Metro Life Score
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR
Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C, 22nd percentile of the national corpus.
- 43.5
- Life Score / 100
- C
- Grade (curved)
- #300
- of 387 metros
- 22%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog
The verdict
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #300 of 387 (43.5/100, grade C, 22nd percentile). Carried by environment at 81/100; held back most by safety at 4/100.
- 22nd
- composite percentile
- #300
- of 387 peers
- 78th
- cost dimension percentile
- 9th
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · signature wages
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway: wage lag defines the peer set
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway is a LOWER-band metro where wages sit at only the 9th percentile (LOW) while cost is CHEAP (78th) and composite #300. Safety at 4/100 is the clearest drag; Environment (81/100) is the offset. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR ranks #300 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #86 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
BEA RPP 89.4 (rent-RPP 68.3). BLS median salary $57,042, 350,410 jobs (Registered Nurses, Retail Salespersons, General and Operations Managers). HUD 2BR FMR $1,147/mo (studio $984).
FBI UCR (AR): 580 violent, 1940 property/100K. NCES: 13.4:1 ratio, 9.7% charter. EPA: 17 Superfund sites (AR).
Where Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway sits among all US metros
Composite Life Score vs the national field
44 22nd percentile higher than 22% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026
How the 43.5 is built
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Key Data Points
Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are AR state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.
Compare Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway With...
Ranking Context
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway outranks 22% of U.S. metros.
| Rank | Metro | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| #297 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 43.6 | C |
| #298 | State College, PA | 43.7 | C |
| #299 | Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT | 43.8 | C |
| #300 | Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR | 43.5 | C |
| #301 | Kenosha, WI | 43.5 | C |
| #302 | Albuquerque, NM | 43.2 | C |
| #303 | Fresno, CA | 43.2 | C |
Quality vs. Affordability
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR is bottom 23% lowest-quality nationally and also top 22% most affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.
AR Metro Scores
Read with Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway
Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway (LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · CHEAP/LOW), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.
Kenosha, WI
ABS(composite) peer at 43.5 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · CHEAP/LOW.
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
ABS(composite) peer at 43.6 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · CHEAP/LOW.
State College, PA
ABS(composite) peer at 43.7 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · CHEAP/LOW.
Albuquerque, NM
ABS(composite) peer at 43.2 (Δ 0.3 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · CHEAP/LOW.
Canton-Massillon, OH (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 78/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CHEAP vs this metro's CHEAP.
Lynchburg, VA (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 78/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CHEAP vs this metro's CHEAP.
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR relocation guide
Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · CHEAP/LOW - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.
Using Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway's bottom-third Life Score
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway scores 43.5/100 overall, but Environment (81.3) and Safety (4.4) sit 76.9 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.
- Environment is the strongest of Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway's seven dimensions (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
- Safety is the weakest (weighted 15% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
- Fort Smith is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Fort Smith
A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.