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State Life Score

Arkansas

Above-median composite Life Score — grade B-, 57th percentile of the national corpus.

52.2
Life Score / 100
B-
Grade (curved)
#22
of 51 states
57%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Arkansas is above-median composite Life Score — #22 of 51 (52.2/100, grade B-, 57th percentile). Carried by cost of living at 100/100; held back most by wages at 2/100.

57th
composite percentile
#22
of 51 peers
98th
cost dimension percentile
2nd
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · MID · COST-LED

Arkansas at a glance

Arkansas is a MID-band COST-LED state: cost of living leads at 100/100 while wages drags at 2/100 (FLOOR cost · LOW wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Arkansas ranks #22 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #1 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Arkansas sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

52 57th percentile higher than 57% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Below this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). This entry sits in this band. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Above this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. 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

Dimension detail

How Arkansas scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 100/100 (20%)
Wages 2/100 (20%)
Rent 96/100 (15%)
Safety 8/100 (15%)
Schools 30/100 (10%)
Childcare -/100 (10%)
Environment 80/100 (10%)

Read with Arkansas

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (MID · FLOOR/LOW).

Virginia

ABS(composite) peer at 52.4 (Δ 0.2 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B vs this page's MID · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Illinois

ABS(composite) peer at 52.0 (Δ 0.2 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Utah

ABS(composite) peer at 51.8 (Δ 0.4 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Indiana

ABS(composite) peer at 52.9 (Δ 0.7 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B vs this page's MID · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Mississippi (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 98/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.

Iowa (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 96/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare