The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Natural State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.
While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.
We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in Arkansas have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.
A recent study we published found that Arkansas is the 42nd smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 97.
But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Arkansas are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.
#1 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Sevier County, Arkansas
De Queen is a city and the county seat of Sevier County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 6,629 at the 2010 census. The placename is the anglicization of the family name of the Dutch merchant and railway financier, Jan de Goeijen. De Goeijen was reportedly rather unhappy with the deformation of his name
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#2 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Poinsett County, Arkansas
Trumann is a city in Poinsett County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 7,243 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Jonesboro, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#3 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Hempstead County, Arkansas
Hope is a city in Hempstead County in southwestern Arkansas, United States. Hope is the county seat of Hempstead County and the principal city of the Hope Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Hempstead and Nevada counties. As of the 2010 census the population was 10,095, and in 2015 the population was estimated at 9,891.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#4 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Jackson County, Arkansas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#5 dumbest in Arkansas
Berryville is a city in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 5,356 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in Carroll County. Along with Eureka Springs, it is one of the two county seats of Carroll County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#6 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Mississippi County, Arkansas
Osceola is a city in and one of the two county seats of Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. Located along the Mississippi River within the Arkansas delta, the settlement was founded in 1837 and incorporated in 1853. Occupying an important location on the river, the city’s economy grew as steamboat traffic increased. Timber and cotton harvesting would develop, and the city experienced rapid growth and development throughout the early 20th century. The city’s economy has since diversified to include a robust industrial sector. The population was 7,757 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#7 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Arkansas County, Arkansas
Stuttgart is a city in and the county seat of the northern district of Arkansas County, Arkansas, United States. It is located on U.S. Route 79 about 45 miles southeast of Little Rock. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 9,326.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#8 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Hot Spring County, Arkansas
Malvern is a city in and the county seat of Hot Spring County, Arkansas, United States. Founded as a railroad stop at the eastern edge of the Ouachita Mountains, the community’s history and economy have been tied to available agricultural and mineral resources. The production of bricks from locally available clay has earned the city the nickname, “The Brick Capital of the World”. The city had a population of 10,318 at the time of the 2010 census, and in 2015 the estimated population was 10,928.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#9 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Randolph County, Arkansas
Pocahontas is a city in Randolph County, Arkansas, United States, along the Black River. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 6,765. The city is the county seat of Randolph County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#10 dumbest in Arkansas
Located in
Phillips County, Arkansas
Helena-West Helena is the county seat of and the largest city within Phillips County, Arkansas, United States. The current city was consolidated, effective January 1, 2006, from the two Arkansas cities of Helena and West Helena. Helena is sited on lowlands between the Mississippi River and the eastern side of Crowley’s Ridge. West Helena is located on the western side of Crowley’s Ridge, a geographic anomaly in the typically flat Arkansas Delta. The Helena Bridge, one of Arkansas’ four Mississippi River bridges, carries U.S. Route 49 across to Mississippi. The combined population of the two cities was 15,012 at the 2000 census and at the 2010 census, the official population was 12,282.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Arkansas’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Arkansas’s dumbest cities are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Natural State
We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.
So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.
In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in Arkansas:
- % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
- % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)
We got the data from the U.S. Census 2020-2024 American Community Survey.
Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in Arkansas from dumbest to brightest.
For this ranking, we used every Arkansas city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2026, and it’s our eleventh time ranking the dumbest cities in Arkansas.
