Elm Springs, Cave Springs, Bentonville: These cities aren’t just some of the best places to live in Arkansas. They are also home to some of the richest people in the Natural State.
Elm Springs in particular houses the richest residents in the state thanks, in part, to a median household income of $131,739 and a ridiculously low poverty rate of 11.3%.
If you’re thinking of moving to one of these towns, you’ll probably need to start saving. The richest places in Arkansas share common characteristics such as having a genius level populous, sky high home prices, and a Pleasantville level of married couples.
How did we come up with these mega wealthy cities? We analyzed Census data from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey for the 101 places in Arkansas with more than 3,000 people.
$131,739 median income · 11.3% poverty · #2 income in Arkansas
$146,473 median income · 1.8% poverty · #1 income in Arkansas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$112,792 median income · 5.2% poverty · #5 income in Arkansas
Located in
Benton County, Arkansas
Bentonville is the ninth-largest city in Arkansas and the county seat of Benton County. The city is centrally located in the county with Rogers adjacent to the east. The city is the headquarters of Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer. Originally named Osage after the Osage Indians who hunted in the area when white settlers first moved to the area in 1837, the community was renamed to Bentonville in 1906 in honor of New York inventor Linn Boyd Benton, after being first incorporated on April 3, 1873. It is one of the four main cities in the four-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is ranked 109th in terms of population in the United States with 463,204 in 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau. The city itself had a population of 35,301 at the 2010 Census, with an estimated population of 47,093 in 2016.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$115,713 median income · 5.5% poverty · #3 income in Arkansas
Located in
Benton County, Arkansas
Centerton is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 9,515 at the 2010 census. Centerton is part of the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$85,603 median income · 4.7% poverty · #13 income in Arkansas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$95,527 median income · 6.9% poverty · #8 income in Arkansas
Located in
Benton County, Arkansas
Lowell is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, in the United States. Located within the Ozarks, first settlement was along Old Wire Road in the 1840s, and although destroyed during the Civil War, the community was reestablished by J. H. McClure and thrived when the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway came through the area in the 1880s. Today, the city is a growing bedroom community within the rapidly growing Northwest Arkansas region. Lowell is also home to the headquarters of trucking company J.B. Hunt.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$86,728 median income · 10.5% poverty · #11 income in Arkansas
Located in
Benton County, Arkansas
Rogers is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 55,964 making it the state’s-eighth largest city. Rogers is located in the northwest portion of the state in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area, which is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation and is ranked 109th in terms of population in the United States with 465,776 in 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$95,844 median income · 2.2% poverty · #7 income in Arkansas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$95,521 median income · 3.2% poverty · #9 income in Arkansas
Pea Ridge is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The name Pea Ridge comes from a combination of the physical location of the original settlement of the town, across the crest of an Ozark Mountains ridge, and for the hog peanuts or turkey peas that had been originally cultivated by Native American tribes centuries before European settlement, which later helped to provide basic subsistence once those pioneer settlers arrived.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$103,333 median income · 7.1% poverty · #6 income in Arkansas
Located in
Pulaski County, Arkansas
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.
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.
Arkansas statewide median: $60,773
Arkansas statewide median: $222,050
Arkansas statewide median: 16.0%
Arkansas statewide median: 4.9%
On the map
Where the money lives in Arkansas
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the richest places in Arkansas for 2026
The first thing most people reach for is personal income. After all, rich people have really high salaries. But one statistic doesn’t capture what it means to be one of the “richest places,” so we applied Saturday Night Science to two measures from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Median household income
- Median home value
Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place is, and home values are a measure of accumulated wealth. The two combine to define a “Rich City.”
After collecting the data for all 101 places in Arkansas with more than 3,000 people, we ranked each place from 1 to 101 on both criteria, then averaged the two ranks into a “Rich Score.” The place with the lowest Rich Score, Elm Springs, is crowned the richest city in Arkansas for 2026.
