349 | $55,334 | $136,071 |
| 29 | Van Buren County | 15,998 | $50,354 | $169,727 |
| 30 | Nevada County | 8,159 | $53,886 | $98,387 |
| 31 | Union County | 37,900 | $55,259 | $125,865 |
| 32 | Marion County | 17,228 | $48,619 | $216,707 |
| 33 | Yell County | 20,134 | $55,934 | $162,192 |
| 33 | Lincoln County | 12,950 | $51,778 | $127,671 |
| 35 | Stone County | 12,568 | $40,943 | $201,829 |
| 36 | Independence County | 38,175 | $56,609 | $174,512 |
| 37 | Sebastian County | 128,900 | $57,790 | $202,236 |
| 38 | Carroll County | 28,626 | $54,230 | $266,461 |
| 39 | White County | 77,838 | $55,249 | $203,388 |
| 40 | Clark County | 21,125 | $52,034 | $163,298 |
| 41 | Ouachita County | 22,085 | $49,268 | $97,482 |
| 42 | Jefferson County | 64,802 | $51,096 | $86,904 |
| 43 | Johnson County | 26,003 | $45,995 | $184,396 |
| 44 | Polk County | 19,361 | $49,191 | $186,265 |
| 45 | Pike County | 10,115 | $49,269 | $176,793 |
| 46 | Dallas County | 6,242 | $42,500 | $103,786 |
| 47 | Montgomery County | 8,553 | $48,906 | $216,049 |
| 48 | Searcy County | 7,859 | $44,426 | $183,762 |
| 49 | Randolph County | 18,838 | $50,911 | $139,860 |
| 50 | Drew County | 17,046 | $42,824 | $156,682 |
| 50 | Sharp County | 17,773 | $44,637 | $149,314 |
| 52 | Clay County | 14,280 | $51,481 | $115,635 |
| 53 | Sevier County | 15,712 | $53,527 | $168,694 |
| 54 | Crittenden County | 47,266 | $55,358 | $164,982 |
| 55 | Howard County | 12,583 | $45,603 | $156,006 |
| 56 | Izard County | 14,009 | $49,405 | $174,049 |
| 57 | Mississippi County | 39,126 | $52,548 | $110,694 |
| 58 | Cross County | 16,543 | $50,863 | $135,622 |
| 59 | Arkansas County | 16,515 | $53,164 | $119,178 |
| 60 | Hempstead County | 19,508 | $46,787 | $119,192 |
| 61 | Ashley County | 18,429 | $44,266 | $83,337 |
| 62 | Miller County | 42,360 | $48,836 | $169,884 |
| 63 | Poinsett County | 22,543 | $46,707 | $128,400 |
| 64 | Scott County | 9,816 | $43,270 | $149,974 |
| 65 | Woodruff County | 6,026 | $48,158 | $81,170 |
| 66 | Lawrence County | 16,238 | $44,882 | $125,438 |
| 67 | Lafayette County | 6,136 | $41,278 | $95,393 |
| 68 | St. Francis County | 22,400 | $42,574 | $107,364 |
| 69 | Bradley County | 10,208 | $41,476 | $103,458 |
| 70 | Monroe County | 6,589 | $43,214 | $84,697 |
| 71 | Jackson County | 16,712 | $44,218 | $90,292 |
| 72 | Lee County | 8,359 | $34,375 | $100,713 |
| 73 | Desha County | 10,786 | $37,662 | $94,489 |
| 74 | Phillips County | 15,450 | $40,134 | $50,141 |
| 75 | Chicot County | 9,765 | $39,045 | $99,829 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS + FBI crime data via Saturday Night Science. All 75 Arkansas counties.
Summary
Summary: The Best Counties In Arkansas To Call Home For 2026
Living in Arkansas can vary from one part of the state to the next — who woulda thought?
The best counties in Arkansas are Saline County, Faulkner County, Lonoke County, Benton County, Grant County, Boone County, Cleveland County, Hot Spring County, Pope County, and Cleburne County.
But now you know the outstanding parts and the parts to avoid, and that’s why you came here to learn at the end of the day.
You are welcome.
