These Are The 10 Most Expensive Places In Arkansas To Raise A Family

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There are some parts of the country where your dollar goes further. For example, a steak dinner in Little Rock costs less than a steak dinner in San Francisco.

And the cost of living can have a big impact on how far your hard earned salary stretches for you and your family. So if you have a choice in where you can live for your job, the cost of living can play a big part.

That’s where Zippia comes in; to show you the places in Arkansas that would eat up a big part of your paycheck on expenses — the San Franciscos of the world if you will. Where housing is expensive and day care will put you back a pretty penny.

These are the cities in Arkansas where the cost of living is actually higher than the national average because, for the most part, Arkansas isn’t all that expensive.

After we crunched all the numbers, we were left with this set of the most expensive places to raise a family in the Natural State:

Read on to see how we determined the places that try to keep up with the Joneses a little too much.

How we determined the least affordable places to live in the Natural State

There are basic necessities that you have to buy no matter where in the country you live. Those things include:

Housing
Food
Gas
Health Insurance
Utilities
Transportation

You can then compare the cost of these things in each of the places in Arkansas to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a “Cost of Living Index” that normalizes to 100 for an average place in the United States. And lucky for us, AreaVibes has such an index for us.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank the largest 62 places in Arkansas.

And just so you can better understand how the cost of living index works, 100 is the average cost of a place in the United States. A score of 90 means that the place cost 10% less than average. A score of 120 means it’s 20% more expensive.

San Francisco has a score of 243 meaning it’s almost 2.5 times as expensive as the average place in the country.

1. Hot Springs Village

Population: 13,251 Housing Index: 112
Groceries Index: 98
Healthcare Index: 92

2. Maumelle

Population: 16,965Housing Index: 110
Groceries Index: 95
Healthcare Index: 85

3. Bella Vista

Population: 26,267Housing Index: 96
Groceries Index: 92
Healthcare Index: 90

4. Little Rock

Population: 193,691Housing Index: 84
Groceries Index: 95
Healthcare Index: 85

5. Fayetteville

Population: 74,191Housing Index: 91
Groceries Index: 92
Healthcare Index: 90

6. Bryant

Population: 17,172Housing Index: 83
Groceries Index: 95
Healthcare Index: 85

7. Farmington

Population: 5,974Housing Index: 89
Groceries Index: 92
Healthcare Index: 90

8. Conway

Population: 59,664Housing Index: 82
Groceries Index: 95
Healthcare Index: 85

9. Bentonville

Population: 35,635Housing Index: 88
Groceries Index: 92
Healthcare Index: 90

10. Sherwood

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 29,406Housing Index: 81
Groceries Index: 95
Healthcare Index: 85

Detailed List Of Expensive Places In Arkansas

City	Rank	Population	Housing Index	Groceries Index	Healthcare Index
hot springs village	1	13,251	112	98	92
maumelle	2	16,965	110	95	85
bella vista	3	26,267	96	92	90
little rock	4	193,691	84	95	85
fayetteville	5	74,191	91	92	90
bryant	6	17,172	83	95	85
farmington	7	5,974	89	92	90
conway	8	59,664	82	95	85
bentonville	9	35,635	88	92	90
sherwood	10	29,406	81	95	85
rogers	11	56,208	84	92	90
cabot	12	23,670	80	95	85
centerton	13	9,395	82	92	90
benton	14	30,736	78	95	85
white hall	15	5,434	78	95	85
east end	16	6,110	73	95	85
lowell	17	7,377	79	92	90
north little rock	18	62,817	72	95	85
hot springs	19	35,459	68	98	92
searcy	20	22,873	71	95	85
heber springs	21	7,131	71	95	85
russellville	22	28,068	67	98	92
springdale	23	70,087	75	92	90
arkadelphia	24	10,779	66	98	92
marion	25	12,166	80	91	85
jacksonville	26	28,551	67	95	85
mountain home	27	12,371	65	100	94
greenwood	28	8,940	69	92	90
beebe	29	7,347	63	95	85
siloam springs	30	15,103	66	92	90
jonesboro	31	67,550	73	92	86
fort smith	32	86,382	64	92	90
alma	33	5,384	64	92	90
van buren	34	22,722	63	92	90
stuttgart	35	9,313	54	95	85
texarkana	36	29,972	61	92	86
morrilton	37	6,753	53	95	85
malvern	38	10,468	49	98	92
mena	39	5,735	49	98	92
harrison	40	13,026	55	92	90
berryville	41	5,321	55	92	90
clarksville	42	9,170	54	92	90
magnolia	43	11,707	55	92	86
pine bluff	44	48,704	49	95	85
camden	45	12,066	45	98	92
monticello	46	9,599	53	98	91
batesville	47	10,252	61	92	86
west memphis	48	26,133	57	91	85
paragould	49	26,222	59	92	86
wynne	50	8,372	55	91	85
el dorado	51	18,882	48	98	91
crossett	52	5,493	46	98	91
osceola	53	7,726	52	91	85
forrest city	54	15,245	49	91	85
blytheville	55	15,614	50	92	86
de queen	56	6,557	43	92	86
warren	57	5,997	42	98	91
hope	58	10,085	42	92	86
trumann	59	7,218	46	92	86
helena-west helena	60	12,227	43	91	85
pocahontas	61	6,617	44	92	86
newport	62	7,848	42	92	86

Never miss an opportunity that’s right for you.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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