The full plate
All 100 richest cities in Arkansas, ranked
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Rich Score | Population | Median income | Median home value | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elm Springs | 1.50 | 3,069 | $131,739 | $628,095 | 11.3% | 1.8% |
| 2 | Cave Springs | 1.50 | 6,008 | $146,473 | $570,143 | 1.8% | 4.8% |
| 3 | Bentonville | 5.00 | 58,249 | $112,792 | $488,112 | 5.2% | 3.1% |
| 4 | Centerton | 6.50 | 21,920 | $115,713 | $349,882 | 5.5% | 1.9% |
| 5 | Tontitown | 8.00 | 6,425 | $85,603 | $508,471 | 4.7% | 6.0% |
| 6 | Lowell | 8.00 | 10,849 | $95,527 | $360,677 | 6.9% | 1.4% |
| 7 | Rogers | 8.50 | 72,981 | $86,728 | $385,743 | 10.5% | 2.5% |
| 8 | Johnson | 9.50 | 3,656 | $95,844 | $344,377 | 2.2% | 1.2% |
| 9 | Pea Ridge | 10.00 | 8,108 | $95,521 | $348,118 | 3.2% | 1.3% |
| 10 | Maumelle | 11.00 | 19,373 | $103,333 | $307,539 | 7.1% | 3.8% |
| 11 | Farmington | 12.00 | 9,094 | $90,469 | $333,516 | 3.8% | 0.7% |
| 12 | Austin | 16.00 | 3,915 | $113,764 | $246,225 | 1.6% | 1.9% |
| 13 | Elkins | 18.00 | 3,808 | $81,789 | $283,053 | 6.5% | 0.0% |
| 14 | West Fork | 18.50 | 3,095 | $77,566 | $305,938 | 3.1% | 3.5% |
| 15 | Bryant | 19.50 | 21,504 | $83,024 | $254,713 | 5.6% | 2.6% |
| 16 | Vilonia | 19.50 | 4,498 | $81,815 | $259,295 | 16.0% | 3.8% |
| 17 | Gravette | 20.00 | 3,714 | $68,214 | $359,473 | 5.8% | 3.5% |
| 18 | Springdale | 20.00 | 88,160 | $69,787 | $338,447 | 13.4% | 3.7% |
| 19 | Prairie Grove | 20.50 | 7,798 | $70,701 | $317,577 | 15.2% | 3.0% |
| 20 | Fayetteville | 21.00 | 99,319 | $62,695 | $377,910 | 20.6% | 4.0% |
| 21 | Little Flock | 21.00 | 3,056 | $60,878 | $506,934 | 13.2% | 7.1% |
| 22 | Siloam Springs | 21.50 | 18,699 | $72,065 | $284,971 | 14.6% | 3.3% |
| 23 | Gentry | 23.00 | 4,240 | $69,779 | $300,462 | 9.1% | 1.6% |
| 24 | Cabot | 24.00 | 26,960 | $75,000 | $247,085 | 11.2% | 3.3% |
| 25 | Marion | 25.50 | 13,623 | $78,330 | $238,641 | 8.6% | 4.7% |
| 26 | Sherwood | 26.50 | 33,070 | $81,328 | $236,102 | 9.0% | 2.9% |
| 27 | Benton | 27.00 | 36,595 | $72,876 | $239,101 | 8.1% | 3.4% |
| 28 | Alma | 29.00 | 5,906 | $68,562 | $245,962 | 27.3% | 7.6% |
| 29 | Huntsville | 31.50 | 3,202 | $57,813 | $259,504 | 19.8% | 3.3% |
| 30 | Conway | 31.50 | 67,642 | $63,004 | $244,316 | 16.9% | 3.6% |
| 31 | Haskell | 31.50 | 4,100 | $85,758 | $204,703 | 7.6% | 0.8% |
| 32 | Greenbrier | 32.00 | 6,018 | $57,214 | $278,685 | 10.1% | 3.3% |
| 33 | Alexander | 32.00 | 3,587 | $57,250 | $278,483 | 27.5% | 5.2% |
| 34 | Greenwood | 33.00 | 9,616 | $66,844 | $238,464 | 10.0% | 2.5% |
| 35 | Ward | 35.50 | 6,573 | $72,734 | $207,462 | 11.1% | 6.3% |
