What it costs to live in Arkansas
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
-13.49%
below average
Housing
-43.33%
ranks 49 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$87
costs this here
Price rank
51
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in Arkansas
- Buying things in Arkansas costs less than it does in most of the country, ranking 51 nationally. The gap is about 13.49%, which turns a hundred dollars of national-average shopping into $87. It is the quiet half of any decision about where to live.
- Look at what is actually cheap in Arkansas. It is not the shopping — that runs about 13.49% from the national average, which is not far. It is housing, at about 43.33% from average. The biggest bill most households pay is the one this state discounts.
- Put a wage against it. Seventy-five thousand dollars of salary, spent at Arkansas prices, stretches as far as $86,697 would at national-average prices. That is before any tax. It is purely what the local cost of things does to what you earn.
- Arkansas's overall price level sits about 13.49% beneath the national average, ranking 51 across all jurisdictions, and the national one-hundred-dollar basket costs $87. Since BEA weights the basket to national consumption patterns, this figure is comparable across states in a way that surveys of household spending are not.
- Decomposition puts Arkansas's housing parity about 43.33% below national against an overall about 13.49%, a divergence of about 29.84% and a shelter rank of 49. Non-tradeable goods absorb local conditions that tradeable ones cannot, which is why shelter drives nearly all interstate variation in measured price level. Any relocation model built on the all-items figure alone will therefore understate the gain here.
- A seventy-five thousand dollar salary deflated by Arkansas's price parity is equivalent to $86,697 of national-average purchasing power. ⚠️ No tax is included: this isolates the price level from the tax system entirely, and both act on the same income. Note also that the index says nothing about local nominal wages, so it should not be read on its own as evidence that a household is better or worse off here.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $59,276 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 86.508 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 56.669 |
| Cheapest place to live | 1st of 51 |
Housing is where places differ most. Everything else moves far less than people expect.
Price parities are an index where the US average is 100 — a comparison between places, not a price.
The same pay, somewhere else
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in Arkansas | $59,276 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,138 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What is expensive here
A $75,000 salary
- Housing56.669
- Goods92.135
- Services95.26
| Housing | 56.669 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 92.135 |
| Services | 95.26 |
| All items | 86.508 |
An index where 100 is the national average. Housing moves far more than anything else.
Housing, against the country
A $75,000 salary
| Cheapest housing | MS · 55 |
|---|---|
| Dearest housing | DC · 169 |
| This state, cheapest first | 3rd of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| Arkansas on take-home | 17th |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 3rd |
| Places moved | 14 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
Arkansas against Texas
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | Arkansas | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $59,276 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $68,521 | $63,383 |
| Share of pay taxed | 20.97% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 6.5% | 6.25% |
| Groceries exempt here | No | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.55% | 1.49% |
| Price level | 86.5 | 97.2 |
| Housing prices | 56.7 | 97.4 |
| Fuel tax | 24.7¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $1.15 | $1.41 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Arkansas, Statewide average; Texas, Harris County (Houston). Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
| To match take-home only | $71,707 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,097 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares Arkansas with the national average for that kind of spending. The overall figure is the three above it, weighted the way a typical household spends — which is why housing can pull it a long way on its own.
| What you spend on | Against national average | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | -43.33% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | -7.87% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | -4.74% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | -13.49% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at Arkansas prices, buys what $86,697 would buy at national average prices. That is a price adjustment only. No tax of any kind has been taken off it, and tax is a separate bill on the same money.
What this page cannot tell you
- This is one number for the whole of Arkansas, and no state is one place. A big city and a rural county can sit far apart on every figure here.
- These prices were measured in 2023. Rents in particular can move a long way in a couple of years.
- And this is prices only. It says nothing about what Arkansas charges you in tax, which is a separate bill and is covered elsewhere on this site.
- These parities are state-level aggregates. BEA also publishes metropolitan-area parities, and within-state dispersion between a large metro and a rural area routinely exceeds the difference between two states — so a state figure should not be read as descriptive of any particular address in Arkansas.
- The underlying survey vintage is 2023, which is the most recent BEA publication rather than a current reading. Shelter parities are the component most exposed to drift between vintages, so recent local rent movements in Arkansas will not be reflected here.
- Price parity and tax burden are independent quantities and this page models only the first. A low-parity state with high income tax and a high-parity state with none can leave a household in the same real position; comparing Arkansas to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
What does a lower cost of living actually get me?
It stretches the same pay further: $87 of national-average goods for every hundred dollars. Comparing salaries between states without this is comparing two different things.
Is this number a percentage?
No — it is an index, with the national average fixed at one hundred. A state at one hundred and eight is eight index points above the average, not eight percent more expensive than any particular thing. Reading it as a percentage is the mistake that makes these figures sound more precise than they are.
Which part of living here is actually different?
Where you live, not what you buy. Goods prices barely move between states; housing swings enormously, and it is doing most of the work in this state's figure.
Is this one of the extremes?
It sits at 51 of 51, close to an extreme. The tails of this distribution are stretched, so differences involving them overstate what an ordinary relocation looks like.
How should I compare a job offer here with one somewhere else?
Two adjustments, not one. Prices bring a reference salary to $86,697 here, and state income tax changes the figure separately.
How does a below-average price level translate into real income?
Arkansas's all-items parity is at or below the national average, so nominal income understates purchasing power: one hundred dollars purchases $87 of national-average consumption. ⚠️ Parity measures prices, not availability or quality, and does not capture differences in the composition of what is bought.
How should a regional price parity be interpreted?
Regional price parities are index numbers with the national average normalized to one hundred. Differences are expressed in index points and are comparative rather than proportional to any specific price. They are estimated from a fixed national consumption basket, so they do not reflect state-specific spending patterns.
Which component drives this state's parity?
The housing parity dominates Arkansas's all-items figure, diverging from the national average by more than twice the goods component. Tradeable goods arbitrage across state lines and therefore cluster near parity; housing is non-tradeable, so its parity spans a far wider range and drives most interstate variation in the headline index.
Where does this state sit in the national ordering?
This state ranks 51 of 51, within the tails of the distribution. Parity dispersion is greater at the extremes than around the median, so comparisons anchored on a tail state overstate typical interstate differences.
How should nominal offers be adjusted across states?
Nominal offers should be deflated by the destination parity before comparison; the reference salary is equivalent to $86,697 in national-average terms here. ⚠️ Price adjustment and tax adjustment are independent and must both be applied — a state may be simultaneously cheap and heavily taxed, or the reverse.