The full plate
Dumbest Cities In Arkansas For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | % Adult High School Dropout | % Highly Educated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Queen | 6,058 | 42.0% | 7.0% |
| 2 | Trumann | 7,410 | 20.0% | 11.0% |
| 3 | Hope | 8,671 | 21.0% | 14.0% |
| 4 | Newport | 8,024 | 17.0% | 12.0% |
| 5 | Berryville | 5,707 | 21.0% | 15.0% |
| 6 | Osceola | 6,688 | 16.0% | 9.0% |
| 7 | Stuttgart | 7,903 | 17.0% | 13.0% |
| 8 | Malvern | 10,953 | 16.0% | 13.0% |
| 9 | Pocahontas | 7,538 | 15.0% | 12.0% |
| 10 | Helena-West Helena | 8,935 | 18.0% | 16.0% |
| 11 | West Memphis | 23,929 | 16.0% | 14.0% |
| 12 | Clarksville | 9,526 | 19.0% | 18.0% |
| 13 | Warren | 5,353 | 13.0% | 12.0% |
| 14 | Springdale | 88,160 | 25.0% | 24.0% |
| 15 | Paragould | 30,215 | 13.0% | 16.0% |
| 16 | Camden | 10,307 | 14.0% | 18.0% |
| 17 | Wynne | 8,120 | 17.0% | 22.0% |
| 18 | Texarkana | 29,177 | 12.0% | 16.0% |
| 19 | El Dorado | 17,115 | 13.0% | 17.0% |
| 20 | Van Buren | 23,763 | 14.0% | 20.0% |
| 21 | Heber Springs | 7,161 | 11.0% | 16.0% |
| 22 | Pine Bluff | 39,743 | 14.0% | 20.0% |
| 23 | Mena | 5,582 | 12.0% | 17.0% |
| 24 | Siloam Springs | 18,699 | 19.0% | 27.0% |
| 25 | Blytheville | 12,790 | 12.0% | 17.0% |
| 26 | Walnut Ridge | 5,434 | 15.0% | 23.0% |
| 27 | Barling | 5,007 | 13.0% | 21.0% |
| 28 | Fort Smith | 89,805 | 16.0% | 24.0% |
| 29 | Batesville | 11,445 | 13.0% | 22.0% |
| 30 | Harrison | 13,350 | 8.0% | 16.0% |
| 31 | Alma | 5,906 | 10.0% | 19.0% |
| 32 | Beebe | 8,707 | 9.0% | 19.0% |
| 33 | Morrilton | 7,080 | 9.0% | 19.0% |
| 34 | Ward | 6,573 | 11.0% | 22.0% |
| 35 | Lowell | 10,849 | 14.0% | 29.0% |
| 36 | Russellville | 29,162 | 14.0% | 29.0% |
| 37 | Mountain Home | 13,108 | 10.0% | 23.0% |
| 38 | Magnolia | 10,894 | 11.0% | 24.0% |
| 39 | Jacksonville | 29,221 | 9.0% | 22.0% |
| 40 | Greenbrier | 6,018 | 7.0% | 21.0% |
| 41 | Sheridan | 5,165 | 8.0% | 23.0% |
| 42 | Hot Springs | 37,920 | 10.0% | 27.0% |
| 43 | Rogers | 72,981 | 12.0% | 35.0% |
| 44 | North Little Rock | 64,538 | 10.0% | 30.0% |
| 45 | Marion | 13,623 | 7.0% | 26.0% |
| 46 | Jonesboro | 80,137 | 9.0% | 32.0% |
| 47 | Cabot | 26,960 | 6.0% | 26.0% |
| 48 | Pea Ridge | 8,108 | 6.0% | 28.0% |
| 49 | Monticello | 8,257 | 7.0% | 32.0% |
| 50 | Searcy | 23,340 | 7.0% | 31.0% |
| 51 | Greenwood | 9,616 | 6.0% | 29.0% |
| 52 | Benton | 36,595 | 5.0% | 28.0% |
| 53 | Prairie Grove | 7,798 | 4.0% | 27.0% |
| 54 | White Hall | 5,512 | 7.0% | 37.0% |
| 55 | Tontitown | 6,425 | 7.0% | 46.0% |
| 56 | Arkadelphia | 10,099 | 6.0% | 33.0% |
| 57 | Bryant | 21,504 | 6.0% | 37.0% |
| 58 | Little Rock | 203,436 | 7.0% | 45.0% |
| 59 | Conway | 67,642 | 6.0% | 43.0% |
| 60 | Sherwood | 33,070 | 5.0% | 36.0% |
| 61 | Bentonville | 58,249 | 6.0% | 55.0% |
| 62 | Farmington | 9,094 | 3.0% | 37.0% |
| 63 | Centerton | 21,920 | 4.0% | 42.0% |
| 64 | Maumelle | 19,373 | 5.0% | 49.0% |
| 65 | Fayetteville | 99,319 | 5.0% | 49.0% |
| 66 | Cave Springs | 6,008 | 4.0% | 53.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 66 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep
If you’re measuring the locations in Arkansas where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.
The dumbest cities in Arkansas are De Queen, Trumann, Hope, Newport, Berryville, Osceola, Stuttgart, Malvern, Pocahontas, and Helena-West Helena. Not sold on Arkansas? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