| 36 | Pottsville | 35.50 | 3,229 | $68,558 | $219,780 | 11.9% | 2.2% |
| 37 | Little Rock | 39.00 | 203,436 | $63,003 | $216,519 | 17.5% | 4.1% |
| 38 | Sheridan | 39.00 | 5,165 | $62,453 | $218,333 | 19.9% | 5.9% |
| 39 | Shannon Hills | 39.00 | 4,641 | $71,318 | $195,279 | 3.9% | 4.4% |
| 40 | Brookland | 40.00 | 4,377 | $57,308 | $225,385 | 12.5% | 5.5% |
| 41 | Heber Springs | 42.00 | 7,161 | $50,636 | $248,325 | 17.0% | 6.5% |
| 42 | Beebe | 42.50 | 8,707 | $59,476 | $210,268 | 15.1% | 2.8% |
| 43 | Van Buren | 43.00 | 23,763 | $61,149 | $204,826 | 15.3% | 5.1% |
| 44 | Jonesboro | 44.00 | 80,137 | $55,424 | $222,893 | 22.8% | 6.3% |
| 45 | White Hall | 47.50 | 5,512 | $78,092 | $136,021 | 8.6% | 3.1% |
| 46 | Searcy | 48.00 | 23,340 | $52,170 | $216,680 | 18.8% | 6.1% |
| 47 | Manila | 49.00 | 3,691 | $55,792 | $201,369 | 8.5% | 1.9% |
| 48 | Hot Springs | 50.00 | 37,920 | $47,760 | $243,826 | 20.5% | 4.8% |
| 49 | Paragould | 50.50 | 30,215 | $56,980 | $191,096 | 17.8% | 7.2% |
| 50 | Russellville | 51.00 | 29,162 | $50,877 | $212,079 | 20.8% | 5.9% |
| 51 | Fort Smith | 51.50 | 89,805 | $54,816 | $193,977 | 18.3% | 6.5% |
| 52 | Barling | 52.50 | 5,007 | $54,387 | $193,772 | 15.1% | 1.8% |
| 53 | Green Forest | 55.50 | 3,112 | $49,918 | $204,752 | 10.2% | 3.9% |
| 54 | De Queen | 57.50 | 6,058 | $52,522 | $171,114 | 17.1% | 4.8% |
| 55 | Batesville | 58.00 | 11,445 | $51,856 | $176,299 | 26.3% | 3.4% |
| 56 | Ashdown | 58.50 | 4,164 | $55,625 | $152,713 | 20.8% | 10.2% |
| 57 | Dardanelle | 58.50 | 4,511 | $51,040 | $177,697 | 11.1% | 3.5% |
| 58 | Magnolia | 59.00 | 10,894 | $56,127 | $145,079 | 22.7% | 2.7% |
| 59 | North Little Rock | 59.00 | 64,538 | $52,707 | $165,643 | 20.3% | 5.9% |
| 60 | Harrison | 59.50 | 13,350 | $44,056 | $230,382 | 14.9% | 3.7% |
| 61 | Lonoke | 59.50 | 4,267 | $47,524 | $209,535 | 18.2% | 15.8% |
| 62 | Berryville | 60.00 | 5,707 | $42,283 | $237,505 | 22.8% | 8.5% |
| 63 | Mountain Home | 61.50 | 13,108 | $41,274 | $233,820 | 18.8% | 7.3% |
| 64 | Arkadelphia | 62.50 | 10,099 | $48,657 | $183,376 | 28.9% | 4.2% |
| 65 | Jacksonville | 63.00 | 29,221 | $49,666 | $168,541 | 19.8% | 8.4% |
| 66 | Paris | 63.50 | 3,284 | $51,416 | $147,860 | 18.9% | 5.0% |
| 67 | Mena | 64.50 | 5,582 | $47,428 | $192,538 | 13.9% | 9.4% |
| 68 | Ozark | 67.50 | 3,551 | $47,686 | $168,401 | 17.8% | 13.0% |
| 69 | Morrilton | 69.50 | 7,080 | $47,572 | $163,947 | 25.5% | 10.3% |
| 70 | Texarkana | 71.00 | 29,177 | $45,835 | $167,818 | 25.8% | 7.5% |
| 71 | El Dorado | 71.50 | 17,115 | $49,244 | $133,853 | 23.3% | 7.0% |
| 72 | Nashville | 73.50 | 4,063 | $41,142 | $178,169 | 27.3% | 6.9% |
| 73 | Stuttgart | 73.50 | 7,903 | $49,399 | $118,229 | 23.1% | 10.5% |
| 74 | Booneville | 73.50 | 3,798 | $50,459 | $106,514 | 16.7% | 10.0% |
| 75 | Malvern | 74.00 | 10,953 | $46,250 | $142,161 | 20.2% | 5.6% |
| 76 | Clarksville | 74.50 | 9,526 | $37,373 | $186,109 | 27.6% | 5.4% |
| 77 | Camden | 76.50 | 10,307 | $49,361 | $105,164 | 20.5% | 6.8% |
| 78 | Corning | 76.50 | 3,134 | $50,408 | $96,846 | 14.8% | 2.1% |
| 79 | Pocahontas | 77.50 | 7,538 | $44,216 | $140,492 | 23.8% | 5.6% |
| 80 | Walnut Ridge | 79.00 | 5,434 | $45,027 | $129,711 | 25.6% | 5.0% |
| 81 | Prescott | 79.50 | 3,032 | $48,307 | $97,324 | 20.9% | 0.0% |
| 82 | Osceola | 80.00 | 6,688 | $46,202 | $117,994 | 26.2% | 10.5% |
| 83 | Piggott | 80.50 | 3,555 | $44,468 | $129,323 | 21.4% | 4.8% |
| 84 | Blytheville | 81.50 | 12,790 | $47,865 | $96,161 | 24.2% | 9.2% |
| 85 | Cherokee Village | 81.50 | 5,046 | $37,326 | $150,230 | 17.0% | 16.8% |
| 86 | West Memphis | 82.00 | 23,929 | $42,674 | $131,757 | 29.1% | 14.5% |
| 87 | Wynne | 82.50 | 8,120 | $43,250 | $128,058 | 24.7% | 10.3% |
| 88 | Trumann | 83.50 | 7,410 | $38,881 | $131,845 | 25.4% | 4.6% |
| 89 | Monticello | 84.50 | 8,257 | $27,238 | $163,404 | 30.1% | 9.6% |
| 90 | Hope | 88.00 | 8,671 | $37,500 | $113,808 | 23.4% | 6.0% |
| 91 | Waldron | 88.00 | 3,344 | $33,839 | $135,480 | 19.4% | 13.8% |
| 92 | Crossett | 88.00 | 4,639 | $44,672 | $80,989 | 22.0% | 5.3% |
| 93 | Fordyce | 88.00 | 3,268 | $38,079 | $110,295 | 17.1% | 12.4% |
| 94 | Pine Bluff | 91.50 | 39,743 | $42,718 | $75,017 | 24.0% | 10.5% |
| 95 | Warren | 92.50 | 5,353 | $36,788 | $101,650 | 22.1% | 8.4% |
| 96 | Dumas | 93.50 | 3,768 | $34,787 | $104,840 | 33.9% | 9.8% |
| 97 | Helena-West Helena | 95.50 | 8,935 | $36,019 | $86,458 | 31.7% | 17.7% |
| 98 | McGehee | 96.00 | 3,666 | $36,875 | $80,040 | 34.0% | 5.9% |
| 99 | Marianna | 97.50 | 3,417 | $20,138 | $96,263 | 56.8% | 28.9% |
| 100 | Newport | 97.50 | 8,024 | $34,764 | $84,278 | 30.4% | 8.7% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024, Zillow research. 101 cities with more than 3,000 residents.
Elm Springs is the richest place in Arkansas for 2026
When we set out to identify the richest places in Arkansas, we weren’t sure what we’d find, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in the state. The richest cities in Arkansas are Elm Springs, Cave Springs, and Bentonville, and when you look at the data they sit at the very top of the income ladder for everyone who lives there.
Breaking into the top ten takes a median household income of at least $85,603. If you’re curious about the other end of the ledger, the poorest places are listed to the right.
